Forced Move

Tallyboom

Advice needed please. I work for the Civil Service, our department has offices located all around the country with limited staff in each place (2 full time 2 part time).

I have worked here for 10 years and my colleagues a lot longer. My boss has some how managed to wangle for the whole office to be moved to a location near to his house (as he currently commutes an hour), without any sort of consultation with us whatsoever. The mileage distance remains unchanged for me, but I know the route will add time on to my day. The same for my colleagues, one of which currently walks to work because they only live down the street. My colleagues and I are really worried about the implications on this for us and our personal lives.

I am a single parent, I work full time, it takes me an hour each way to commute to work, I utilise the full day my childminder can be employed for so there is no wiggle room for me. I ill end up being late into work everyday, and will have to leave earlier to pick my child up. Which ultimately will mean I have to reduce my hours.

Two of my colleagues are part time, one lives down the road, the other, who is disabled lives a 10 minute drive away.

We have all tried raising these issues with our boss but he has complete blinkers on, he doesn’t see how the extra time, cost of travel and implications with caring etc will have on us. He’s already made off the cuff remarks about us changing hours etc. He just doesn’t get that this move will completely disrupt 3 other peoples lives, simply so he has a lesser car journey to work. He sees nothing but positivity for all of us from this move.

My colleagues and I have stopped addressing the issue now as we are getting nowhere. We don’t know who has authorised this move, whether a business case has been put in or anything really. All we know is the move is imminent. Once we start in the new place my colleagues and I will continue working the hours we currently are (with the attitude if we’re late we’re late, if we have to leave early then tough). Long term this wont be accepted though and I assume our boss will raise the issue with us not working our contracted hours.

So what do we do? I physically cant change my hours due to no wiggle room with childcare, my colleagues cant due to their own personal circumstance. Really demoralising us that our boss cant see any of this. What are my options (other than find a new job).

TELLIT01

First observation is that despite the new location being better for your boss, he wouldn't have had much of a say in whether it happened or not. You don't say how far the office has moved, but when one of the offices in my area closed and people had to relocate they were compensated for additional travel costs for a number of years.
Your options are very limited assuming your contract was the same as ours. Basically staff are expected to work from any office if it is less than 90 minutes away by public transport.

sangie595

I find it hard to credit that the civil service allows a manager to determine office locations - these things are usually dealt with by a facilities management function, quite divorced from the operational side of things.

You should check your contacts, but to my knowledge civil service contracts routinely contain a mobility clause and you will have all agreed to this.

Frankly, if you continually arrive late and walk out early, then you will soon find that your problem is solved - you'll be dismissed and won't need to commute anywhere. You cannot simply decide that you won't work your contracted hours because the office location doesn't suit you! So you formally apply for a reduction in hours or flexible working, or, frankly, you find another job before you are fired. Nobody gets away with turning up to work when they feel like it for long, and the civil service is no different from any other employer in this respect.

Tallyboom

Sorry didn’t make it clear, the move was requested by my boss, he has tried to get the move to the new location for years. There are no business related reasons for moving (although if he put a business case in I have not had sight of that).

My problem is the time, I physically am not able to take my child to the child minder any earlier and pick him up any later. She works 9 1/2 hours a day and I already use all of that.

My only option to stay in that job is to reduce my hours, but I can't afford to do that and dont see why I should given our current location (which we've been in for 10 years) is fine.

Tallyboom

Like I said I don't know how he wangled this move. We just dont know.

He is in a mobile grade but my colleagues and I are not. I'm in quite a predicament, worse still for my colleagues who are part time.

The only person this move is benefiting is my boss.

No union has been involved, no consultation or discussion with us. Nothing.

Tallyboom

"I find it hard to credit that the civil service allows a manager to determine office locations - these things are usually dealt with by a facilities management function, quite divorced from the operational side of things. "

I know. I have worked in the CS for 20+ years and have had office moves in the past, and it has all been done by the book. This move though although wanted by my boss for years has litereally come out of the back door. I dont know who agreed the move, it certainly wasnt the bosses directly above my boss. We are completely in the dark about that.

sangie595

I'm sorry, but I think you have misunderstood something. It doesn't matter how this came about. Or why. The fact is that the Civil Service has authorised this office location. Not your manager. Civil service managers don't just pick up their office and move it somewhere else on a whim. They need agreement. So that is a done deal. They aren't going to go back on signed legal documents (the new officers will have been taken on a lease for which they are now committed) and decisions made for the staff.

So, "we don't want to move" isn't an option. Nor is "we'll turn up and leave when it's convenient to us". So the bottom line is that you make it work, you change your hours if that is possible, or you find another job. Whether or not you have a mobility clause - and you probably do - this distance isn't likely to trigger legal protections, and even if either the contract or the law do, all you will be triggering is redundancy. In other words, the options are stark. You either live with it, or one way or another you lose your job. I'm sorry, but the office not moving is not an option. That's a done deal. So you now need to go back to your contract and see what it says in respect of mobility.

MacMickster

The simple solution seems to be to find a childminder closer to your new workplace. This is probably more practical than finding another job closer to your current childminder.

Stop making mountains out of molehills.

Tallyboom

sangie595 wrote: »

I'm sorry, but I think you have misunderstood something. It doesn't matter how this came about. Or why. The fact is that the Civil Service has authorised this office location. Not your manager. Civil service managers don't just pick up their office and move it somewhere else on a whim. They need agreement. So that is a done deal. They aren't going to go back on signed legal documents (the new officers will have been taken on a lease for which they are now committed) and decisions made for the staff.

So, "we don't want to move" isn't an option. Nor is "we'll turn up and leave when it's convenient to us". So the bottom line is that you make it work, you change your hours if that is possible, or you find another job. Whether or not you have a mobility clause - and you probably do - this distance isn't likely to trigger legal protections, and even if either the contract or the law do, all you will be triggering is redundancy. In other words, the options are stark. You either live with it, or one way or another you lose your job. I'm sorry, but the office not moving is not an option. That's a done deal. So you now need to go back to your contract and see what it says in respect of mobility.

MacMickster wrote: »

The simple solution seems to be to find a childminder closer to your new workplace. This is probably more practical than finding another job closer to your current childminder.

Stop making mountains out of molehills.

If it was the Civil Service then where are my forms to officially tell me about the move and enquire whether I am happy about it? Without giving too much more away as you never know who is reading, no contract agreements would have been needed for the new location, as it already came under our department. (I may PM you to elaborate on that as it is a bit complicated and would give away my anonymity).

The only person with a mobility clause is my boss. The rest of us are AAs and AOs, the effect on the 3 of us is a huge detriment. Moving child care providers is not an option. She does the school pick ups and drop offs as well.

The 'reasonable travel to work time' for a full time worker (it doesnt stipulate for a part time worker) is an hour, which I already do. This move will add 20 minutes each way to my travelling time, but with my personal life already set up with my current working pattern and conditions, it is not feasible.

This really isnt me whinging or making mountain out of molehills. This impacts 3 out of 4 of us in the office. This change could possibly affect my job, and thus my ability to pay my bills!!

Tallyboom

Sangie595 - you do not accept private messages so cannot elaborate further on the politics behind the new location.

nicechap

Tallyboom wrote: »

....
No union has been involved, no consultation or discussion with us. Nothing.

So what have the union said about it?