Refused part-time hours after maternity leave: your rights

You asked to come back three days a week. Your manager said no, the rota is full time or nothing. That reply is the start of a legal process, not the end of it. You can challenge it.

Start here: what to do in the next 48 hours

Keep your job and your paper trail. Write down the exact refusal, who said it and when. Save the rota, your request, and any emails or WhatsApp messages about cover, costs or “we don’t do part-time”. Do not resign in anger. If you work in a shop, care home, ward, kitchen or warehouse, speak to your rep now: USDAW for retail, UNISON or GMB for care and NHS support, the RCN for nursing. Free help is available from Acas, Citizens Advice, Maternity Action and the Work Rights Centre.

Your right to return is to the same job, on the same hours

Statutory maternity leave is up to 52 weeks: 26 weeks Ordinary Maternity Leave followed by 26 weeks Additional Maternity Leave. If you change your return date, give at least 8 weeks’ notice.

Under the Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations 1999 regulation 18, return rights depend on how long you were away. Return after Ordinary Maternity Leave only, or after consecutive statutory leave totalling 26 weeks or less, and you are entitled to the exact same job. Return after Additional Maternity Leave and you are still entitled to the same job, unless it is not reasonably practicable for the employer to keep it open. Only then can they offer another job, and it must be both suitable and appropriate, on terms no less favourable, with seniority and pension rights intact under regulation 18A.

That right is to return on your existing contract. If you were full time before, the law brings you back full time. Part time needs a contract change. You can agree it informally, ask under the flexible working rules below, or require it where a full-time only rule is discriminatory. Read the maternity leave and pay rules alongside this guide.

How to make a request that is hard to refuse

In Great Britain you can make a statutory flexible working request from day one of employment. You do not need 26 weeks’ service. That changed on 6 April 2024. You can make up to 2 requests in any 12 months, with only one live at a time. Send it at least 2 months before you are due back, so the decision and any appeal finish before your first shift.

1. Put it in writing. Email counts. Date it, say it is a statutory application under section 80F, spell out the change you want and the start date, and say when you last applied. You no longer have to explain how the business will cope.
2. Be specific and offer a trial. Ask for fixed days, for example Tuesday to Thursday 8am to 4pm, or a 22.5 hour week across three set shifts. Offer a 3-month trial, a job share, or cover you know works on the ward or shop floor.
3. Insist on consultation. Since 6 April 2024 the employer must consult you before refusing. Under the Acas Code they should meet you without unreasonable delay, explore alternatives, confirm the decision in writing with the business reason, and offer an appeal.
4. Appeal inside the 2 months. The 2-month decision period includes any appeal. Appeal in writing straight away so both fit inside the window, or agree a short written extension.

The only 8 reasons they can use to say no

Under section 80G your employer may refuse only because it considers that one or more of 8 statutory grounds applies. “We don’t do part-time for supervisors” or “everyone else will ask” is not a lawful ground on its own.

When a no becomes sex discrimination

The procedural claim is capped and narrow. The stronger claim for a mother refused part-time or fixed shifts is often indirect sex discrimination under section 19 of the Equality Act 2010. It applies from day one, even if your employer ticks one of the 8 business grounds.

A full-time only rule, a rotating weekend rota, or a refusal of fixed childcare-friendly shifts can be a provision, criterion or practice that puts women at a particular disadvantage compared with men, puts you at that disadvantage, and is not a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. Tribunals must take judicial notice of the childcare disparity: women still carry the main burden of childcare, so you do not need statistics to prove group disadvantage. That is Mrs G Dobson v North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust [2021] ICR 1699. The employer must then justify the refusal with concrete operational evidence.

Justification is not a tick box. In the second Dobson appeal, [2026] EAT 32 dated 27 February 2026, the Trust kept its win on the facts of a 24/7 community nursing service. It showed staffing risks, a written business case and costings, and that the claimant insisted on fixed Wednesday and Thursday shifts indefinitely while declining weekend work the service needed. Our view: this is the employer winning on evidence, not a green light to refuse. Your best answer is still engagement. Propose trials and compromises, and make them show their workings. See pregnancy and maternity discrimination and the Equality Act guide.

A lawful business reason on paper can still be unlawful discrimination in practice if the employer cannot prove it with evidence.

If they say no: appeal, grievance and tribunal

Appeal immediately in writing and keep it inside the 2-month window. If you are stonewalled, raise a formal written grievance about the process and, where relevant, sex discrimination or maternity detriment. A grievance meeting gives you the legal right to bring a colleague or union rep. That pairing matters: reps stop meetings becoming ambushes. See how to raise a grievance.

You can complain to tribunal if the employer failed to handle the request reasonably, failed to consult, missed the 2-month deadline, relied on a reason outside the 8, got the facts wrong, or wrongly treated you as withdrawn. The tribunal can order reconsideration and award up to 8 weeks’ pay, capped at £751 a week from 6 April 2026, a maximum of £6,008. Discrimination compensation is separate and uncapped: lost earnings plus injury to feelings. Detriment or dismissal for asking is also protected from day one.

Time limits are strict. In Great Britain, where the refusal or act happened on or after 1 October 2026, you must contact Acas for Early Conciliation within 6 months minus 1 day. Before that date the limit was 3 months minus 1 day. Internal appeals do not pause the clock. See the new six-month tribunal deadline and how to bring a claim.

If you are on zero-hours, bank or agency shifts

Many care providers, hotels and NHS banks tell mothers on zero-hours or agency rotas that they have no flexible working rights. Part of that is true and part is a bluff.

Only employees can make a statutory section 80F request. Casual, bank and most agency staff cannot. But discrimination protection covers limb (b) workers from day one, including agency workers against both agency and hirer. If shifts are cut on return, or you are suddenly required to work rotating weekends you cannot cover with childcare, that can support a section 18 pregnancy and maternity claim or a section 19 indirect sex discrimination claim. The right to have hours changed, or to be suspended on full pay, if the work is unsafe after birth or while breastfeeding is an employee right. Ask for a risk assessment anyway. And many “zero-hours” staff who work regular shifts with mutual obligation are employees in law whatever the contract says. Check zero-hours rights, agency worker rights and whether you are really self-employed.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland

Substantive law is the same as England and Wales: the day-one request right, the 8 grounds, maternity return rights and the Equality Act all apply. Tribunal time is now 6 months minus 1 day for refusals on or after 1 October 2026. Breach of contract claims move to 6 months on 9 November 2026. Enforce an unpaid award with an extract registered decree arbitral through a Sheriff Officer, not through the County Court route used in England and Wales.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is different and stricter for workers. The April 2024 reforms do not apply. You need 26 weeks’ continuous employment, you get only 1 statutory request every 12 months, and you must still explain in writing what effect the change will have and how to deal with it. There is a fixed timetable of up to 14 weeks: meeting within 28 days, decision within 14 days after the meeting, appeal within 14 days, appeal meeting within 14 days, appeal decision within 14 days. You have a statutory right to be accompanied. Maternity return rights mirror Great Britain, but the 18-month redundancy priority extension did not cross the Irish Sea. Claims go to the Industrial Tribunal after conciliation through the Labour Relations Agency, with a 3-month limit. Advice is available from the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland and Advice NI. See what differs in Northern Ireland.

What changes in October 2027, and what does not

1. 6 Apr 2024Day-one requests, consultation and 2-month decisions

   In force in Great Britain. Acas Code also in force. Redundancy priority extended to 18 months after birth.

2. 1 Oct 2026Tribunal time doubled

   6 months minus 1 day for refusals on or after this date in Great Britain.

3. Oct 2027Reasonableness test and maternity dismissal protections

   Scheduled. Employers would need to show refusal on a statutory ground is reasonable, explain why in writing, and follow prescribed consultation steps. Dismissal protection would widen beyond redundancy.

Today the test is lower for employers: they must only consider that a ground applies. That is why the discrimination route carries the weight. Keep evidence of costs, cover attempts, trial offers refused or ignored, and comparators. That file is what wins or loses justification.