I was recently asked this questions and here is my reply:
The government has introduced flexible working rights which includes the right to work part time for employees with children under the age of 16 and those who have caring responsibilities (for instance elderly parents or disabled family members). There is a legal requirement for companies to show that they have considered the business case before declining the request. Flexible working is now available in some 80% of organisations in the UK so it is getting easier to find examples of how it can work. Part time working however is still predominantly taken up by women with caring responsibilities and is correlated with a larger pay gap and career penalties. If you are looking for examples of how part time can work ask colleagues in competitor companies. An organisation would find it difficult to prove that it can ‘never’ work. If it hasn’t been done in that role, then a pilot might be a next step.
For more legal requirement information do look at the following websites. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Flexibleworking/DG_171775. ACAS also offer advice http://www.acas.org.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=1076&p=0 . There is a good Q&A section on the Maternity Action leaflet http://www.maternityaction.org.uk/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/cfwh.pdf
In practice a number of things can happen when an employee wants to change their working hours while on maternity or paternity leave. They can spend a significant amount of time anticipating the answer without speaking directly to their manager. From experience flexible working depends more on the attitudes of the line manager and the present business context of each individual department and team, than it does on policy. Successful applications often include:
1. One to one dialogue with their manager at an early stage.
Asking questions such as “What are the present & future challenges in the team, how do you see my role over the short term, how is the team performing against budget” which should give you an idea of what working practices will increase the performance of the team. Think about the situation from the position of your manager, the organisation and lastly your needs. Use a keeping in touch day to speak to your manager and HR contact if appropriate. You can also ask HR for other examples of part time working within the organisation.
2. Back the conversation up in writing.
Many flexible working positions are not formalised and there are pros and cons of formalising them when you want to change working patterns in the future or when there are restructures and your manager who let you work flexibly is replaced with someone who doesn’t agree to it. It you may include a formal application with the business reasons which will be kept and considered by HR. Consider any changes in benefits particularly pension. You will probably need to negotiate and compromise with some areas to fulfil everyone’s needs.
3. Once a decision has been made within the month decide where you to take the conversation next.
If the answer is negative, there is an appeal procedure and very few cases lose on appeal. However what you may lose is trust and a desire to work with that manager and/or organisation. It becomes a difference in values rather than a procedure of following a policy. There may be other creative ways of achieving what you require: parental leave, taking single day holidays, additional paternity leave, secondment, zero hour contract or career break. Arrange another time to talk directly. It may be that there is a restructure on the horizon which you are not aware of, so ask more questions and if in doubt ask more senior managers particularly those who share similar values or work flexibly.