Change of contract to working hours.

[explorer121]

Good Morning,
I have been with the same company for 18 years and 3 months with various role changes internally, and now the company wants to unilaterally change everyone to a 07.00 start time.
My contracted hours are from 05.30 hrs to 15.00 hrs Monday to Thursday as written in the job offer below signed on 20.08.25. :

Further to our recent meeting we are pleased to offer you the position of Service
& Workshop Engineer with a starting salary of £xxxxxx per annum.
I can confirm that your contracted hours will remain the same as your current
contract, 36.7 hours per week, currently worked 5.30 – 3pm Monday – Thursday
with a 20 minute lunch break. We would prefer a later start and finish time each
day as servicing early in the day does not work for many of our customers, but
we understand that this is dependent on other circumstances being able to
change for you, so will be glad to discuss this at a later date if it is feasible.
We would continue to pay a grossed-up bonus to cover your fuel usage, which
currently works out at around £xxxx per annum.
We would also keep our contribution into your pension the same, at £xxxx per
annum.
Your holiday entitlement will remain at 20 days plus bank holidays each year. Up
to 3 days need to be kept each year for the Christmas shutdown.
We would be very pleased for you to continue your long employment with XXX.

A letter from HR confirms their intentions dated 1.7.26 :

We spoke to you about this later in the day and shared our concern and responsibility as a duty of care for you
arriving at around 5am when the rest of the business won’t start arriving until just before 7am under new
working arrangements in operations.
We cannot justify a business need sufficient to place you at risk through lone working.
We have a statutory responsibility to make changes immediately now that this awareness and advice has been
given.
The MD and I spoke to you about your value to the business and our genuine wish to keep you working with us,
albeit in a working pattern that doesn’t involve lone working.
Options are wide and varied and we will need you to consider and suggest your preference with the next few
days.
This does create a change to your previous contracted start and finish times (which will no longer exist in the
business) but does not need to change your overall contracted hours if adjusted to the 7am start time.
We suggested a 2-week transition but can be flexible depending on your preference.
I will write to you again when we have something agreed.

I then went back to HR with a compromise of start at 06.00 to do office work only and not any workshop work to negate their liability.

The reply was as follows :

I also wanted to come back to you following the conversation we had today around your new proposal of a start time of 6AM. I have been back and forth seeking advice as I did yesterday and whilst I appreciate this is suited to you for various reasons, it still doesn't dismiss the issue of lone working, and still does not justify the extra risk of you being here alone, regardless of the occupation. It has also raised a wider issue for that matter of any staff being here alone for any length of time, therefore I have taken the decision that the earliest we can accept is 7am. This will exist with immediate effect for any contract across the entire team.

I am grateful that you have raised it as you have, because it has shed a light on quite a few situations that could arise where someone is left on site alone which will have to cease immediately. I will be working on a policy with Rhian (HR), to ensure we have all staff adhering to this and that no one is alone on site for more than 10-15 minutes. I know this is not the outcome that you were hoping for, but with that being said, at least you now know that 7am is the earliest we can accept on a contract.

To protect myself, I then sent a dated 2.7.26 letter of working under protest and received the following :

I acknowledge receipt of your note and will provide an informal response here,

It saddens me deeply that our concern and duty not to place you at risk through lone working has provided this response.

Your contract has not been changed and as we explained, we want to work with you to find the right timings that don’t put you in any jeopardy. We have indicated a few flexible weeks until we agree this new working arrangement.

We must address this, xxx, the company, and I owe it to you to create a safe working environment. I am taking this very seriously. You may be interested to know that I have also already instigated a 'no lone working' rule on site company wide with immediate effect for managers to communicate.

I will arrange another meeting for us to discuss this further but our stance on lone working won’t change.

Obviously, I'm not happy with the change but am concerned as to my options and would appreciate any advice to enable me to move forward.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

[ULA]

If lone working is genuinely unsafe then the employer does have to take action and changing working hours can be a way for them to manage the risk. However that does not give them an automatic permission to change your hours without consultation.

I do have say that from a consultation perspective and given the lone working situation the company, as you have set it out, seem to have followed a reasonable consultation process with you so far.

You cannot continually "work under protest" indefinitely without taking further action. I would suggest the following:

1. Ask for the risk assessment
2. Request formal consultation
3. Consider any other compromise you can suggest to your employer.

You may have heard of fire and rehire which is a course of action your employer could take but only if they have a genuine business reason they have followed a fair consultation process, given proper notice, considered alternatives and acted reasonably. You do however have 18 years of service which is something that is a factor.

[explorer121]

Thank you for your reply. I have asked for a formal consultation and am aware of the following.
What If You Do Not Agree?
If you cannot reach an agreement, your employer has a few options, but they carry risks for them:

• Fire and Rehire: Your employer might terminate your current contract and immediately offer to rehire you on the new terms. Given your 18 years of service, this could potentially lead to a claim for unfair dismissal if the process isn't handled correctly.
• Imposed Change: If they simply force the new hours on you without your agreement, it is a breach of contract.

Given the above and bearing in mind I have 10 months to retirement, my proposed option would be to seek redundancy or lesser hours to encompass the new unilateral starting time.

[ULA]

I think a good compromise, given your impending retirement, would be lesser hours to encompass the new time if that is workable for you financially over the next 10 months. This may be more preferable to your employer than the costs of redundancy.