Unexpected shift change, unsure if I have any rights

RitaPoon2003

Hello,

I currently work in customer service and have been with my current employers for over a year. They are a 365 day a year company and are open from 8.00 am to 1.00 am. When I was being interview for the position I was told at the time by my manager that I would be required to work some weekends which was fine(was expecting this as I had a mate already working in the company who had given me the heads-up that it would be one weekend off and one on). One weekend on and one off is the way it has been for the last year however last week they change our shift to one weekend off in 5. How they work it is, you work 4 months of weekends and then you have a month of weekends off and then repeat.

I found this new shift totally unacceptable and spoke to both my team lead and manager regarding it but they just fobbed me off with business speak. I checked my contract and it says "The company expects you to be flexible and due to the nature of this business it may be necessary for you to work additional hours and may require you to work at the weekend. This is at the discretion of your manager".

Was wondering if anyone could tell me what my rights would be in this situation and if I took it to HR would I have a case? Thanks

dennyk

Sounds like the change is still in line with your contract, so you wouldn't really have a legal objection to that shift, I don't think. If you are working Sundays and the premium you are receiving for your Sunday work is not reasonable, you could ask your company to bring that up to standard, though, and file a complaint with the WRC if they don't.

daheff

I think the fact that you are there a year and the work shift was one on one off counts in your favour. Theres a shift pattern established there.

But whatever you decide to do, if you dont want to do 4 months on 1 off will mean your job there is over. You either suck up and do it or you refuse, they let you go and you sue. I can't see them changing just for you. Now if the rest of the company dont want to do the new shifts you might have a chance of changing this.

Not great options either way.

gerrycollins

is it worth raising a grevience, which is your right, to query the change. You can bring forward your current pattern and explain your opinion of the unfairness to the change. At least their response will give you a platform to argue against if you want to bring it further.

It could be seen as unfair to suddenly implement a change to the whole work rota just because the contract allows them especially after such a long time without any change to the pattern. If you were to argue in the EAT you might win but the only win would be that the company would/should have to slowly implement or in time advise you of such a change before implementing it and maybe explain why they are introducing it.

Effectively they are not changing your contract so they are not obliged to enter into talks about those changes however they are changing the custom & practice within the company and this cannot be done en masse at the drop of a hat.

Is there a union in place and were they consulted?

RitaPoon2003

Thanks for your replies guys. Just an update on this, I ended up speaking to my manager's manager regarding the rota, as the general feeling was that it was him that had asked my manager to change the shifts anyway. I felt bad going over my managers head but I wasn't getting anywhere speaking to him and my team lead. My manager's manager seem to take my dissatisfaction seriously and asked me to give him a few days to see what could be done, after a few days my manager came to me and said that they were going to look at the rota again and try and make it fairer. This is where we are at now, waiting to see what exactly they come up with.