Reducing hours at work

crosswords

My Mum wants to reduce her hours at work but they have refused. She is now of retirement age. My sister is of the understanding that once retirement age has been reached they *must* agree to her request. I'm struggling to find anything online that states this, just various people saying they only have to give it reasonable consideration. 

Devongardener

Your mother has the right to request reduced hours or flexible working, but the employer doesn’t have to agree, only give reasonable consideration, regardless of her age.

Lindlou

There is no law that states your employer has to agree. There is a law stating you have a right to request it and it must be considered.  They should give an explanation of the reasons behind their decision. Just saying "business need" is not sufficient. However, ultimately it is the employer's decision.  

la531983

There are often rules that state if you take the workplace pension and continue working for the same employer you HAVE to reduce your hours or seniority, does that apply in this case?

crosswords

la531983 said:

There are often rules that state if you take the workplace pension and continue working for the same employer you HAVE to reduce your hours or seniority, does that apply in this case?

I'm not sure, but thanks, that's something I'll have to look into. 

Albermarle

crosswords said:

My Mum wants to reduce her hours at work but they have refused. She is now of retirement age. My sister is of the understanding that once retirement age has been reached they *must* agree to her request. I'm struggling to find anything online that states this, just various people saying they only have to give it reasonable consideration. 

There is actually no such thing as a general retirement age in the UK .
There is an age when you get your state pension but nothing to stop you retiring from work before or after that.
In the past there was a kind of understanding between employees and employers to retire at 65 but there is no legal enforcement of that.

Your Mum's employer maybe insisting that she keeps to normal hours in the hope that she does retire? 
Or it could just be they are very busy, or just plain awkward....

Brie

la531983 said:

There are often rules that state if you take the workplace pension and continue working for the same employer you HAVE to reduce your hours or seniority, does that apply in this case?

This is an interesting idea and I understand why it would work for a lot of companies and a lot of people.  But I've never seen it stated in any HR policy - obviously I'm working for the wrong companies!!

The other thing to think about is - have others been allowed to reduce their hours and if so, when and why?  If a woman asked for her hours to be reduced due to child care and was allowed then they couldn't reasonably refuse a man asking for the same reasons - unless there was a strong business case (aka only room for 1 person to do this and the woman happened to ask first).  Likewise if a young parent was allowed a reduction due to child care and your mom needed a reduction due to elder care that should be considered on an equal basis.   

These things are much easier to arrange in large companies where if 1 department can't allow it for staffing reasons then there's a possibility of moving to a different team where there is wiggle room.  If it's a very small company there is often much less flexibility as a change for 1 person has a bigger impact overall. 

sammyjammy

There is a rule with CS pension that if you take it and continue to work you are not allowed to earn more than your full time wage altogether but thats not relevant to whether an employer can accommodate the reduction in hours, its entirely separate and a CS employer can still say no to part time hours if there are business reasons.

crosswords

Albermarle said:

crosswords said:

My Mum wants to reduce her hours at work but they have refused. She is now of retirement age. My sister is of the understanding that once retirement age has been reached they *must* agree to her request. I'm struggling to find anything online that states this, just various people saying they only have to give it reasonable consideration. 

There is actually no such thing as a general retirement age in the UK .
There is an age when you get your state pension but nothing to stop you retiring from work before or after that.
In the past there was a kind of understanding between employees and employers to retire at 65 but there is no legal enforcement of that.

Your Mum's employer maybe insisting that she keeps to normal hours in the hope that she does retire? 
Or it could just be they are very busy, or just plain awkward....

You know what, I think there's a chance you're right about them hoping she does retire. 

daveshep26

crosswords said:

My Mum wants to reduce her hours at work but they have refused. She is now of retirement age. My sister is of the understanding that once retirement age has been reached they *must* agree to her request. I'm struggling to find anything online that states this, just various people saying they only have to give it reasonable consideration. 

This is a useful read " https://www.acas.org.uk/acas-code-of-practice-on-flexible-working-requests/html "  from ACAS on correct procedure for receiving and handling requests

Marcon

Brie said:

la531983 said:

There are often rules that state if you take the workplace pension and continue working for the same employer you HAVE to reduce your hours or seniority, does that apply in this case?

This is an interesting idea and I understand why it would work for a lot of companies and a lot of people.  But I've never seen it stated in any HR policy - obviously I'm working for the wrong companies!!

It's not an HR policy because it can't be - it would be age discriminatory.  I've never seen it applied anywhere other than in the legislation governing some public sector schemes.

I've seen provisions in private sector schemes where early retirement (on terms better than those which would apply in deferment) would only be agreed to if the employee is also leaving service.