Hours and location changed during pregnancy: ask the expert

Your employment rights in this situation will depend on your employment status and whether you are an employee, a worker, or self-employed. I understand from your query that you are a ‘bank’ support worker. If you are genuinely a bank worker, your legal status would be that of a worker and not an employee and therefore your legal rights in this situation would be more limited. However, please bear in mind that an employment tribunal would consider the reality of the relationship between your employer and you and even though you have been labelled as a ‘bank’ worker, a tribunal would review the overall picture to decide whether you are genuinely a worker or whether you are, in fact, an employee, for example. In determining the question of your employment status, a tribunal would consider questions such as, are you required to provide your services personally? Is your employer obliged to provide work and are you obliged to accept it? Does your employer exercise control over the work you do? Also, your employment status can change over time.

I would need to examine your employment status in detail to fully advise you. However, for now, I have assumed that you are genuinely a bank worker and therefore have worker status, despite you saying that you work regular hours, which would be more indicative of employee status.

As a bank worker, you have no right to be offered certain work or particular hours despite the fact that you say that your previous boss was very accommodating when you asked for flexible hours. Your employer can offer the work to whomever it chooses and there is no obligation on the bank worker to accept the work offered. If you are not an employee you do not have a right to resign and claim constructive dismissal by claiming that your employer has fundamentally breached your contract by reducing your hours. Also, you do not have a right to request flexible working, as this right is also only available to employees.

You do, however, have a right to claim discrimination in the tribunal. I understand that you have been informed by your employer that your reduced hours are due to your lack of flexibility. You could claim that your employer’s actions in this regard are discriminatory on the grounds of sex, given that your lack of flexibility is inherently linked to your childcare responsibilities. Any claim for sex discrimination must be submitted to the tribunal within three months of your employer’s discriminatory act and you would need to go through the Acas pre-conciliation procedures before a tribunal will accept your claim. As a first step, I would, however, recommend that you submit a formal written complaint/grievance to give your employer the opportunity to address your concerns and rectify the problem. If this doesn’t resolve the issue, you could then consider submitting a claim to the tribunal.

If you would like to discuss this matter further, please contact Tracey Guest on 0161 975 3823.

*Helen Frankland assisted in the preparation of this answer.

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• Flexible Working Maternity leave