Reduction of Working Hours

[pastafreak]

If an employer of a smallish workforce(10-30 employees),needs to reduce costs by reducing hours....is there any formulae used to determine the % reduction?

My employer-a charity-is most likely going to reduce our hours-and it would be nice to have some idea of what to expect, or what is acceptable and realistic...ie-a 10% reduction.

[Zacs-Master]

See attached - Labour to net gains ratio and Labour to gross income ratio.
http://www.kcard.info...tios_and_Meanings.pdf

You would, of course, need to have all the figures for the charity to know what they need to reduce the two figures to, to be able to calculate the percentage you seek.

[Richard1966]

The obvious thing to say is that it clearly depends how much they have to save and how many staff can this be speed between. As an employee with a contract of employment in theory you need to consent to a change of contract. If you don't consent you must object in writing and request a meeting to discuss. Ultimately if you felt the cut was too large you could take a case to an employment tribunal either for a deduction of wages or that you had in fact been made redundant. However...ETs are aware of the economic situation and if your employer has acted reasonably and the reduction is not too great the ET might allow it. Their are no rules for this but cuts in pay of 10-15% are often seen by ETs as acceptable. Beyond 20% they start to look at whether this should really be a redundancy. However this is a very rough guide and each ET will make a decision on the circumstances.

[tonywiltshire]

The legal position would be that an employer is unable to reduce working hours and pay without there being a term in the contract of employment that permits this or employees have agreed to the change.

In practice if it is explained and accepted that reductions need to be made, perhaps to stop redundancy or keep the business (or charity) in existence agreement is usually forthcoming. I am not aware of an agreed formula that can be used to reduce working hours and pay.

[pastafreak]

Thank you for your answers-they are helpful.
We are reliant on outside funding-none of which comes from the government (thanks 2012). As it stands,we do not yet have funding to cover the coming years salaries,so we are all aware,and accept that some reduction will be required.