Change of working hours and loss of shift allowance

Keeka

Hi all.

Due to the pandemic I have worked from home since March 2020.  I am employed on a permanent contract by my employer to work 12 hour shifts Friday and all weekend meaning I get a 16% shift allowance. However, their was no business need for me to work those hours since March 2020 so I have worked day shifts Monday to Friday. Now that we are being told to return to the office the Company want to change my contract to reflect my 'working from home' hours so I will need to commute into the office at peak times and lose my shift allowance. The issue is I will then be at least £1000 a month worse off due to extortionate train fares and no shift allowance. We have been told that hybrid contracts will not be an option.

Can anyone advise any questions I should ask legally ?  My actual job, (including pre-pandemic role), have completely disappeared so I don't want to ruffle too many feathers as basically my role and hours have been made redundant. Should I just accept that I will be far worse off and just get on with it ?

On another note my original contract had the incorrect amount of leave entitlement allocated, (too much), which I didn't realise until I changed my working hours many years later. If I accept these new hours they will reflect what I used to do at the start of my employment with the company - I'm guessing they don't have to honour the original (incorrect) holiday entitlement ?  

Our HR department has been outsourced overseas so I'm unable to speak directly to an HR representative.

Thanks for reading !

Torry_Quine

What does your contract say about the hours to be worked? 

Jillanddy

You seem to agree that there is no longer a need for the job that you previously did and that you haven't been doing that job for over a year now. So, do you wish to be made redundant? It reads to me that you don't. And I am going to assume that you don't have union membership? If you "don't want to ruffle feathers" then yes - you will just have to suck it up. If you are willing to be made redundant, you could certainly make a case for that. But if you don't want to e made redundant, in practice there's probably not a lot you can do other than possibly delay the changes. Effectively they are saying your job no longer exists and you can have "this other job". You can accept it. You can try to negotiate and see if anything improves, and then decide whether to accept it. Or you can argue for redundancy. The way things are currently though, unless you know you can walk into another job quickly, I'd probably try to improve the offer, accept it in the end, and look for another job. 

oh_really

What would a redundancy scenario cost the employer?

68ComebackSpecial

What are the numbers? To lose £1k per month net from cessation of a 16% shift allowance plus additional commuting costs doesn't sound right unless your basic salary is very high.

Barmy_Army_92

Need more information really, but clearly you are no longer happy so perhaps now would be a good time to leave and find another job. The shift premium of 16% doesn't sound the best for all weekend work anyway. My employer has recently been paying approx 50% for such a work pattern [Fri-sun, 12 hr day shifts]. 

avawat20

They can contractually vary you with the correct notice (at least statutory- Google it or they may offer extra but that's their choice and policy) for valid reasons. You seem to agree so it seems all valid and legal. Re holiday entitlement, you should raise it, hopefully they will right off any error up until now and correct it going forward.