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Reduction of pay and hours
bluetownbarry
Posts: 142 Forumite
Hi MSE'ers, I'm hoping you can help with a problem my other half is having at work.
Background
For the last five and a half years, my other half has worked full time (35 hrs per week) in a small privately owned village shop. Credit crunch being what it is, just over a month ago, the owner sold the shop. In that time, she has never had a written contract of employment & never received a wage slip (but did receive yearly P60s). The new owner signed a contract for the sale of the shop - and my other half was referred to stating her wage & hours of work (she has got a copy of this).
Problems with the new owner
As soon as the new owner took over, he immediatly increased her working week from 35 hours to 40 hours. This was done with no consultation & no increase in wages. The job market being what it is, she didn't really have any choice but to go along with this. Over the last month, the owner has been increasingly unreasonable - sudden changes to the time she has to start work (often with less than 8 or 12 hours notice & putting pressure on her to work late or weekends). On top of this, he is constantly undermining her work, making constant unfounded criticisms etc. It seemed pretty obvious that he doesn't wish to carry on employing her & it looks like he expects her to resign (I've got to admire my other half - I would've walked out ages ago).
Latest Bombshell
Shortly before finishing her shift yesterday is that he spoke to her and said that the turnover of the shop isn't what he was expecting and with immediate effect he will reduce her working hours to 20 hours per week. He hasn't given her any new shift pattern or any idea of when he will be expecting her to work (making it impossible to find any other part time work to make up for the reduction in hours.
She's pretty much resigned herself to the fact despite previously loving her job she cannot carry on like this & if she can't find alternative work soon she will have to throw the towel in. We've had a good chat about it & have agreed that enough is enough. I need advice as to where she stands from a legal point of view & maybe some suggestions on the best way forward.
Any comments/advice/or perhaps if you've been in a similar situation maybe what happened to you. Anything would be appreciated & if you need more information let me know. I've tried to be as concise as possible but I'm bound to have left something out!
Background
For the last five and a half years, my other half has worked full time (35 hrs per week) in a small privately owned village shop. Credit crunch being what it is, just over a month ago, the owner sold the shop. In that time, she has never had a written contract of employment & never received a wage slip (but did receive yearly P60s). The new owner signed a contract for the sale of the shop - and my other half was referred to stating her wage & hours of work (she has got a copy of this).
Problems with the new owner
As soon as the new owner took over, he immediatly increased her working week from 35 hours to 40 hours. This was done with no consultation & no increase in wages. The job market being what it is, she didn't really have any choice but to go along with this. Over the last month, the owner has been increasingly unreasonable - sudden changes to the time she has to start work (often with less than 8 or 12 hours notice & putting pressure on her to work late or weekends). On top of this, he is constantly undermining her work, making constant unfounded criticisms etc. It seemed pretty obvious that he doesn't wish to carry on employing her & it looks like he expects her to resign (I've got to admire my other half - I would've walked out ages ago).
Latest Bombshell
Shortly before finishing her shift yesterday is that he spoke to her and said that the turnover of the shop isn't what he was expecting and with immediate effect he will reduce her working hours to 20 hours per week. He hasn't given her any new shift pattern or any idea of when he will be expecting her to work (making it impossible to find any other part time work to make up for the reduction in hours.
She's pretty much resigned herself to the fact despite previously loving her job she cannot carry on like this & if she can't find alternative work soon she will have to throw the towel in. We've had a good chat about it & have agreed that enough is enough. I need advice as to where she stands from a legal point of view & maybe some suggestions on the best way forward.
Any comments/advice/or perhaps if you've been in a similar situation maybe what happened to you. Anything would be appreciated & if you need more information let me know. I've tried to be as concise as possible but I'm bound to have left something out!
0
Comments
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without a contract to vary the hours they need to give notice of the change or get agreement.
by disagreeing to the change and only working under protest there could eb a claim for ilegal deduction of wages
Conveniently the increase to 40 and the decrease to 20 also make this a layoff/short time situation so a claim for redundancy may also be an option in 4weeks.
https://www.gov.uk/lay-offs-short-timeworking/overview
If it is time to leave then maybe the first claim for full wages may trigger a dismissal or redundancy.
also check the minimum wage rules.0 -
Just to add to the above, if they unilaterally make changes it's potentially breach of contract which, depending on the outcome, could lead to unfair dismissal or redundancy.
If I were you I would post here https://www.redundancyforum.co.uk for SarEl who is an employment barrister and can advise your first step, which will probably be a discussion / letter to the employer protesting or disagreeing with any change.
KiKi' <-- See that? It's called an apostrophe. It does not mean "hey, look out, here comes an S".0 -
Just to add to the above, if they unilaterally make changes it's potentially breach of contract which, depending on the outcome, could lead to unfair dismissal or redundancy.
If I were you I would post here www.redundancyforum.co.uk for SarEl who is an employment barrister and can advise your first step, which will probably be a discussion / letter to the employer protesting or disagreeing with any change.
KiKi
Thanks for the referral KiKi - have to admit to being very dissapointed by the lack of response. MSE employment forums seem to be solely aimed at job seekers (in no way a bad thing) but the (few) of us that are still in employment would like advice now and again!
I've previously spent some time here and when appropriate given what I believe to be constructive advice. Sadly, it seems many of the informed posters on here have jumped ship - so will I!
Shame, I used to like it here.0
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