Can employer refuse part time request?

gracie83

(Firstly I have not broached employer about this yet.)
Basically I am looking for a career change and at the moment the vast majority of jobs in my area seem to be part time so I am now applying for part time positions.

Where I currently work we are in the middle of a job freeze, no more recruitment, abandoned posts are being left unfilled. This looks as if it is going to go on for some time. It is in the climate I am looking for a hour reduction and the manager is not going to be able to replace me. (to be fair though I can do my entire job part time)

So can they refuse me as I only want to leave for a new job not for family reasons?

dmg24

Yes, they can refuse your request.

LuciferTDark

They can refuse you even for family reasons if they really want to. when you took the job on you agreed to a set number of hours per week & they can legally hold you to them, or fire you for not fulfilling your obligation, breach of contract I think they call it.

Zazen999

Hi
They can, but why would they? If you are looking to help them out by going part time, before you tell them that you can do your job part time, or that you are looking for another part time job; you could ask them what their opinions on this are.

The main issue, if I read it right, is that they say yes straight away before you have found another job. They don't need to know at all that you are looking for a career change, but if that's what you want to do, there are worse ways of doing so.

AnnaS

Yes, they can refuse Gracie but from what you say you can sell it to them. If you can actually do your job in less hours they won't need to get additional staff in to do the hours that you don't want to do, they will be paying you less as you will be working less hours and you get what you want too. Sounds like a win win on both sides to me. The ACAS website, I think, has some forms you can use to write your request and information on things to consider.

The only danger could be that if you highlight that you can do your job in less hours they might decide to add more things from an unfilled post to it! Hope this helps.
Anna

HugoSP

Yes they can refuse your request but.....

They have to consider the request. Thanks to family friendly legislation that is in force - and has been for some years.

That is to say that they need to consider the proposal put to them, rather than simply say "It's a 40 hour a week post and that's that".

If an employee can demonstrate via a tribunal that the request has not been fully considered and that the company's actions lead the employee to resign, they could be open to a constructive dismissal claim.

I know because I dealt with a case such as this 10 years ago as a TU convener.