Change of contract

[Wakewaterblue]

Hi all

I just heard that someone new has started at our DO on a 3 day contract but working full time hours in those 3 days so he does I believe the same sort of amount of hours as I do in a week (25 or 28). This is something I desperately wanted when I applied for the job but never saw it come up on the adverts so reluctantly took the 5 day week P/T hours which isn't working too well for me.

I am still in my probation which is due for review in April and as far as I can tell it's going really well and they are happy with me. Is this something I can speak to a manager about now or do I have to wait for my probation to complete? The reason being is the sooner I can get onto less days the better. I don't want to rock the boat or get their backs up but there does seem to be people in the depot doing all sorts of random hours and days and with this new guy coming in on a contract that is perfect for me, it clearly exists.

Any thoughts? Thanks

[rogersh]

If you initially request a change to your hours & you are refused, I suggest you try the following option;
(I do not know if your circumstances merit your hours to be altered under the following policy)
Edit; I was assuming your probation is 1 year - i.e. over 26 weeks service - but if your probation is 6 months you will have to wait until April before you can request flexible working.

Flexible Working

We understand that flexible working can be beneficial to both employees and the business. You may have interests or responsibilities outside of work where working
flexibly could help you balance your work and personal life.Types of request

• Examples of flexible working include: part-time working, job sharing, term-time working, staggered hours, swapping hours or shifts.

• If you have worked for Royal Mail for at least 26 weeks, you can request either a permanent contractual change to your working pattern, or a temporary change if you
only need it for a certain period (less than 12 months).

• Your manager can locally agree informal requests where your contract doesn’t need to be changed, they will just keep a record of it and give you a copy.

Formal requests
• Your manager should normally deal with your request within six weeks of your application.
• They will hold a meeting with you and confirm the outcome in writing.
• When considering your request, your manager will look at the benefits for you and the business. These will be weighed up against any negative impact.
• If it isn’t possible to agree your flexible working request, it will be for one of the following business reasons:
 Cost
 Being able to meet customer demand
 Ability to reorganise work and manage impact on quality and performance
 Ability to recruit additional employees
 Amount of work available when you want to work
 Alignment with any planned structural changes
• If more than one request has been made, your manager should discuss the requests with everyone who has put in a request in to see if a compromise can be reached. If not, the first request will be given priority.

Review (trial) periods
• Before confirming a permanent flexible working request, your manager will set a review period to see how your request works in practice.
• At the end of the review period, if your arrangement isn’t working well, you may be moved back to your original working pattern.

[Wakewaterblue]

That is really helpful thank you!