Can I change the days of the week I need employee to work?

fguk

"right to request flexible working hours"

that doesnt mean its a forgone conclusion.

Apples1, I know it may not be free (some do half an hour advice for free), but a good employment lawyer will be able to give you great advice to enable you to protect your rights, and hopefully not get everyone involved in a court case.

You do have a duty to your employee (morally and legally), but you also have a duty to your business and its other employees. Good luck with it.

Bean_Counter

ceridwen wrote: »

"statutory right... child under 18..."

BINGO. Game, set, match for employee to win.

End of discussion.

Disagree entirely.

On what grounds can applicants be refused?
Applications for flexible working arrangements can be refused only for the following reasons:

• the burden of additional costs
• detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand
• inability to reorganise work among existing staff
• inability to recruit additional staff
• detrimental impact on quality
• detrimental impact on performance
• insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work
• planned structural changes.

I'm sure that apples1 would find one of these applicable.

ceridwen

Maybe not a "foregone conclusion" - but a Court would have the word "reasonable" in mind. What do you think the average man or woman in the street would regard as reasonable? The average person would think "that poor man - Downs Syndrome child - of course its reasonable that he isnt forced to vary his hours or lose his job. He has a lot on his plate to cope with anyway without his employer playing around with his job. Would do the same if I was in that position myself......"

ceridwen

It astonishes me that people think they can try and ride roughshod over other people - and that they will never find themselves in that position in the future............

DKLS

To put it very bruntly, the chap sounds like a huge potential liability, If I was you I would get some employment law advice, and follow the appropriate rules and get shut. If the employee is not willing to work the companies core hours, he shouldnt be there.

fguk

"ride roughshod over other people"

An employer who gives plenty of notice, apparently gives flexibility of hours already, and is looking for advice before making a contractual change.

Hardly roughshod is it.

tsstss7

Seems to me that you are asking this man to change hours on principle because of the others employees rather than for any particular reason...of course he's going to make excuses not to work Saturdays - he obviously took on a Monday to Friday job for a reason why would he then want to change that!

If he is reliable etc why take the chance of losing a good employee who will provide your compny with stability. If you wait and see you might find the others on less favourable contracts leave more frequently as the only sort of person who can do such a varied job is one without weekend responsibilities (or a very reliable and understanding babysitter).

Also the people who sold you the franchise must have had a good reason for allowing this...think about what it might be eg difficult tp recruit, his experience outweighs cons. b4 making hasty decisions.

ceridwen

tsstss7 wrote: »

Seems to me that you are asking this man to change hours on principle because of the others employees rather than for any particular reason...of course he's going to make excuses not to work Saturdays - he obviously took on a Monday to Friday job for a reason why would he then want to change that!

If he is reliable etc why take the chance of losing a good employee who will provide your compny with stability. If you wait and see you might find the others on less favourable contracts leave more frequently as the only sort of person who can do such a varied job is one without weekend responsibilities (or a very reliable and understanding babysitter).

Also the people who sold you the franchise must have had a good reason for allowing this...think about what it might be eg difficult tp recruit, his experience outweighs cons. b4 making hasty decisions.

Some very good points.

This employee might very well be a very good employee - why harass/unfairly dismiss him - you might regret it. He might well do a very good standard of work/be more reliable than others.

Did you not check the employees conditions etc before you took over the franchise? Presumably you knew what pay/conditions they had before you took it on - and paid an appropriate price to allow for this.

The analogous situation that comes to mind here is where someone might buy a house at a much cheaper than market value price. Reason - a sitting tenant on the top floor. If the price paid in first place reflected that the top floor would not be available for use for an indefinite period of time - then the buyer would be stuck with that situation. If they wanted a whole house to themselves to do what they wanted with - then they should have paid the market rate for an empty house in the first place and bought another one instead.

kitchen_buff

Give him six weeks notice of change of contract to a five over seven contract.

ceridwen

Well - when apples1 reappears to check their replies - we shall see how fairminded an employer he is. Does he go with the bad employers that have posted on here or does he take the fair route and leave this employee working Mon-Fri as per status quo? Bearing in mind apples1 would have known the state of play when he took over the franchise.

Well - apples1 - your challenge for the day - have you got a conscience? Please prove to me that you have.

(enlightened self-interest is the other phrase that comes to mind here = doing the right thing because its best for your own personal interests to do so in the long run)