Change of working days

[Luc_ah-45]

I teach in a UK secondary school which adheres to the Burgundy Book and teacher pay and conditions. I have been part time for the last 6 years and worked Tuesday - Thursday.
I am trying to arrange nursery for next year and have been told that the days can be changed year on year, according to the needs of the school, and I will only be notified when the timetable is finalised in July about what my days are. The nursery say that no places will be available then.
I called my union who said this is incorrect and the school must adhere to the days I have worked previously, even though I don’t have a part time contract. They said any changes must be requested by them and I can refuse. I am now waiting for a case worker but she seems unsure herself and seems to think the helpline advice was wrong.

[theberenger]

As I normally do, I preface my response on the basis that I'm not an employment law expert, hopefully the contributors with that knowledge will pop on later.

I think the answer to your question will turn on what sort of contract you have and what it says. You said you don't have a part-time contract, but can you clarify what you mean by that? Is it understood that you are a part-time member of staff and you just haven't been handed a contract, or are you subject to a full-time contract with your remuneration pro-rated based on the number of hours you work?

If you have a part-time contract, then your 'Burgundy Book' (also known as the School Teachers Pay and Conditions book, I think!) expressly prohibits the school from doing that. You can find its rules broken down and explained more clearly on the National Education Union website. Under section 'Responsibilities and Cover' you'll notice the question asked is "Can part-time teachers be required to go to work on a day when they are not normally required to work?", to which the response is, in rather more verbose terms than I'm writing here..."no".

But that's why I'm asking about your contract, because if you have a full-time one then I would imagine your contract would make it quite clear that you are required to be flexible within the school week and could, quite reasonably, be asked to work at any time within the school week.