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I have been working full time for my company for over five years and have been on furlough since 1st April.
This coming Friday I have a meeting at work with my two directors. Originally casually over the phone termed as "a meeting to discuss your options" but I have subsequently received an official letter stating that this meeting is a "consultation meeting" and that I am "at risk of redundancy or reduced hours".
They have previously told me that come the end of the furlough scheme at the end of October staff including myself will be brought back in on drastically reduced hours (2 days instead of 5) or, if they do not agree to a new contract with the reduced hours, they will be made redundant. I'm not sure they should have told us this prior to consultation but still. As the company hopefully recovers, hours would be gradually increased back to full time.
My questions are:
1) If I choose the reduced hours option, can they force me to sign the new contract now? My concern with this is that I sign a contract for 60% fewer hours, they could five minutes later issue me with redundancy, now worth 60% less, before the ink is even dry on my new contract.
2) If I do sign a new contract for reduced hours now, how does this affect my furlough payments moving forwards? My concern here is that my furlough payments will then be calculated at 80% of two days per week rather than the usual five.
Thank you for reading and any advise or information that may help me navigate my options and make the best, well informed decision, truly gratefully received.
This coming Friday I have a meeting at work with my two directors. Originally casually over the phone termed as "a meeting to discuss your options" but I have subsequently received an official letter stating that this meeting is a "consultation meeting" and that I am "at risk of redundancy or reduced hours".
They have previously told me that come the end of the furlough scheme at the end of October staff including myself will be brought back in on drastically reduced hours (2 days instead of 5) or, if they do not agree to a new contract with the reduced hours, they will be made redundant. I'm not sure they should have told us this prior to consultation but still. As the company hopefully recovers, hours would be gradually increased back to full time.
My questions are:
1) If I choose the reduced hours option, can they force me to sign the new contract now? My concern with this is that I sign a contract for 60% fewer hours, they could five minutes later issue me with redundancy, now worth 60% less, before the ink is even dry on my new contract.
2) If I do sign a new contract for reduced hours now, how does this affect my furlough payments moving forwards? My concern here is that my furlough payments will then be calculated at 80% of two days per week rather than the usual five.
Thank you for reading and any advise or information that may help me navigate my options and make the best, well informed decision, truly gratefully received.
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