You’re pregnant. You’re happy and spend a lot of your day dreaming of maternity leave [it’s your first child so you don’t know that it isn’t all about sleeping yet; in fact it’s the very opposite]. Suddenly, though, the reality begins to loom and you start to think about what will happen when maternity leave ends. You’ve heard about flexible working options, but how do you go about negotiating it? Here are WorkingMums’ top tips for arguing your case.
1. Check out what your company’s policy on flexible working. All companies are obliged to consider flexible working, but they are not obliged to agree to every or any request. However, some companies are more innovative in their policy on flexible working and may already have trialled different forms of flexible working from the usual ones of working different shift patterns or cutting your hours. For instance, they might offer term-time only working or working from home or annualised hours.
2. Be clear about the hours you want to work and how you want to work them, for instance, could you do some of your work at home in order to cut down on travelling time? Look at your childcare options too and ensure they fit with your working hours. Can you afford to work part-time? Or does working full-time and paying full-time childcare work out to be uneconomical? Can your partner also go part-time so you can split the childcare or picking up times?
3. Once you know the hours you want to work and how, make a business plan which emphasizes the advantages for both you and the company of working this way. For example, you could say there are aspects of your job – research, reading, data input – that could be done better at home with no other distractions around.
4. Talk to other people in your company and elsewhere who have negotiated flexible working and ask them about their experiences and tips.
5. Put your request in writing to your line manager and sign and date the letter.
6. Your employer then has 28 days to arrange a meeting with you to discuss your request. Be calm and business-like in your negotiations. Don’t lose your calm if they turn you down flat [this is actually proof that they are not abiding by the legislation as they should at least consider your case properly and give you reasonable grounds for turning you down]. Similarly if they do not reply to your request, this goes against the legislation. They should reply in writing within 14 days of the meeting.
7. If you suspect your manager has not followed procedures properly or has not given due attention to your case, make an appeal to his or her line manager within 14 days of receipt of their decision. Reasonable grounds for dismissing requests for flexible working include that it would have a detrimental effect on other staff or on the company’s ability to meet customer need.
8. If this appeal is not successful, you could lodge a claim with an employment tribunal on the grounds of sex discrimination, particularly if the decision forces you to leave your job.
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