Going back part time/being demoted had some good advice from NorthernLurker plus others but need more help!

[BeatrixRotter]

I posted a couple of weeks ago as I had been offered a part time role, which was a lower grade than my previous role but that offered more flexibility in terms of hours and working from home.

Everything happens so slowly at my work so despite it being 5 weeks until I am due to return to work I have only just received the job description for the new part time role. I also received notification that my maternity cover person has been given a new job, she has taken some of my old work with her, transferred to another department and been given new responibilities. I checked with my boss and there are no plans to hire someone to fill what is left of my old role.

So now that they have removed any possibility of me returning to my old role am I right in thinking that they cannot offer me a lower salary for this new role? I am not a money grabber, it is just that the flexibility aspect of the new role is evaporating, which is increasing my childcare costs to the point that I will not be able to go back to work if they try and reduce my salary.

I'm sorry if this sounds confused, it's just that I am! The whole business of returning to work is worrying me what with putting DD into childcare and all not having a clue what is going on is just making it worse.

My old thread is here www.mumsnet.com/Talk/employment_issues/743838-Going-back-part-time-different-role-what-happens-to-my

acas would know, now i don't know if its law or anythng but both dh and i have changed roled within our organisations - and our salaries haven't been lowered.

was it a sideways move custardo?

I posted on your other thread, advising you to at least request to go back part time to your original role. Did you do that?

Did you refuse your old role on your old terms and conditions?

Did you accept the offer of the new part time role?

I think you have had some very good advice on your other thread beatrix. When you return to work after maternity leave, you have a right to the same job and the same terms and conditions as if you hadn?t been absent. If your job no longer exists then you must be offered alternative work with the same terms and conditions. There is a good website here that can help you too.

I have done nothing formally, which probably makes me pretty stupid .

The new role was still being approved and my boss told me it was still a possibility that I would go back to my old role part time as they had set a precedent. So I waited to see if the new role would be approved and I have just received the job description,literally the next email was one telling me about my cover persons new job, so I called my boss straight away to see if there was any possibility of going back on my old team and there wasn't.

So I haven't refused my old role on old terms and conditions (but didn't ask formally) and haven't accepted new role either (still have not been formally offered it but am meeting them on Thursday to discuss).

Thanks pinkteddy, I'm probably looking for handholding as much as anything else.

It sounds as though there's a bit of fault on both sides here. They shouldn't have gone ahead with making arrangements for your old role without formal confirmation from you that you didn't want your old job, although it sounds as though you were fairly clear that you definitely wanted part time, and may have given the impression you were happy to accept the new job and made no moves to request part time working in your old job.

You don't have the right to this new part time role on an equivalent salary to your old role if it isn't the same level or grade.

You do have the right to the following:

1. Your old job on the same terms and conditions, ie full time, or

1. if you are returning after longer than 6 months off, a suitable alternative job on the same or similar terms and conditions (so again that would be full time).

1. You have the right to request your old job on part time hours, although if there are business reasons why this isn't possible your employer can refuse.

You have left it late but I suggest you think carefully and quickly about what you want, bearing in mind your rights as I've described them, and then take some action to get it. It is late, as I say, but not too late if you want to go back to your old or an equivalent job full time on the same pay, for example.

Thanks flowerybeanbag.

Beatrixrotter
I am in similer situation at the moment i have decided to do the new job whilst looking for another job elsewhere the fit around dd nursery hours, have to say easier said then done while there is a recession on,
makes you sick when you have worked for a company for 12 years and they do that to you just because you start a family,

it's hard to think of taking a step back, my boss said to me that I wouldn't want to be taking on my old job as it would be too much for me, as though my brain has melted whilst I have been away. The irony is the new role is more complex so will be much harder work to begin with. Having said that I think I am partly to blame for my situation for not going through the proper channels.

There isn't a lot around at the moment part time so I wish you good luck in your search amethyst. Hopefully things will pick up with
at some point soon. I plan to keep looking too.