Part time working application

leereni

I am considering going part time later this year. My partner and I currently have a 17 month year old and another due in October. We are also considering fostering.

I believe my employer has started tightening those on flexible working/part time and I am worried it will get rejected.

I appreciate it is difficult to gauge my application but where do people stand exactly when it comes to applications? I believe if I have a dependant under 17 then it's up to the employer to come up with a business reason, however I would have thought they could also pull some reason out of the hat. I am a police officer.

ableandy

leereni, you are correct, the default response from the employer should be yes, unless they can find a genuine business reason not to grant your request.

Have you read your Force's Part Time Working Policy? Some are available online, such as Derbyshire's : http://www.derbyshire.police.uk/Documents/About-Us/Freedom-of-Information/Policies/Part-TimeWorkingPolicy-PoliceOfficers.pdf

elsien

leereni wrote: »

I believe if I have a dependant under 17 then it's up to the employer to come up with a business reason, however I would have thought they could also pull some reason out of the hat.

The business reason could be something like they've already agreed x number of similar requests so now don't have the capacity to agree any more. Which would be perfectly valid in some situations - for example my staff do sleep-ins so I can manage with one or two people not doing them, but any more would probably not be possible.
So when you're looking at it, don't think "well Y had it agreed so I should be able to." Y having theirs agreed may have made it more difficult to say yes to you.
If you can explain how you think flexible working might affect the employer and how this could be dealt with/overcome then you're more likely to get it agreed.

leereni

Great. We don't have part time staff where I am.

Don't think it should be a problem, and I'll make it very possible for them to turn me down as I'm willing to be flexible myself.

Thanks

Takeaway_Addict

It is fairly easy for an employer to come up with a valid reason and then its upto you whether you accept it, or take it further to a tribunal.

You need to think of all issues they will come up with and counter it and basically do all the work for the employer.

I'm surprised considering the cost cutting exercise the police are doing that they wouldn't be grabbing it with both hands!

sweetilemon

Most foster agencys / councils do not allow you to foster with birth children under 5...some require birth children to be over 12 or 16 too.