new employer, same contract?

eebyegum

hi there,
i have worked for a small company for 3 years now. when i joined, my contract of employment stated my working hours were monday to friday 7.30 til 5pm.
the boss has recently sold out the business to a larger company who work similar hours but also saturday mornings. they now wish for me to work saturday mornings.
my original contract does state that hours could be varied slightly to suit the company needs. but it doesnt say that actual days can be changed though.
where do you think i would stand if i refused to start working saturdays?  thank you.

Jillanddy

Probably at the top of the list for redundancy.

I don't think anyone can answer a question like this accurately, because much depends on the employers willingness (or not) to agree to keep your hours as they are. Technically, assuming that this is a TUPE, then your contract doesn't change, but that doesn't mean that it can't be changed. They have a few hoops to go through to prove that the business needs to make the change, but they aren't all that hard to do, especially if you are the only person who never works on a Saturday. 

I think the more relevant question is "are you prepared to lose your job over this?", because that is what it may come to, and there is no guarantee that they couldn't dismiss you fairly for refusing.

Undervalued

Jillanddy said:

Probably at the top of the list for redundancy.

I don't think anyone can answer a question like this accurately, because much depends on the employers willingness (or not) to agree to keep your hours as they are. Technically, assuming that this is a TUPE, then your contract doesn't change, but that doesn't mean that it can't be changed. They have a few hoops to go through to prove that the business needs to make the change, but they aren't all that hard to do, especially if you are the only person who never works on a Saturday. 

I think the more relevant question is "are you prepared to lose your job over this?", because that is what it may come to, and there is no guarantee that they couldn't dismiss you fairly for refusing.

Indeed.

Even if the business hadn't been sold it would have been fairly easy for the original employer to have changed your contract to require Saturday working if there were good business reasons to do so.

Had they done so your only options would have been to accept the change or resign and claim unfair dismissal (not constructive dismissal under these circumstances despite the resignation). It would then have been for a tribunal to decide if the change was reasonable or not. If you won you would have got some compensation but you wouldn't get your old job back.

getmore4less

Just add Sat morning is more than that in reality if nothing else changes.

eebyegum

oooh, thank you for your replies.
that doesnt sound good for me then, i have weekly access to my daughter weekends only, looks like i better start job hunting...