onlinesportspoker: Work issues accomodating you for your children is this allowed?

Work issues accomodating you for your children is this allowed?
I have been working lates for 2 years 12:30pm till 9pm because of this we applied my daughter to morning pre-school, so I could take her to pre-school and my girlfriend takes our son to his “big school” pre-school is 9am till 12pm, by boss quit in June and now have a new boss, who has stuck me on earlies claiming that’s all that’s available, which is 5am till 1pm because of this my little girl has to miss pre-school and I put a request in writing to ask for earlies due to parental responsibility and childcare issues, and he is refusing it. there is no other pre-school slots available anywhere, and there is no one else to take my girl, I really don’t want her to miss schooling, I know it’s only pre-school but I still feel it is important that she attends. is there anything I can do?
a request asking for lates sorry… ahh my head :S

Best answer:

Answer by Master Mevans
Parents have the right to request flexible working, which must be submitted in writing (with a date on it), say that it is written under your statutory right to flexible working, confirm that you have responsibility for the care of a child and your relationship to her, specify the working pattern you want, explain the effect (if any) you think it will have on the business, say when you want the arrangement to start from, and whether you have made previous applications.

You said you put in a request to work earlies in writing. Unless it included all of the above, it wasn’t a statutory request and therefore doesn’t count as a ‘previous application’. (This is significant because you can’t submit a new application within 1 year of a previous application). Now whilst your right is only to REQUEST flexible working, and an employer doesn’t have to accept it, your employer can only decline it on genuine business reasons, e.g. you have a specific level of expertise and your job can’t be done by anyone else.

Another avenue could be the fact that you have been working lates for 2 years. One of the ways that a term can be included in a contract is by custom/ practice. The fact that you have been working 1230 to 2100 for the same company, i’m assuming in the same role, for 2 years should be enough to argue that those working hours are incorporated into your contract of employment (even though there may not be anything written; a contract and the terms of a contract don’t have to be written).

Alternatively, look at your written statement of particulars (usually companies put the information required in their contract of employment, so if the WSoP isn’t a separate document look in your CoE) to see if your hours were actually included in writing. If it is and the hours are 1230 – 2100, fantastic. If they are included and they are not 1230 – 2100, I would suggest, as above, that the 2 hours working those hours were sufficient to alter the terms of the contract.

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