My Manager wants to change my Contract of employment

[neil1973]

Hi

I have worked as a Manager for a company for almost 4 years. I have been asked to change from a day role to a shift role. I have a young family so obviously do not want to do this. My Contract stipulates that my hours of work are between 8 am and 5pm....What Can I do,? I am not a member of a union and my employemnt law is v Rusty!!!!...If I refuse would i be made redundent or could they just fire me ???

I apperciate any advice..
thanks

[dothawkes31]

they can't fire you, check your staff handbook, can they change the hours of woprk for the needs of the business? If there is a risk to jobs situation announced or your company is in a consultation period this could be a way of finding voluntary redundancies, if none of those applies then you can negotiate your terms of employment.

[neil1973]

Many thanks!, when you say negotiate terms, if both parties cannot agree would that mean redundancy?....for example If we could agree to give it a 3 month Trial and if it didnt work out ,could I get redundancy?...

[buildersmate]

By virtue of having been working dayshift for the last 4 years you have an implied term of your contract that you work those hours anyway, irrespective of what an Company Handbook may say (Google 'implied terms of contract' to find out more). The company wants to change this, which they can try and do through consultation.
It is probably a good idea to offer to try it out rather than just saying 'no' - but make sure the terms of the trial are written down - if they won't do that, you write to them and state what the terms are.
This is a good way to play for time. Make sure the written bit states that 'the trial period is x months long after which a joint review will occur to consider the benefits / disadvantages' (or similar words).
As Dot has said, if they are claiming that there is a good business reason for the change, it can be forced upon you, in which case the requirement of the company is that they give you formal notice of the change (the trial doesn't count - it was a trial and hence part of the consultation), which in your case is probably 4 weeks notice (longer if your contract says so). If you are still declining the proposed change, your job is redundant so the company could declare you dismissed on the grounds of redundancy (redundancy is one of the fair reasons for being dismissed or 'fired' - your terminology).

[neil1973]

thanks guys.