Changing contracts of employment
In the current economic climate reducing employees’ pay or changing their roles may be a preferable course of action to making redundancies. Employers are often surprised to learn that in some circumstances it is possible to give staff the choice between agreeing to a change in their contract or losing their jobs.
It is often wrongly thought by both employers and employees that employers cannot change an employee’s Contract of Employment without their consent but in fact employers may be able to impose changes and lawfully dismiss employees who are not willing to accept those changes. Of course there is the risk that a unilateral change could prompt an employee to resign and claim unfair dismissal so care and indeed legal advice are required.
A Tribunal is likely to consider changes that were necessary for the survival of a business as justifiable and therefore fair but will be wary of those which are simply intended to increase profitability at the expense of the employee.
The above information is not intended to be a complete or definitive statement of the law. For more information or advice please contact our Employment Law team.
