HELP: Changes to the way the hours of work are distributed!

RealFlava

Currently I work 24 hours a week for my employer.

I work Monday to Thursday each week, Wednesdays I work an evening shift, Monday, Tuesday and Thursdays are early shifts.

I have been working for the company for nearly 6 years, the shifts above I have been working for over a year now.

My employer has now stated they require part time employees to work more evenings and weekends (25% of hours on weekends) which is not possible for me to do so. I have made them an offer to try and compromise and offered to maybe work an extra evening shift so thet would mean Tues and Weds evenings, Mon & Thurs would be early shifts but unable to work anything on a weekend due to some other commitments I have which I have been told that they probably wouldn't accept my offer as a compromise, I then requested to reduce my hour's down to the minimum 16 hours which I have also been told is not possible, which only leaves me in the position whereby I agree to what they say and work a weekend or leave????

My contract states the following :

You will be required to work 37.5 hours per week providing cover on a rota basis between the hours of 7am and 12 midnight (My dept doesn't open until these hours, they close earlier), Monday to Sunday. Your rota will be advised by your line manager. It is anticipated that some individuals will be required to provide cover over 24 hours on a rota basis. Changing business requirements may necessitate a change to the pattern of your working hours, however any alterations will be made after discussions with you and you will be advised at least one month in advance.

I recieved a letter which is a addendum to my contract of employments stating my standard hours per week are 24 hours.

Are they in a position to make me change the distribution of my hours to what they are know saying even though I have been working these hours for over a year now??

Hope somebody can help!

Thanks

poe.tuesday

hum, I think that they can change your shifts as noted in your original contract regardless of the addition to the contract, you must speak to the CAB or a union about this before you take any steps

RealFlava

ok thanks. i thought they maybe unable to change my hours without my agrement as that would then be imposed change???

Savvy_Sue

ACAS would be worth talking to ...

CFC

It depends.

If you have the right to request flexible working (see ACAS website) then put in a request in writing following the guidelines on that site. You may be able to avoid shift change in this way.

If you don't, you're probably in a hard situation as you are on a flexible contract. Doing the same shifts for one year is not enough to mean that they cannot change your shifts. You'd have to do it for a lot longer than that for them to have any difficulty, as really they are only changing your rostered hours within your working week.

Ultimately they can impose the shift changes after discussion with you, without your agreement, citing business needs, providing they have sufficient business reason to change those shifts. They need to give you reasonable notice of the shift change, and one month's notice would usually be considered to be reasonable.(as stated in your contract)