FAMILY FRIENDLY HOURS

[ashuraji]

hi ,
I have been working in royal mail for 9 years , from 2008 I am on family friendly hours , from last week there is a review going on they are considering to take few duties from the unit ,i got the job full time hours by passing a exam and it was advertised at that time it was suitability and seniority that is how i was made up full time ,but they wanted 23 duties but they could not find enough people so they union changed the process to seniority , but now things have changed after 4 years the work load is gone down and they will take out few duties from unit so now i asked how they are going take out duties union said seniority,i said i passed the exam to get this job so how can it be seniority, so can any one please explain have i got any chance to fight to stay in same job or just pack and go on floor

and
i am on family friendly hours from 2008 what will happen to this will they give the hours what i was working my shift was from sunday to thrusday if they send me out side on floor there is no sunday duty so what will happen to my hours of work,
i got this duty because it was sunday to thrusday ,i have two small kids and my wife works friday to monday as a nurse this was what we were working from 3 years now it is all going change so please can any one help me and give me advice regarding the issue,

[wayoutman]

we were told months ago by DOM that royal mail is no longer family friendly, the DSM and area rep were present and in agreement.

i did a bit of reading up on it then and it looked to me like we are shafted

[ashuraji]

Do you have the statutory right to request flexible working?

You can always ask you employer for a new working pattern your employer has a legal duty to consider your request.
'Flexible working' is a phrase that describes any working pattern adapted to suit your needs, it includes things like part-time working, flexitime and home working. If you have the statutory right to apply then your employer has a duty to properly consider your request.


i copied from a post which was made on 13 jul 2010
On 6 April 2003, the UK Government will bring into force new employment legislation on flexible working. The provisions governing these changes are set out in the Employment Act 2002, which received Royal Assent on 8 July 2002.

To be eligible to make a request for flexible work, a person must:
a. be an employee
b. have a child under 6 (or a disabled child under 18)
c. have worked for at least 26 weeks prior to making the application
d. have not made a similar request within 12 months

A request for flexible working may include:
a. flexitime
b. job-sharing
c. working from home
d. staggered, compressed or annualised hours

An employer is required to arrange a meeting with the employee to discuss an application for flexible working within 28 days of receiving the request and must provide written reasons for accepting or refusing the request within 14 days of that meeting.

If refused, the written notification from the employer must include:
a. the business grounds for refusing the application
b. sufficient explanation why the grounds apply in the circumstances
c. details of the employees right to appeal

Acceptable business grounds for refusing a request may include:
a. burden of additional costs
b. detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand
c. inability to reorganise work amongst existing staff
d. inability to recruit additional staff
e. detrimental impact on quality
f. detrimental impact on performance
g. insufficiency of work during periods the employee proposes to work
h. planned structural changes The Sex Discrimination Act prohibits direct or indirect discrimination in employment. Indirect discrimination may be established if a procedure or decision is such that it will affect a considerably larger proportion of women than men. As many of the applicants for flexible working hours will be women it is expected that refusal to accept such applications will give rise to claims of indirect sex discrimination (an issue which the Government acknowledges in its 'Flexible Working' Guides for Employers and Employees produced by the DTI).

The flexible working legislation does not permit an employment tribunal to question the employer's business reasons for refusing a request for flexible work, but it may challenge the facts asserted by an employer in evidence of those reasons. Under sex discrimination legislation, however, the burden of proof is moved to the employer who is required to justify any business decisions affecting the employee or establish that they were within a range of reasonable responses.


so please donot tell royal does not have family friendly hours policy

please check it and give a advice for the above post

thank you

[fishtank]

so please donot tell royal does not have family friendly hours policy

RM has two family friendly policies.
The public one which ticks all the boxes and the private one which you are now experiencing which puts as many hurdles in the way as possible.
In order to get what you want you will have to expose the private one to the public.
Assuming you are in the union the best person to do that for you is Linda Roy the CWU National Equality Ofilcer.
lroy@cwu.org Tel: O2O 8971 7238.
Be aware that the right to request flexible working is a legal minefield where nothing is as cut and dried as it appears and you may be in for a long difficult battle.

[ashuraji]

what i wanted to know is i have been working on family friendly hours from 2008, now things are going to change in our unit, can i ask them to give same hours of working because i saw in web site it said once we have got a family friendly hours it becomes a contract

What happens if my employer grants my request for flexible working?
If your request is granted, the terms and conditions of your contract are varied to take account of that change.

Unless otherwise agreed, changes to your contract are permanent and you cannot revert to your previous terms and conditions. You should get advice about this from your union representative, if you have one, or a legal adviser. You may want to consider asking for a variation for a specified time only or, if possible, ask for a right to revert to your old arrangements on giving appropriate notice.

this is why i am asking help and now you have given a email address to ask help thanks for this i will email right now

[fishtank]

You will most likely find that "major change" will override your right to stay on those hours IF the business can show that it is no longer practical to keep them however if those hours are available and within reason you will most likely be able to bypass seniority.

[ashuraji]

thanks I just emailed Linda Roy and hope things will change for good , I know it is hard to convince shift manager but hope fully I will speak to the manager and put forward my problems of childcare and other things .

thanks again

[comeracing]

when our revision kicks in and hours are changed i will be working to my finish time most day as i will have a 5 year old daughter to pick up from school in september,will be fun in december.

[gerardy]

Was told by planner that only family friendly official policies set up through RM HR had to be protected and not ones agreed locally with managers.

They dont want to hand out the forms or try and help

[ronpetetrevchris]

Was told by planner that only family friendly official policies set up through RM HR had to be protected and not ones agreed locally with managers.

They dont want to hand out the forms or try and help

Going through revision at the moment and have about a dozen members who cant do the proposed later hours because of child issues, this attitude to ff is the problem i have at the minute. RM attitude is terrible they couldnt care less and seem to justify it in their heads by comparing someone on £15,000 a year to themselves on double or triple that. I absolutely refuse to sign off the stage until these people are catered for, as a rep how could you consider anything else?

What i have found is that FF is actually law, although a grey area'd one and if they dont even bother then it may be easier to pursue than if they try and just say no we cant accomodate.

[fishtank]

They dont want to hand out the forms or try and help

FW(A) Flexible working application form..doc

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/ ... /index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[enzio]

in our office we had family friendly dutys but once park and loop came in there was to many people wanting it so we could not work out who should get and who should not.so as an office we decided not to have any.

[ronpetetrevchris]

in our office we had family friendly dutys but once park and loop came in there was to many people wanting it so we could not work out who should get and who should not.so as an office we decided not to have any.

OMG as my youngest would say, so the people who really needed some help for their families were in effect told UNLUCKY by the rest of the office! Holly s**t and i thought managers were self centred.

[fishtank]

in our office we had family friendly dutys but once park and loop came in there was to many people wanting it so we could not work out who should get and who should not.so as an office we decided not to have any.

That's not a decision an office can make.
Each flexible working application has to be judged on it's own merits by the business.
It's not something you get to have a say on so you must have got the wrong end of the stick somewhere.

[Gazza90000]

All our FF have been reviewed ....Some people take the p1ss as they have been on FF for that long their kids must be at University......I believe FF was brought in when Labour tried to deliver their social policies via R.M. if you think the number of people R.M. touches in terms of staff their families and further family members... FF gets reviewed through major change so I suppose each case should be judged on their merits......