Part time after maternity leave.

[BrigitBigKnickers]

A colleague of mine has requested to come back part time after her maternity leave ends in October. She wants to come back 3 and a half days per week but for the one and a half days she doesn't work she wants 3 separate afternoons off. She wants to say which afternoons she wants off as she claims this is when her MIL can look after the baby.

We are teachers working with a specialised area of special needs and I can't see how on earth we are going to get someone with this specialism to cover three afternoons although one of my other part time colleagues is able to cover one whole day.

I know she has to be given the option to come back part time but can she really dictate how her working week is organised if it is almost impossible for the school to find someone to cover the other part of her job?

Any one know anything about employment rights after maternity?

Sure that someone who knows more about this than me will be along in a minute...

(Flowery? Ribena?)

... but in the meantime, I believe that part time working requests do not have to be accepted if they are impractical for the employer. She does not have to be given the option to come back part time - she must be allowed to request a part time/flexi time arrangement, and you must consider the request properly, but if it's not practical then you can refuse.

Sounds like it might work for you if she had one whole day and one half day off rather than 3 afternoons - is that right? if so then I think you'd be perfectly entitled to counter-offer with that.

however, as I say, there are others who know much more so please do wait and see what they say.

She can't dictate anything. She can put in a request and her manager can consider that request and decide if it's reasonable usually on the basis of how it would work out and how it would effect others or the business.

if she is able to say which days and they stay fixed (ie Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon off) then it's more reasonable than if she was shopping and changing from week to week. Still her manager doesn't legally have to give her the days off.

chopping not shopping!

She doesn't have to be given the option to come back part time. She has the right to ask to come back part time. Your employer must follow a procedure, consider a request and provide business reasons if they want to refuse it.

If the school feel her proposal isn't workable for the reasons you give (or other reasons), they can offer a compromise which would work.

Ah that's what I thought! Thanks for your advice!

I think the problem is that another colleague who works partly with us and partly with the special needs in the main school has requested a similar working week. She is dropping one of these jobs and is able to organise the rest of her week as she likes as it doesn't involve much of a teaching commitment (lots of paper work) or anyone to cover her when she is not there.

The teacher who works with me seems to think she should have the right to request the same sort of working patterns.

I feel some awkward meetings coming up!

Yup, no right at all to come back part time. It's a right to ask, not to come back part time if it cannot be accomadated.

Half days can work really well if an employee has duties which need to be done every day, but the overall workload can be reduced to part time. They don't tend to work well if you need to find specific cover to slot in (a job share, or simply someone to cover the missing shifts).

No these duties have to fit in with different special needs children from different classes.

It's amazingly complicated for me to work out cover for our pupils in the afternoon due to them being all over the place or in groups from a number of classes. Science is also taught in the afternoons and we will end up having to use our HLTA to cover these when it clearly states in our pupils statements that they need to be taught by a specialist teacher.

We just simply can't cover her with the relevant qualified staff for three afternoons.

Then the request can be turned down...

Are you in charge of the decision, or just being asked give input for the person who is?

Is there any part time you could manage (e.g. a four day week?)

I am not in charge of the final decision(that's down to the head) but I am in charge of the enhanced provision. We are able to cover her for one whole day and one half day (with existing staff)and there is a little flexibility on which days this can be.

I think this teacher just thinks we can organise our timetable to suit her free childcare arrangements with her mum and MIL!

I have had a meeting with our headteacher now and he agrees that what she is suggesting is just not workable.

I know it probably doesn't feel like it but this is actually the system working.

Proposal made (albeit unrealistic). You racked your brains on whether it could work and thought about things that could. Ok the answer is no, but overall I'd say that that was a positive process.