Equality Act and Reasonable Adjustments advice please.

dori2o

In my employment we have a version of flexi-time.

You can arrive for work and stay late by 30 minutes without agreement, and can take time off using flexi time. You cannot leave early or start late without agreement, except in certain circumstances (i.e. travel disruption etc)

You can build up a flexi credit/deficit of 22hours 12minutes for full time workers (pro rata for p/t)

In February whilst discussing with management reasonable adjustments, we agreed (at least I thought I did) that as a way of being able to better manage my condition, and to reduce the amount of sick leave on my record, I could have relaxed rules around flexible working. I would still be restricted to the flexi credit/deficit limits, but when I was having a bad day with my condition I could leave early or start late without agreement, and on good days I could stay later or start earlier than 30 minutes before or after shift again without agreement so long as I send an email to the relevent people to let them know so they can update the correct systems.

Today my manager was caled to a meeting with the manager of the team who deal with resourcing. It seems she is not happy with this agreement and wants to change it. In essence if I start late I would have to stay late by the same amount on the same day. plus it seems she is suggesting I must work at least my weekly hours every week.

This is not what I agreed to (I have a voice recording of what we agreed to). I have used this new system only once since it was agreed, I came in late one day when I'd had a particularly bad night with my condition, I then stayed late a couple of days the next week to cover what I had lost.

I have also been staying late (only upto 30 minutes) in order to build up some flexi credit in case I need to utilise this agreement.

As I see it this is a reasonable adjustment. It is not costing them any money to implement this adjustment, and if they took it away I could still leave early/come in late if neede but it would instead be recorded as sick leave and not flexi.

I'd be interested to hear peoples opinions about this matter.

Pricivius

It is for the employer to decide what is reasonable in terms of business need, and if challenged, to convince a Tribunal accordingly. So it is near on impossible for any of us to step into your employer's shoes and decide.

I would ask them to explain why this is no longer a reasonable adjustment, particularly as it was considered a reasonable adjustment 2 months ago. It may well be that they have a think and pipe down. Or maybe they have had a chance to look at things more closely and have found the business cannot sustain it. Find out their reasoning and go from there.

Annisele

Broadly your suggested adjustment sounds reasonable to me - but I think that whether it's reasonable in practice depends on what you do and how big your employer is.

Do you work in an environment where having cover at certain times of the day really matters? (Eg in a shop opening 9am to 5pm you might be able to get away with a few employees arriving at 9.30am, but you need somebody there when the place opens). The fact everybody else needs prior agreement to start late / leave early suggests you might work somewhere like that. But then the resourcing manager's agreement you can start late so long as you finish late on the same day suggests the starting late isn't really an issue.

If you work in an environment where cover matters, is your employer large enough to find cover even if you could never be relied upon to be at work at the official start time? (If there are 1,000 people doing the same shift/job as you and only one of them is actually necessary at the start time, your adjustment looks more reasonable than if you're the only one).

dori2o

Annisele wrote: »

Broadly your suggested adjustment sounds reasonable to me - but I think that whether it's reasonable in practice depends on what you do and how big your employer is.

Do you work in an environment where having cover at certain times of the day really matters? (Eg in a shop opening 9am to 5pm you might be able to get away with a few employees arriving at 9.30am, but you need somebody there when the place opens). The fact everybody else needs prior agreement to start late / leave early suggests you might work somewhere like that. But then the resourcing manager's agreement you can start late so long as you finish late on the same day suggests the starting late isn't really an issue.

If you work in an environment where cover matters, is your employer large enough to find cover even if you could never be relied upon to be at work at the official start time? (If there are 1,000 people doing the same shift/job as you and only one of them is actually necessary at the start time, your adjustment looks more reasonable than if you're the only one).

I work for a government department in a telephone contact centre.

The thing that gets me with this is, even if they said this arrangement is not suitable, I can still leave early or start late if my condition is bad, it just means that rather than this time being covered by flexi time it will be logged as sickness leave. The changes this manager seems to want to apply make no difference to the fact I will be leavingearly/starting late if my condition forces me to do so. It merely means I am more likely to face so mform of disciplinary proceedure as the number of 'sick' occassions increases.

dori2o

Manager is having a meeting today, hopefully we'll know more soon.

Fire_Fox

Are you a member of a union?

dori2o

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Are you a member of a union?

Yep, I'm in the PCS.

I'm arranging a meeting with someone for early next week.

Just when I thnk things are finally going fine and I have the opportunity to get back into a steady routine, with the help being there if and when I need it, they move the goalposts again.