Proposed changes to Job Role

[abn010]

Hi folks

I will try and keep this short and simple, any advice would be appreciated.

- I work from home for a small consultancy company on a permanent contract and have been at the company in this role for around 2.5 years. I work within a team of around 8 people who carry out broadly similar roles.

- I carry out certain tasks within my role however I have never been provided with a job description although I do have a contract.

- My contract states that from time to time my duties may be varied with my agreement and in order to meet the needs of the business. My place of work is stated as "Home address as well as a requirement to travel to Head Office and Client Sites"

- Currently I would travel to client sites maybe once a month at most. I am normally home based.

- Workload in the team has been light for some time and it is clear there is not enough work in the pipeline to keep a team of this size occupied long term.

- Recently my manager has mentioned that roles in my team will be changing in order to meet the change of direction of the business. The details of the 3 x new roles were explained to me and one of the roles in particular it was strongly suggested that I would be suitable for (let's call this role x). This role is quite different to my current role but most significantly it is expected to be based on client sites staying away from home for a significant part of the week. The other 2 x roles could be argued as having some elements that are similar to my current role.

- The conversation was left at that, no commitment of any sort was made, and I requested role descriptions for each of the 3 x new roles.



I am thinking about taking paid legal advice on this but in the meantime I was wondering about the following points:
1) If the business tells me that I will be doing role x can I refuse and instead continue my existing role "under protest" and if I do that what would the consequences be?
2) Can I be shifted to one of the other 2 roles instead as they contain elements of what I do now? Can I do anything about that?
3) I suspect nobody will want to do role x as it appears to be more of a field based role, so there would be more people in the team wanting to do the other two roles than there are positions available within those two roles.
4) In the circumstances would a situation exist where the individual people in my team would have to apply for these 3 roles, and if any of these applicants would be unsuccessful in securing one of these roles would a redundancy situation then exist? Basically I am trying to figure out if our current roles could be classed as redundant and these new roles are in fact brand new roles.

[ULA]

In regard to your questions here are some responses:

1. It would not be your current job that you can "continue under protest doing" that is not logical as you have been doing the job for 2.5 year. I think you may be confused with what happens. if you are forced to do job x and you do not agree to the changes, then you must make it clear to your employer. You should do this in writing, sign and date your letter, and keep a copy. This letter will count as a written grievance. If you don’t tell your employer you disagree with a change, this will be taken to mean that you’ve accepted it. You should do this straight away, or as soon as possible after the change has been introduced.

You can continue to work 'under protest' doing that job for a while but you can’t do this indefinitely without taking further action. This may mean making a claim to an employment tribunal, or, in some extreme situations, resigning from your job and claiming 'constructive unfair dismissal’ - which is not an easy claim to make. If you don’t want to do either of these things, you may eventually have to accept the changes to your job. There are strict time limits for making a claim to an employment tribunal

2. Yes your employer could shift you to one of the other two roles and again you can either accept that role or you have the options as detailed in point 1 above.

3. I think is more of a statement.

4. Redundancy occurs for one of three board reasons (there are others but they are subsets of what is described here), the business ceases to trade, the business moves or the requirement for employees carrying out a particular type of work diminishes for a number of reasons. If in the future there are going to be less people in your team doing work of a similar nature then potentially this is a redundancy situation in which case it may be that the 3 "new" positions should be considered as being offered as suitable alternative positions.

[abn010]

Hi

Thank you for the response. By way of an update:

Last Friday each person in the team attended a one to one meeting with my manager's manager and someone from HR. In that meeting we were asked how and where we would like to sit within the proposed "structure" (that is apparently not a structure) based on our development and career goals and current skill sets and tasks that we currently perform. We were told that we will hear next week what the outcome of these meetings are. It was confirmed that changes to contracts may be necessary depending on where we would be positioned within the structure.

I'll provide any further updates as necessary. To be honest I am not especially bothered about the outcome any longer, it will make remortgaging a challenge as we had planned to do that in the next few months, so for the purposes of this and this only it may be a case of suck it up and then head off to pastures new asap afterwards.

[ULA]

Thanks for the update. As you have any more information then just pop back onto this thread if you need any more help

[abn010]

Hi all

Update:

The whole team of around 8 people have been advised on this Monday just gone that we are formally at risk of redundancy and are now in a consultation process which will last a few weeks. The 3 roles mentioned previously are the roles that the organisation will attempt to deploy us within, based on our current skill set and match to those roles, however there is no guarantee of this.

One question - it is likely the new roles will involve a change to the contract location of work, away from home based to more on site based and with time spent away from home at hotels for at least part of the week. If I do not agree with this change and decide to "work under protest" what would be the long term situation here? Redundancy? Dismissal? Thanks for any advice!

[ULA]

The offer of the other role should be made on the basis of a "suitable alternative employment" the and suitability of which will depend on:

- how similar the work is to your current role
- the terms and conditions of the job being offered
- your skills, abilities and circumstances in relation to the job
- the pay (including benefits), status, hours and location

You will need to think carefully because if you turn down a suitable alternative post that is offered before you are made redundant, they may be able to refuse to pay you a redundancy payment.

If you are offered the alternative position, then you should be given a 4 week trial period, however you would need to tell your employer during the trial period if you decide this new job is not suitable, otherwise if you leave it until the end you will affect your employment rights, including your right to statutory redundancy pay.

In terms of deciding whether an alternative job is unsuitable or your refusal reasonable these are some potentially valid reasons:

- job content and status - drop in status or level, substantial differences in duties, including loss or addition of job content.
- pay and other benefits - significant drop in earnings, including basic pay, bonuses, overtime, sick pay, holiday entitlement, etc.
- working hours - change in shift pattern, removal of overtime, extension/reduction of working hours
- change of workplace - if your place of work changes and your personal circumstances make it unreasonable for you to travel to your new place of work. This assumes that you don't have a mobility clause in your contract, in which case your refusal may be unreasonable.

Hope that helps.