Potential job location change

pinkshoes

This is hypothetical at the moment, but I have a slight hunch it could happen in perhaps 6 to 12 months time, so I want to be prepared...

My contract states I work on site X, which is a 20 minute drive from where I live. One of the reasons for taking this job and leaving my last one was to reduce my 35 minute commute.

Potentially, they will move my team to site Y, which will add an extra 20+ minutes onto my drive (as it's just over double the distance from my home).

I have a few questions:

How much notice would the company have to give me if they wanted to do this?

Would they be obliged to pay my milage for the extra distance for a certain period of time?

Could I ask for a higher salary to cover the extra cost of travel?


I love my job, but am really not keen on having to move to a 45 minute commute, which would be even longer than my last commute! But I'm also not keen to move job, as I'm late 20s, hope to have a baby in the next few years, and would hate to have to move job and them dump a pregnancy on a new company within the first 6 months, as I find this unfair on companies, particularly if it was a small one.

Any answers to the above questions would be a great help!

Fluffi

There is information on directgov which seems to cover this situation. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/EmploymentContractsAndConditions/DG_10028541

It looks like a company has no legal obligation to pay or compensate for increased travel times or costs, although they may decide to do so at their discretion. They may offer to pay some mileage costs for a while and you may get a salary increase depending on whether your employer thinks it would be easier/cheaper to keep you happy rather than have to employ a replacement for you if you decide not to relocate.

Similarly the amount of notice has to be reasonable, although reasonable isn't defined. I guess if they are only moving 20 minutes away then a company wouldn't have to give as much notice as if they were moving other end of the country, in which case I'd expect at least 6 monhts notice. But a move of 20-30 minutes is unlikely to force anyone to relocate ... and it may even be beneficial for some employees depending on where they live, that said office moves take time to organize so I'd expect you'd get at least 2 to 3 months notice.

Sorry I can't be more positive.