Can my employer change my contract?
A contract is a two-sided agreement. It cannot be changed without agreement between both sides, but some employers look for ways to force changes on workers.
They try to slip a term into the written contract, the written particulars or a company handbook 'reserving' the right to change the contract. If you let this go unchallenged, you may find yourself in difficulties. Write to your employer explaining this is not a term of your contract.
They may dismiss you and offer you a new contract of employment, containing the terms they want to impose. If you accept the new contract (even 'under protest'), you are bound by its terms. However, because your old contract had been terminated by the employer, you can lodge an unfair dismissal complaint (even though you are still at work). Your GMB Representative can give you advice on unfair dismissal.
They might 'unilaterally impose' different terms (without dismissing you). If the change does not affect the way the contract currently operates (e.g. the employer revokes your enhanced redundancy pay), you should write to your employer refusing to accept the reduction in terms.
However the new term might have an immediate impact, e.g. a new shift system. In that case, you cannot continue to work 'under protest', because that is incompatible with rejecting the new term. Provided the change is substantial, you can treat it as dismissal, combined with an offer of a new contract, as above. So you should write to your employer explaining you regard the change as fundamentally breaching your contract and amounting to a dismissal; but you the changes as an offer of a new contract, which you will accept under protest and in mitigation of your loss. You can then continue to work, while lodging an unfair dismissal complaint.
Unfair dismissal complaints are always difficult to win, particularly when they concern the unilateral imposition of worse terms and conditions. Did your employer have a genuine business reason to the change (even if you disagree with it)? Did that reason merit changes to your contract?Did your employer genuinely try to reach agreement on the changes? Were the changes accepted by the majority of your colleagues?
Special rules apply to changes imposed by a new employer after a transfer of an undertaking. A special law known as 'TUPE' says that such changes are not binding, even agreed by the workforce, because European law guarantees the same terms and conditions under the new employer. Your GMB Representative has access to specialist advice on TUPE.
>back to FAQs: General employment
|
