term time working

[daveyeff]

i have a female colleague ask me for help on this one, but i dont know anything about it, so i thought i,d pick the brains of you lot. she had a verbal agreement with her previous dom, that she could work extra hours, overtime/day off etc, and not book it, thus banking hours for the summer holidays so she could take the six weeks school holidays off work to look after her kids, its too expensive for her to pay for childcare, she,s only 22,1/2. hour a week. now the new dom is saying he can,t allow this, its playing havoc with his roster cover etc. she,s asked me if she,s entitled to do term time working under family friendly etc, and basically that the new dom is just an awkward lying barstool. can any of the reps or knowledgeable lads n lasses on here give any clarity. cheers.

[fishtank]

She would need to apply specifically for the working pattern she needs through a flexible working application form.
To be honest a bit of overtime here and there isn't going to cut it.
It will need to be a fixed,structured number of hours banked every week.
Then it would be up to her DOM to come back with genuine business reasons why it couldn't happen.
Just because it makes it a little more complicated to cover isn't a genuine business reason.
You are unfortunately not entitled to anything under flexible working other than an opportunity to put forward your case and the right to a full explanation of the reasons for refusal to ensure they fall into the allowed categories.

The business grounds for rejecting a flexible working request
You can only reject a flexible working request on a limited number of set grounds.

These are:

planned structural changes
the burden of additional costs
a detrimental impact on quality
the inability to recruit additional staff
a detrimental impact on performance
the inability to reorganise work among existing staff
a detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand
lack of work during the periods the employee proposes to work

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/ac ... =RESOURCES" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[demon]

dont even try it waste of time 99% of family friendly rejected in royal mail

[REDLETTER]

What about Christmas? as the bit between Christmas and the New Year are School Holidays, would the Postie require that off too? and Easter, and Half term.........

[gerardy]

How long has she worked for Royal Mail ?

If she can prove that this has been happening over the last couple of years then she could try and fight it on the grounds that it has become custom and pratice and no forms needed filled in before.

[happy]

it can work but manegers dont want to do the paper work to do it.allso sad to say if one opg gets it everyone wants it even if they dont need it.

[daveyeff]

How long has she worked for Royal Mail ?

If she can prove that this has been happening over the last couple of years then she could try and fight it on the grounds that it has become custom and pratice and no forms needed filled in before.

she,s worked for 16years with royal mail, but has been doing this term time working for a couple of years now, apparently this dom is saying he cant do it as he has to pay someone to do it when shes off??? ,,,,,,cant see how, if she,s banked enough hrs to cover herself for the 6 weeks school holidays, then its already paid for. a think he,s just being a twat.

[fishtank]

cant see how, if she,s banked enough hrs to cover herself for the 6 weeks school holidays, then its already paid for. a think he,s just being a twat.

Exactly davey...if she banks the hours there is zero cost to the business in paying someone to cover.
He will have to do a lot better than that if he's going to reject her application.

[Brainache]

If you are asked to work your day off (or rest week) you can ask for days in liu instead of pay.

[dvbuk55]

I'm not in favour of allowing it at all - it would be a slippery slope for any DOM to agree to it. What would happen if you had a half dozen people who wanted 6 weeks off over the school holidays - I've never heard the like but I'll bet there's quite a number of people who'd love the opportunity.

[daveyeff]

I'm not in favour of allowing it at all - it would be a slippery slope for any DOM to agree to it. What would happen if you had a half dozen people who wanted 6 weeks off over the school holidays - I've never heard the like but I'll bet there's quite a number of people who'd love the opportunity.

i must admit, i hadnt heard of it until she mentioned it to me, she works at our neighbouring office. having said that, it should be no problem to do if you have the right staffing levels. we have a system in place where you work 6 days a week for 3 weeks, then have a week off. some of these posties on this system manipulate it, so they book 3 weeks off for their annual leave. but they take their 3 weeks a/l the week commencing when they are due back from their rostered off week, then when they are due back from their a/l, they are on there next rostered week off, giving them a whopping 5 week break and still have a/l remaining. plenty of them do it at our office with no problems, so i cant see why this term time working should be a problem.

[fishtank]

What would happen if you had a half dozen people who wanted 6 weeks off over the school holidays

It's not supposed to be about want...it's supposed to be about genuine need and a willingness to be flexible from both parties.
It does of course require a certain level of management expertise to separate the chancers from the genuine cases...so in a place like RM where management and expertise are unlikely ever to be seen in the same room the system is always open to abuse.
That is not the fault of the genuine cases.

[demon]

wasnt lappsing in the summer brought in to give people more time off when needed

[POSTMAN]

wasnt lappsing in the summer brought in to give people more time off when needed

Yep,but many are not aware of that outside RMC so it seems.

[dvbuk55]

wasnt lappsing in the summer brought in to give people more time off when needed

It was intended to allow more people off during the summer months - but that would be everyone equally - there is a difference.