Where to Turn Next

mikazza2

Hi,

Recently the company I work for decided to change my working hours and pattern from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, to 5 days over 7 between 8am and 10pm on a rotational shift basis, at my appraisal about 2 months ago it was briefly mentioned that this may be happening and I was asked what I thought, working anything other than 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday is unsuitable for me and I said that at the time, I heard nothing more about this until 20th Nov when I got a letter saying from the 1st Dec these new working arrangements would be put in place.

I raised a grievance as this was not agreed or indeed even spoke about other than the initial, this may happen. The current situation is that my grievance has been upheld but they still intend on going ahead with the new working patterns and say if I don't accept them they will terminate my contract and re-hire me on the new terms. I've been working here 4 years.

Also the grievance outcome is full of inaccrate statements, they say a misunderstanding has occured over agreeing to work the new hours, I say there couldn't have been a misunderstanding as there was no communincation, my next step with this is to appeal to the MD about the outcome.

I have a feeling this will quickly be declined as my boss who made no attempt to communicate in the first instance is a friend of the MD? Does anybody know what I should do, I don't even know who I can contact legally about this, does anybody have any recommendations? So far the company have been less than helpful when about these things.

Conor_3

Check your contract of employment but I'm sure like most it'll have clauses about changing things as required by operational need.
At the end of the day, IMO a grievance system is just a waste of time. You get to vent your spleen and they just carry on regardless. It's only of any use if a large portion of the workforce all do it.

Hate to repeat what's been said countless times in other threads but in the current climate, a job is a job and a lot of us are going to have to give a bit in order to keep one.

pinkshoes

Given the change is quite significant (i.e. from a fixed regime to any 8 hours between 8am and 10pm on any 5 days of the 7 day week), then I wouldn't call this an acceptable change in hours, in which case I'm sure they would have to make you redundant.

How long have you worked there for?

Do you have a union? Or perhaps speak to CAB?

mikazza2

I've been working here for close on 5 years now, i've contacted the GMB this morning to see if they will accept me, hopefuly they will be able to help, they are threatening to give me my notice to end my contract then attempt to re-hire on the new one, I would say the change is such that they would be in breach of contract to do this and instead this should be a redundancy as my job as it exists at the moment will no longer exist.

I might have to end up going with the new hours and suffering until I find a new job, you know how it is these days, everybody is short of cash. :mad:

pinkshoes

mikazza2 wrote: »

I've been working here for close on 5 years now, i've contacted the GMB this morning to see if they will accept me, hopefuly they will be able to help, they are threatening to give me my notice to end my contract then attempt to re-hire on the new one, I would say the change is such that they would be in breach of contract to do this and instead this should be a redundancy as my job as it exists at the moment will no longer exist.

I might have to end up going with the new hours and suffering until I find a new job, you know how it is these days, everybody is short of cash. :mad:

Nope, they are making your position redundant, therefore if they can't offer you a suitable alternative, they'll have to pay your 5 years worth of redundancy, and your notice pay.

On a redundancy web page it also says:

Refusal on the grounds that the new job would mean moving house or lead to a significant change in working hours which did not fit with personal circumstances, would be acceptable

So because the change of working hours and days is completely unacceptable, you are quite entitled to refuse, and they'll have to make you redundant.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/EmploymentContractsAndConditions/DG_10028079

Take some proper advice before just accepting this new job!

ceridwen

Just to wish you luck with this.

That is an awful way to treat someone - so I do hope you manage to get redundancy terms okay (if thats what you want).

Personally - I would also be investigating the chances re constructive dismissal as well.

Obviously - I know a lot depends on the persons individual circumstances. We can all only see what we personally would do. I personally would find out how much I would get from redundancy on the one hand and constructive dismissal claim on the other hand and decide which of those two to go for accordingly. But - I am in the situation that I can do this and think "Its MY sorta job or NO job" - I do appreciate many people wouldnt be.

I do hope this works out for you. I think its appalling to try and change someone over from office hours to anyday/any waking hours as they are trying to with you. That is a whole different "ballgame" and whole different job to what you took on. There must surely be a good chance of winning whichever claim you decide to put in I would have thought.....an office worker...is an office worker...is an office worker......etc.....etc.

Good luck.