Hi All,

Working on a currently case that I wanted everyone's advice with.

Background:

In one of our schools we have a PA to the principal. She works a PA to the principal, during COVID she became pregnant so was asked to work from home, she then subsequently had two back to back maternity leaves. Upon her return in May/June 23 she returned to the temporary working pattern which was two days on site and three days working from home.

There have been ongoing concerns around her performance and her lack of reliable availability on her WFH days, unfortunately the principal hasn't logged these until very recently (only one incident). The idea is that a PA role requires 5 days onsite presence. whether that's going into meetings, assisting with recruitment, printing/filing etc. She does the HR admin as well.

So the principal had a few informal meetings with her to review the temporary working pattern (she also considers it to be a temporary working pattern), childcare is an issue although husband is at home. Marriage is rocky. The principal took this into account however said that following the review she needs her in 5 days a week and has given the start date of this working pattern from September 2024 to give her time to make any arrangements she needs.

She has taken Union Advice and has understandably put in a FWR, the FWR is around child care but wants to do longer hours Monday to Thurs and not work on a Friday. she claims this is because the principal told her she is hard to reach and can result in delays. She also wants to work from home in the mornings and then come in Monday to Wednesday and then work from home entirely on the Thursday

She also wants an OH referral done, I hate to sound cynical but from conversations I have had with her and the principal she isn't the most pleasant and she attends every work party and stays really late which gave the principal's doubts of her childcare issues but that might be just a red herring.

The only issue with the above is these working patterns were in place prior to the current principal starting which was in Sept 2022. There is a data manager in the school who does work hybrid, this was agreed by the previous principal as he is doing his PHD, does this affect our FWR situation with the PA?

My questions are: 

1) What do you think about the FWR being rejected following the meeting? There isn't a host of letters or email the principal can refer to say that there are concerns about the work she does from home. what sort of risk would the school be exposed to?

To be fair to the principal she is happy for the PA to reduce her hours so she does reduced hours 5 days a week or even do shorter hours on a Friday and make up the hours by adding it on to the days Monday - Thursday, and we are looking to propose these.

2) the OH report, should we complete one for her anyway? she has no current underlying health conditions and has very little sickness although i can understand this being a stressful time for her. 

Thank you!