Flexible Working Appeal Help please

Dundunbanza

Would anybody be able to give me some advice about my flexible employment application?

I'm currently on maternity leave and my application to reduce my week to 4 days per week it not being considered as my employer has advised in writing that I'm required 5 days per week however not all day, they have suggested 9am to 2pm or 3pm 5 days per week.

I'm intending to appeal this for the following reasons:

1.My role doesn't require me to be present for 5 days to be completed I work within education however I don't have any compulsory daily contact with students due to the nature of the courses and I never have, Friday is the quietest day of the week where virtually all of the academic staff i work with don't come into the office on a Friday as there is no teaching scheduled then.

2. I've met with my employer twice to discuss my application and at the last meeting he said that if I work 4 days per week they cannot claim back hours from HR. I don't think this is a valid reason to not consider my request but more about what the department can claim back.

I think, but I'm not sure, there are maximum number of hours (25) that the department can reduce my hours to and they can then claim these back from HR ( and recruit another member of staff but not for my role) however anything over this cannot be claimed and these hours are lost from the department.

My main question does anybody know if not being able to claim back a certain number of hours from HR is a valid reason for not considering my application? Is this a "business" reason it doesn't relate directly to my role?

There are other reasons that I am appealing as they haven't followed the flexible learning procedures I've tried to keep this a brief a possible and not gone into lots of detail, hope this makes sense

Any help would be appreciated, thanks

The_Unready

Dundunbanza wrote: »

My main question does anybody know if not being able to claim back a certain number of hours from HR is a valid reason for not considering my application? Is this a "business" reason it doesn't relate directly to my role?

Hi,

Obviously I don't know all the details of your FWH scheme, but I work what seems to be a similar-ish, central Govt scheme (if you're in public education there's a good chance the schemes will be broadly similar).

I've recently had the need to check in some depth the details of the scheme I'm in - you'll need to do the same with your scheme, but under my scheme the reason you describe above is definately not a valid reason for not allowing you to work a four day week under the FWH scheme.

The Unready

Dundunbanza

thank you very much

CFC

This is actually a business reason, yes. What the employer is saying is that they need someone there 5 days a week, but the company will not employ someone to come in and work the 5th day when you are not there ie there will be no cover. This may be for example because the company has a policy of not employing people for less than a certain number of hours.

Of course in the convoluted and political world of public sector there could be an internal flexible working policy scheme rather than simply the statutory rights that the rest of us work with.