A Guide for Working Mums

Know Your Rights

The Flexible Working Regulations were amended in 2014, extending the right to request flexible working to cover all employees, from only those with children under the age of 18.

Every employee now has the right to request flexible working after a 26 week period of employment service. The request can cover hours of work, times of work, and place of work and may include requests for different patterns of work. Any change granted under the right to request flexible working is usually permanent. Employers should make clear to employees what information they need to include in a written request to work flexibly.

A request from an employee must include the following information:

• Date of application, change to sought working conditions, when they would like changes to come into effect.

• What impact they think [if any] the proposed changes would have on the employer and how that impact may be dealt with.

• A statement that it is a statutory request, and details of previous applications for flexible working [if any].

Once an employer has received a written request for flexible working, they must consider it. The employer should arrange a meeting with an employee as soon as possible after receiving their request. If an employer intends on approving the request, a meeting is not necessary. Employers should discuss with the employee the type of flexible working preferred by them, and which arrangements are most workable.

An employee can only make a statutory request once in any 12 month period. However, temporary changes may still be negotiated. It is good equalities practice for businesses to have an open door policy where staff are able to discuss personal circumstances and responsibilities affecting their work with a manager/employer and for realistic temporary alternatives to be explored.

Employers must seriously consider an application but are not obliged to agree if sound business reasons can be proven, in line with current legislation. These are:

• The burden of additional costs.

• An inability to reorganise work amongst existing staff.

• An inability to recruit additional staff.

• A detrimental impact on quality.

• A detrimental impact on performance.

• A detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand.

• Insufficient work for the periods the employee proposes to work.

• A planned structural change to the business.

An employee has the right to appeal any decision.

Examples of flexible working

• Part- time: Employees work less than the normal or standard full-time hours.

• Flexi- time: Agreed ‘core’ hours must be worked but there is flexibility on start/finish times.

• Job share: Two people share the work normally done by one.

• Condensed hours: Contacted hours are worked over less days, such as a four day week or nine day fortnight.

• Annualised hours: Annual hours are calculated and split into set shifts and unallocated shifts. This is usually suitable to seasonal work.

• Staggered hours: Working patterns that stagger staring and finishing and break times.

• Term-time working: Fewer hours or staff time off during school holidays.

• Working from home: Agreed on a regular or ad hoc basis as long as there is appropriate technology to support it.

• TOIL time off in lieu: Claiming back hours work in lieu of overtime for additional hours.

• Shift working: includes both long-term, night shifts and work schedules in which employees change or rotate shifts.

Breastfeeding rights

In the UK, there is no statutory right to time off to express milk or breastfeed a baby in the workplace. However, where an employer refuses to accommodate your breastfeeding needs this may give rise to a claim against them for sex discrimination.

A refusal to allow a breastfeeding employee to express milk or to adjust her working conditions to enable her to continue to breastfeed may amount to unlawful sex discrimination. It is good practice for the employer to consider the request objectively and discuss it with the employee. If the employer still cannot allow extra breaks without there being an unacceptable impact on the business then this would explain the decision taken and therefore less likely to constitute indirect sex discrimination. Employers should make sure they consider a request for breastfeeding in the same vein as a temporary change to working condition from an employee for any reason.

What does breastfeeding in the workplace look like in practice?

• Going home to feed if employees live nearby and have agreed this with their manager.

• Going to a nearby nursery, if the nursery is nearby and breastfeeding breaks have been negotiated with the employer.

• A relative or childminder brining the child to the workplace to be fed, if this was agreed with the employer and an appropriate breastfeeding space decided upon.

• Expressing milk - employees who want to continue to feed their baby will express at work and store the milk in a cool place, usually in a separate, sealable container for hygiene purposes.

• A toilet is not an acceptable space to express. Expressing milk usually requires the use of a manual or electric pump. The pump and bottles must be sterile so it’s vital the woman has access to private, clean and hygienic facilities to express.

If office ‘banter’ strikes up in relation to breastfeeding at work, this may amount to harassment under the Equality Act 2010. Where requests for the expressing on storing of milk is approved, an employer must guard against inappropriate behaviour towards an employee who is breastfeeding. This can be achieved by getting facilities right and preventing banter that may be offensive to the breastfeeding employee.