Hours of Work

[SIRandyraven]

My wife works 20 hours per week , from 9am to 1pm , Monday to Friday.
She has done these hours for the past 2 years 6 months.
When she started the part time job , some 5 years 6 months ago she worked an hour extra each day ...until 2pm rather than 1pm.
Her employer has just sent a letter , asking all staff to volunteer to work afternoons , evenings and weekends. The letter says , that failing to work agree to work these different hours , will result in the current contract of work being withdrawn (sacked !) and a new contract being offered to work the new hours.

Can they do this ?

Surely not , I say. My example being .....
I have 10 people to make redundant , so I change their hours from say 9 till 5pm , to 11pm to 4am ....
they refuse ... I sack them ...redundancy payments saved :-)

Thanks

[Androcles]

An employer can change the conditions of work. They have to follow proper procedures though. So if I suddenly find I need more hours, I can decide I need a full timer to do it. However, I must give the current part timer an opportunity to take on the job, and if they are unable I can make them redundant. I must have tried to identify and if I can find it, offerthem a suitable alternative job. If not them they are entitled toconsultation, proper notice and compensation, not less than the state calculated amounts.

I don't understand your comment that the employer has called for volunteers and then says that everybody else will be given a new contract. They must follow the "procedure" - they can't just change hours without handling it along the lines I have described.

[karenmac60]

I work for a local authority and they changed all of our contracts recently. Basically we were given 30 days to sign a new contract and if we didn't sign they would just fire us and rehire the following day on new contracts. There was a small cash incentive to get us to sign, but they seemed to know they were legally able to just fire and rehire. If anyone didn't turn up for work on the first day of the new contract and they hadn't signed, they were to be automatically fired as they were seen to not be accepting the new contract. So basically it looks like employers can do what the hell they want and if you don't like it they'll just hire someone who does. (Being local authority we had a lot of union involvement too but it wasn't any help)

[Androcles]

You should both see: http://www.emplaw.co....tartpage=data/012.htm