You may consider part-time working:
- if you care for a relative
- if you have a young family
- to help you achieve a work-life balance that is right for you.
The Flexible Working Regulations, 2002 (amended 2007) gives carers and parents of children under six the right to request flexible working arrangements, including part-time working. Although employers are not obliged to agree, they do have to seriously consider the request. Flexible working does not necessarily mean part-time and can include requests to adjust the pattern of your hours and work from home as well as making changes to the total number of hours worked.
There are some challenges which you and your manager will need to consider if you work part-time:
- carefully consider (and document) how your duties are changing as you move to part-time. Fewer hours does not necessarily mean less work, so talk to your manager about how you are going to achieve a realistic workload
- administration `overheads' - attending meetings is vital if you are to keep abreast of research group/departmental/university developments, but these will take a proportionately larger chunk out of your week than that of your full-time colleagues.
- as a part-time researcher you will need to make more of an effort to be part of the team and to keep `up-to-date' - key discussions, breakthroughs etc. may take place on days when you are not in
- you will need to campaign for team meetings and social events to take place on days that you are in
- beware of trying to do a full-time job in part-time hours
- be clear about whether you are willing to be contacted and/or respond to emails `out of hours'
- think about whether you can offer any flexibility in the days that you work - childcare, other work etc.
- it can be difficult to work out your leave entitlement - how do you manage Bank Holidays or customary closure days? Your departmental administrator should be able to help
The Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations came into force on 1 July 2000. By law, part-time employers must have the same statutory rights and benefits as full-time colleagues doing a comparable role. These should be offered on a pro rata basis according to the number of hours worked (there is no minimum number of hours worked needed to qualify). Examples are:
- equal pay
- entitlement to join the university pension scheme
- opportunities for training and career development
- annual leave entitlement
- sick pay, maternity pay, parental leave
- equal access to promotion and to redundancy.
If you believe that you are not being treated equally to full-time colleagues in similar roles you can ask the university for a written justification. They have 21 days to respond and if you are not satisfied with the response you are entitled to take your case to an Employment Tribunal.