Employment contract - need urgent help

[matrixsteele]

Good afternoon.

My brother and I both have skilled trades of drainage engineers.
We used to work with firms and now work alone.

he has worked for about 14 years in the trade, and was offered a generous contract for working for Small Company as the person who owned it had previously worked with my brother before and no his skills and his dedication.

he's not been working there for over 3 years and there's a new office manager and this manager has been getting my brother to work Differently, eg new business ventures etc, they have always paid late and now have started saying my brother can not use the company van but they ask him to use his van like a taxi when he is not working.

The issue is the owner knew that my brother works /runs his own independent business in his free time ( mechanical work and drainage)

they got in a new manager that has got him to work very different to what he did to when he was 1st employed, eg getting him to do jobs outside of his skills / experience without giving training, insists he signs a new contract, which goes against what he was originally signed up to do (attached)
it gives a covenant about using his skill to find another job for a period of 6 months if they end his contract.
he says he is being pushed out, from all the above, and he says that if he does loose his job then they will try and restrict him working or continue what he does in his free time.

is it legal? I told him to read his original contract (he has misplaced) his company also misplaced. He has raised a grievance but the company didn't acknowledge it.

he says he likes the company and the job but this new manager is making it difficult but now this new contract is making it impossible to leave.

anotger issue is as the pay is always late, my bother falls behind on bills especially his mobile phone.
The manager has hinted that my brother has been using his phone to call customers to try and steal business ( he doesn't as his main customers are miles away) my brother has said he wants a phone provided so that the company's customers call him instead of his personal number (he has to provide a number to all the customers as part of the job)
they also have not provided a Bluetooth car kit, and they get annoyed if he stops driving to answer the phone (live tracked)

is this constructive dismissal? Or am I looking into it too much,
They want this contact signed tomorrow
Keiron Steele.pdf

[ULA]

Your brother's employer needs to follow a fair process to implement a significant change in terms and conditions if they do not want to face a claim for breach of contract. So, they need to fully consult and agree any changes.

If you he does not agree the law recognises that employers have to adapt to changing market conditions, and that sometimes the contract of employment must be varied to reflect this.

If your brother's employer has given reasonable and due consideration to objections and alternative suggestions he may have put forward, but deem those suggestions to be unworkable, then they can terminate the original contract and offer a new one in its place on the new terms. Did his employer go through this process before providing him with a new contract?

He has done the right thing by raising a grievance and he should certainly make an issue of them not acknowledging it and not arranging to have a meeting him.

In terms of the contract you indicate in your post your brother has worked with the company for over three years in which case the Statement Date should reflect this for the purposes of his continuous employment.

Restrictive covenants are not unheard of however they cannot be used as a restraint of trade and the business if it went to court would have to show that there was a legitimated business interest. They may feel that they have this in your brother's situation as he does run his own business in his free time. Basically the clause does not allow your brother to solicit, canvass, or seek to do business with restricted customers of the company for a period of 6 months after he leaves the company.

Constructive dismissal is where an employer has committed a serious breach of contract, entitling the employee to resign in response to the employer’s conduct. A lot of people think resigning and claiming constructive dismissal is a good option for dealing with problems at work. But resigning is a big step.

Also, it is in fact difficult to prove constructive dismissal - not many claims win. First, you must prove a fundamental (rather than minor) breach of contract by the employer. You must also show that your decision to terminate your employment was in response to the breach and not, for example, because you had been offered a more attractive job. An employment tribunal will also need to satisfy itself that you did not delay too long in resigning. In addition, the tribunal will usually expect that you have tried to resolve the complaint through the grievance procedure before resigning.

Hope this information helps.