Thankyou for your advice, Im truely grateful.

Thankyou for your comments. I really appreciate your time. There are 2 other branches at least where a similar agreement is in place. 1 has the same number of employees as mine but less senior staff of my grade than in my branch, yet 2 staff only do 1 late a week. (no one else in my branch has the agreement). In the other office there are fewer employees, only 2 senior staff of my grade yet 1 of them has this agreement in place. Sadly I think within my branch it has gone beyond any chance of negotiation between my colleagues. They remain very hostile to my request and yes I agree it is down to bad management. There are stronger characters within the branch than the manager himself. My meeting next week is with the man at the top in personnel. He isnt known for his flexibility and understanding however I will definitely take your suggestion re presenting evidence about similar workload. Thankyou again.

The difficulty is how do you define a fair and reasonable request, I think my request is fair and reasonable, my employer thinks otherwise (even though they agreed to it 6 months ago....so it must have been fair and reasonable then) and they have agreed with other staff to the same conditions. Oh how I wish employment law on flexible working was more defined.

I hope youre right, it very much feels like a 'david and goliath" situation. Im struggling to come up with with strong lines of defense against their view that the late shifts should be shared out fairly and evenly among the staff of my grade. Any help would be most welcome.

The answer to your question - Im prepared to rock the boat as much as it needs to be rocked. My employers agreed my initally was reasonable, just because other people dont like it, why should I pay the price, especially when colleagues at other branches also have the same agreement.

Thankyou for your replies. There are other staff who are the same grade who work in other branches who only do 1 late shift a week due to childcare. They have had their agreement in place for 3 years. I have referred to this in my meetings but the manager just dismisses this and says it is not working in our branch.

I have worked for my employer for 12 years and have had no previous problems with my employer or colleagues. A few months ago I submitted a flexible working request so that I could try and balance working full time with caring for 2 children under 3 years old. Although it was initially met with opposition from the 2 managers I followed the correct procedures and my request was agreed on the basis it was on a 6 month trial. A revised contract was given to me showing this. However since March I have been met with huge opposition from my colleagues (there are 7 others who have the same responsibilites as me, out of an office of around 30). 6 of these 7 have been very vocal about the fact that I work less late shifts than them due to my chilldcare responsibilities and they see this as unfair. I work my contracted hours and fulfill all my duties at work, I just do 1 less late shift every couple of weeks. The manager who was initallly understanding, to the point that he informally said he would cover my extra late shift due to staff protests but the protests continued and he has given into my colleagues and formally requested me to work the same late shifts. His business reason for denying this part of my flexible working request, was that an adequate number of staff (of my grade) were required to work late in order to deal with the work presented and it is fair that everyone does an equal number. I have already put in wriitng to my manager the fact that the behaviour of these colleagues towards me has been so unreasonable it summounts to bullying (isolation at work over a period of weeks etc). These points have not been addressed at all. Even though it hasnt been described as this in his business reason, the manager has basically given in to the bullies for an easy life. He pretty much said it himself, its either 7 uhappy people or 1 (me). I have my final review next week once the 'trial period' ends, however even though my contract states they will decide at the end of the trial period, they have already told me their decision. Please help!