Returning from Maternity

[dav_man]

Hi,

Apologies if this has already been posted. My wife is due to return to work in a school. She's been there for 5 years or so. She is keen to come back part time for childcare reasons. She has asked to return for 3 days. They are insisting on her coming back for 4 days (2 days and 2 half days technically) which doesn't work because that's not how childcare works. They have now said that they could consider a change of role (learning support instead of English teacher) but this could mean she has a pro rata reduction of pay.

I can't help but feel this is teetering on the edges of legality here but was wondering if anyone knew more than I. It is an independent school and thus not part of the same unions as state schools. But can they change her pay and job? I feel like she's being penalised for going on maternity and requesting short term part time work. Any assistance would be really helpful.

Thanks

[ULA]

When your wife asked to return to work did she do this by way of a flexible working request?
What business reason has the school given for not being able to accommodate the flexible working request for 3 days per week?
I presume that the school had a meeting with your wife to discuss her request and have given her the right to appeal the decision?

Just checking the process that has been gone through to manage a flexible working request.

[dav_man]

They have had 2 meetings to discuss which got nowhere. There was no official "flexible working request" that I'm aware of. They just began discussing it a couple of weeks back and my wife discussed what her needs were.

Specifically, they wanted to do 2 days and 2 half days because they wanted her to take full classes so that they would not have groups that have 2 English teachers. Something that they have consistently done elsewhere for a variety of reasons. They have said that they "don't want to set a new precedent" which seemed very odd. Ultimately, it costs more and I guess they want to avoid this.

She is highly valued there but the school has a history of being difficult in this area so I was keen to ensure we knew what her legal rights are/were.

[ULA]

Unfortunately there is not an absolute legal right under which your wife can change her working pattern but the school should given proper consideration to the request to change her working pattern because of childcare responsibilities.

An employer can only refuse for one of the eight business reasons listed below, so that is why I was keen to understand what reasons they had given and whether it was covered by them:

* the burden of additional costs
* the detrimental effect on the ability to meet customer demand
* they are unable to reorganise the work among existing staff
* they are unable to recruit additional staff
* the detrimental effect on quality
* detrimental effect on performance
* there is not enough work during the periods the employee wants to work, or
* planned structural changes

If the school has initiated the disucssion as part of planning for your wife to return to work and there is no resolution then she may need to formalise the process by making a flexible working request and then the school will need to comply with the procedual rules for handling such as request.

[dav_man]

Ok, thank you for your help. I did think it'd be a bit of a grey area but I wanted to check.

Thanks

[ULA]

Depending on what ultimately happens your wife may be able to take further action if, for example:

• she had a perfectly reasonable and workable request rejected out of hand by the school
• she tried to use the statutory procedure and the school ignored or mishandled it.

If she needs any further help then please just come back to this thread.