Hello all.
I have a bit of a strange one, and the situation and solution deosn’t seem obvious to me (IANAL).
MrsW had JnrW in January and is part way through her maternity leave (12 months).
In June, she contacted her employer (a large engineering company) and arranged her retrun to work plan. It was all agreed at 3 days per week in her current role, signed off and a letter stating this was received.
Since then, her department got a new director and she was called in (a 6 hour round trip – thanks) which was described as a meet and greet with her new boss.
It turns out that the new boss doesn’t agree that she can do her role part time and was told that she must do 5 days per week or nothing.
I know that an employer doesn’t have to agree to part time working, but it had been agreed and we had made arrangements for childcare around that. Does anyone have any idea if it’s worth contacting a solicitor, or are they acting within procedure/statute?
It doesn’t seem reasonable to me, but I know squat about employment law.

A colleagues wife is having a similar problem in the public sector.

IANAL either, but from what he has said the employer needs to have a pretty cast iron business case to turn down flexible working/reduced hours on a return from maternity, or they risk opening a whole can of sexual discrimination whoopass.

First port of call should be HR to get their proper legal viewpoint, then a union or CAB

When my firm got bought out I had an agreement in place to work from home one day a week (childcare related). New compnay didn’t recognise it. Stamped my feet a bit and got an agreement to work from home ‘as appropriate’ but nothing to cover me for the Tuesday if there was a clash of interests.

That said I bet the HR department would be a bit twitchy about going back on an arrangement with someone returning from maternity. Has she spoken to them?

Go directly to HR, do not pass Go, do not collect £200.

or they risk opening a whole can of sexual discrimination whoopass.

This is quite pertinent. It is a massively male dominated environment. MrsW is pretty switched on and not one to complain but she’s been asked previously if she….does certain things (which I can testify; she does not!) but definately harassment. As I said, shes never complained and accepted it as part of the job (I told her to keep a diary).

A HR bod was there but it seemed as if he was briefed to keep his gob shut as he didn’t say a word – even when asked a direct question. Might see if we can get a free half hour consultation with a solicitor. I think the employer/employee relationship is donald-ducked now anyway.

It’s more up to them to prove that they cannot accommodate her request for part time work than for her to argue the case in favour.

What arguments have they put forward for refusing?

What arguments have they put forward for refusing?

By the sounds of it; not much more than “we can’t”.

I’d take that angle then and just ask ‘why not?’

Yep, go to a solicitor. Worth asking about for the name of a good employment specialist or two, and having a short chat with them. Bring all the paperwork. Has the new boss / HR put anything in writing?

And good luck.

I think the employer/employee relationship is donald-ducked now anyway.

The more I think about this, the more I think that all other things aside I wouldn’t want to work for a boss who waltzed into a job and started being pissy about existing arrangements. He wants to change the maternity policy, fine (so long as it’s legal), but it should be applied going forward rather than with people who have already been agreed.

The prospect of having to give up maternity leave to immediately return to full time work sounds very stressful to me; maybe she should see her GP…

This may help a bit:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/work_e/work_time_off_work_e/maternity_leave.htm

maybe she should see her GP…

😀

(file under “two can play silly buggers”…)

The prospect of having to give up maternity leave to immediately return to full time work

She’s not being asked to do this though is she.

The new manager has just said that the agreement made for reduced hours when she returns to work can’t be accommodated and that when her maternity leave ends, she must come back to work full time as that is the position she left.

The only question is whether he can tear up what seems to have been a formally agreed change in working hours to part time.

The only question is whether he can tear up what seems to have been a formally agreed change in working hours to part time.

Yep. That. And I think that they will have to justify how one manager considered that the position could be performed on a part time basis, and another didn’t. The non-com manager will have to justify exactly how it cannot, and considering that another thought it could; he could be on a sticky wicket. At least that’s my take on it.

Seek legal advise not off me as not my area. H.R. are the employers puppet their job is to provide legal cover for the employers actions not to protect the employees rights . They should be your first port of call but however you dress it up you are demanding from them not asking them to arbitrate or give you legal advise.

It’s more up to them to prove that they cannot accommodate her request for part time work than for her to argue the case in favour.

I think you need to be a bit careful on taking that as gospel. The right to flexible working is a right to request it, be heard and quite possibly lose. You then should be offered an appeals process, that you can still lose.

That said, as an agreement made before maternity I think she is in a great position. Worth a Google of constructive dismissal too if the relationship is proper ****.

I too am not a lawyer, but Mrs B is in a similar union-involved position ant the moment, moving toward the filing a grievance and leaving stage. SHe doesn’t have the maternity angle, but does have a whole heap of other very negative stuff going on.

“H.R. are the employers puppet their job is to provide legal cover for the employers actions not to protect the employees rights .”

Get a lawyer now. There are trying to **** you over.

From the linky up there ^^^^

You have no automatic right to return to work part time after maternity leave. However, you may have the right to ask for flexible working and this request must be considered seriously by your employer. If they do not consider it seriously, this could be discrimination.

I’d be wanting to know what’s changed from Manager A considering the situation and deciding it was OK vs Manager B deciding it wasn’t OK.

sounds carp to me.

looks to me like the new guy has come in and wants to stamp his mark, has done a review and wants your mrs back full time, and if not then somebody who is full time.

In fact either way it leaves yer missus is a carp position.

1> return part time, huzzah you won but have a resentful boss who ight make life difficult.
2> return full time, yer misses doesn’t want to be away from home, not nice for her.
3> looking for a part time job might not exacly be a easy as plan B. yuck. sometimes better the devil you know.
4> looking for a full time job may be easier but it clearly aint what she wants.

I think you have strong grounds, stand them as suggested. Once he understands your wife aint about to back down hopefully somebody in HR will slap him and put him right. If not, get ready for siege warfare, it might be a long one and not a great place for her to go back to.

The agreement to change I assume will have resulted in a change to her contract, has this already been issued, if so then surely a refusal to honour this accounts to constructive dismissal?

Even if not, as has been pointed out previously, it is actually pretty difficult for businesses to refuse such requests legally, all it takes is a bit of tenacity in ensuring you and they meticulously follow the right process for appealing it and eventually someone with some legal understanding will over rule the manager rather than risk a legal hearing.

It is my understanding, from going through similar situation with my wife, that the test cases that might be referred to should it ever get that far, find in favour of the employee on discrimination grounds. I’d be happy to share some of the stuff as a template for appeal that I used in similar letters to my wife’s employer. They were written with consultation with people that know a lot more about this sort of thing than I do!

He wants to change the maternity policy, fine (so long as it’s legal), but..

Cougar didn’t you recently support the principle of Ambulance staff striking over changes to rules agreed 20 years ago? How is the OPs situation different?

She’s not being asked to do this though is she.

I meant “immediately” going immediately from maternity to full time rather than a phased return, not “immediately” as in she’s been asked to do it right now. “Directly” might have been a better choice of word.

Cougar didn’t you recently support the principle of Ambulance staff striking over changes to rules agreed 20 years ago? How is the OPs situation different?

Did I? I don’t remember.

OKay some issues

They agreed it and now they wish to change their mind this makes it very very difficult for them

In order to refuse they need to PROVE that there is a reason why the working practice they agreed to is impossible and the business could not operate doing what they agreed to do – i forget the exact legal reasons they can give but they are very limited and [ especially in a large organisations where people job share and work PT it is basically impossible to show]

I cannot see what has changed to the business that means they can no longer do what they wished to do. As a union rep I would be delighted to hear their explanation as to which

Secondly if this is signed off then this is your contract of employment. They cannot alter this without your consent and see the information above they cannot “withdraw it” easily.

Seek legal advice and IMHO they will crumble fairly quickly as they are being idiots here

Note the above advice about hwo bosses can make people life a misery

THIS IS IMPORTANT

send an e-mail to the company stating what she thinks happened at the meeting* and insist they give her an written version of what they are saying – I would be very interested to read that as well!! I dont think they will be as daft as commit to anythign in writing.

Personally i think they are in serious trouble here as they will be very hard pushed to explain how suddenly the company cannot function if your wife is PT when it has already been signed off by them.

* the objective of this is to trap them into admitting [ or not denying] acting illegally in the meeting. She may iwsh to say how threatened and pressurised and uncomfortable it all made her feel. she may wish to mention how HR never spoke. She may wish to mention the law and her interpretation of the law in relation to all this

I think you need to be a bit careful on taking that as gospel. The right to flexible working is a right to request it, be heard and quite possibly lose.

3. A refusal of a flexible working request following maternity leave can be discriminatory

Employers must be able to justify refusing to allow a woman returning from maternity leave to move to part-time working. In the important case of British Airways Plc v Starmer, the employer’s decision to refuse an employee a request to halve her hours was found to be unjustifiable.

4. You will have a hard time justifying a “full-timers only” policy

It will be particularly difficult for an employer to justify a blanket rule that all employees work full time. In Hardys and Hansons plc v Lax, the Court of Appeal rejected the employer’s evidence that its discriminatory action was justified by the impossibility of permitting part-time or job-share working arrangements.

the legal reasons they can cite
Again given they agreed i think they really are in trouble here.
Remember a tribunal is on [probabilities not absolute proof.

Burden of additional costs.
Detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand.
Inability to re-organise work among existing staff.
Inability to recruit additional staff.
Detrimental impact on quality.
Detrimental impact on performance.
Insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work; or
Planned structural changes.

Junky, you are a star mate!
Thank you, I owe you a beer (obv a sustainable, gluten free, yoghurt based beer 😉 )