Flexible working requests

Q: I have asked to return to work part-time instead of full-time after my maternity leave, but my employer says this is not possible. I work as a PA and my employer insists that the job has to be done by one person for the sake of consistency.

A: You have a right to request flexible working, which includes working part-time, under sections 80F to 80I of the Employment Rights Act 1996. The employer can only turn down such a request if it has clear business reasons for doing so, and these must fall into one of the grounds set out in section 80G(1)(b) — which include detrimental effect on quality, performance or ability to meet customer demand, the burden of additional costs and inability to re-organise work or recruit extra staff.

Your employer would have to be able to demonstrate that “consistency” was a requirement of the role, that a failure to provide it would have a detrimental effect, and that it could not be provided in another way — for example, by reorganising the work or with a job-share.

A failure to allow part-time working or a job-share can also amount to indirect sex discrimination. In the case of Hardys & Hanson plc v Lax [2005] EWCA Civ 856 [2005] IRLR 726, the Court of Appeal held that the refusal of a job-share was discriminatory and could not be justified because the employer had failed to show that the job could not be done on that basis.