Help..for my brother.reduced hours, a 20% pay cut and redundancies

brians_daughter

Hi all, I am posting for my younger brother, I hope some of you can help him.

He was informed a few weeks ago fo possible redundancies in the company. Since then 3 members of staff (from other depts have been made redundant) My brother was then told by his manager his job was safe, redundancies weren't going to impact their dept so he breathed a (small) sigh of relief

Today my brothers boss has told him he is to drop his hours to 30 a week and take a 20% paycut. No other options

Can they do this? Hes only worked there 9 months or so, after getting made redundant from his last job in Oct last year.

He took a massive salary decrease just to be in employment and if he took the pay cut we have worked out he would not be able to afford to actually do his job.

He works 45 miles away from his house, so 90 miles round trip every day. He only uses his car for work. Once you take all this into account ie car, insurance, fuel, upkeep etc and the pay and hours cut he is actually better off working p/t on minimum wage...

Anyway, i have digressed somewhat. Can his employer tell him he either takes the paycut or must leave? Should he not be offered redundancy? so at least he can claim JSA until he can secure some form of other employment

As much as he doesnt want to be on JSA - (10 weeks last time he was made redundant was enough for him) he doesnt want to be going to a job that is costing him money to attend...This is surely a case that defies the logic 'any job is better than no job'

Thanks in advance

jackomdj

I think they can. I live in Swindon & Honda did something similar.

As he has less than one years service they do not have to pay him any redundancy.

lamaar75

Unless it is in his T&C then he doesn't have to accept the pay cut. The company I work for tried to do it this year and we all said no, so they began redundancies. Its a lottery. The majority of companies are cutting back and using the current financial climate as an excuse.

Likelyhood is that if he fails to take what they say then they will lay him off.

brians_daughter

Thanks for the replies. As bad as it sounds he would rather get laid off than stay there on 30 hrs, as they still want him to do 5 days on short hours he will still have the same outlay etc. He has 5 days annual leave starting next wednesday so i am hoping he can get some interviews lined up in the meantime. He does have some savings that could tied him over a month or 2 so I just hope can get sorted

Thanks for your help