Changes to job description

aura01

Hi all. I wonder if anyone can provide any advice at all please?


I started a permanent job in Feb 2017 so have been there less than 2 years and am aware this gives me reduced rights. When I started I was given a contract however was not provided a job description. The job was provided to me through an agency and the agency contact at the time povided me with a pdf showing a list of the key duties of the role. I was lucky enough to be successful in the interview and accepted the role on the basis of the tasks decribed in the pdf document.


Now we have moved on nearly 2 years. A month ago we were provided with role descriptions including for myself bullet points describing and making it clear I was to be a people manager in addition to my usual tasks. In my half yearly appraisal that took place a week after this description was provided to me, my performance was measured against this job description including how I was expected to develop and perform more strongly in my people managment areas of the job description, a part of the description I knew nothing about until a week before the appraisal.


My job is a technical role which is something that I enjoy and had I known there would be management responsibilties on top of this I would not have accepted the job offer.



My question is this - having worked doing x y z for the last nearly 2 years can I suddenly be formally expected to now do x y z and 1 2 3 without a more formal change to my contract? In other can they just do this? I know they can just get rid as I have been there less than 2 years so don't want to go in all guns blazing but would like some idea of my rights. Yes I am in a union


Sorry for the length of the post and any guidance would be appreciated.

Comms69

The short answer is yes, they can.

Masomnia

You could argue it's a breach of contract but there isn't a huge amount you can do about it.

Realistically you need to decide if you want to stay in the job, if not look for something else unfortunately. Talk to them and if they won't budge then look for something else.

tacpot12

While it is unfair to drop a job description on you a month before your performance review, it would be better to take advantage of the fact you now have a job description and move forward.

If your performance rating comes back as unsatisfactory in anyway though, I would consider raising a grievance. You can't really be rated as unsatisfactory if you didn't know what you were being rated on. The sooner your employer realises that you are a committed member of the team but will not allow yourself to be walked over, the sooner they will start treating you properly.