Voluntary Reduction of Hours

donglen

Looking for advice here, don't have access to a HR person. Just looking to ensure everything is handled correctly in respect of both employee and employer.
Employee has requested a voluntary cut in hours, i.e. to work just 4 days x 8 hours and take 1 day off as they wish for a better work-life balance. Employer has verbally agreed.
What needs to be agreed on paper? I assume this will impact on the employee in terms of Holiday allowance, basic pay, Pension contributions etc?
What should be agreed if the employer needs the employee to come back to full-time due to increased workload?
What if the employee at some point requests to come back to work full-time but there is then a lesser workload?
Is there a change needed to the individuals contract of employment or is a signed agreement of the situation acceptable?
Is there a standard process to deal with this situation. I just want to ensure there is not confusion further down the line when one of the parties wants the situation to change.

Tenigate

Ask the employee to put their request in writing.

Then send them a letter saying terms are the same as previously, hours are 30 hrs per week, Monday to thursday. Holidays reduced as appropriate eg. 25 to 20 days.
You might decide to put a line saying employee agrees to resume 5 day wk if business deems it necessary. But it's less complicated to make the change permanent, or for a fixed period. Employee can always request additional hours in future and you can make decision then

Get employee to sign the agreement.
Bank hols won't be a problem. They'll get paid 80% of the day.
Pension contributions are usually a percentage, so nothing to worry about there.

davo10

I assume you are the employer.

You need to draw up a new contract of employment stipulating that the change in terms of employment are at the employees request.

The new contract will be the same as the old except the days/hours are reduced in line with the requested change. Pay/pension/holiday entitlements will be reduced on a pro-rata basis so all 20% less than original contract.

Insert a clause saying that you reserve the right to increase the day's work in line with business needs. Remember this is the employees request so you are not required to insert a reciprocal clause allowing the employee to revert back to a 5 day week on request.

This should be straight forward to do but if you mess it up you could regret it later. I use an external HR expert to draw up my contracts, she is fantastic and very reasonable. If you got her to do a full time and reduced time contract, you can use the templates for years going forward. PM if you want her details.

donglen

Tenigate wrote: »

Ask the employee to put their request in writing.

Then send them a letter saying terms are the same as previously, hours are 30 hrs per week, Monday to thursday. Holidays reduced as appropriate eg. 25 to 20 days.
You might decide to put a line saying employee agrees to resume 5 day wk if business deems it necessary. But it's less complicated to make the change permanent, or for a fixed period. Employee can always request additional hours in future and you can make decision then

Get employee to sign the agreement.
Bank hols won't be a problem. They'll get paid 80% of the day.
Pension contributions are usually a percentage, so nothing to worry about there.

Thank You. I think you have raised a further complication. The requested day off is a Monday so what impact will that have? I assume the employee is still entitled to a BH entitlement? So are you saying that on those affected BH weeks the employee still just works the Tue-Fri but still takes the Monday off but is paid on those days at 80%?

donglen

davo10 wrote: »

I assume you are the employer.

You need to draw up a new contract of employment stipulating that the change in terms of employment are at the employees request.

The new contract will be the same as the old except the days/hours are reduced in line with the requested change. Pay/pension/holiday entitlements will be reduced on a pro-rata basis so all 20% less than original contract.

Insert a clause saying that you reserve the right to increase the day's work in line with business needs. Remember this is the employees request so you are not required to insert a reciprocal clause allowing the employee to revert back to a 5 day week on request.

This should be straight forward to do but if you mess it up you could regret it later. I use an external HR expert to draw up my contracts, she is fantastic and very reasonable. If you got her to do a full time and reduced time contract, you can use the templates for years going forward. PM if you want her details.

Thank you for the offer and I'll bear it in mind once I get my head around the details.