Work have told us they’ve changed our notice period from 1 to 3 months!

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I work in a team of 20 but for a large company of about 500 (relevant as it means we have a dedicated HR department)

Today we received an email letting us know they have changed our notice period from 1 month to 3 months with immediate effect and that by opening the email that is our acceptance.

Is that even legal?
I assume it is due to the size of the business and they are normally quite professional (financial services)

But it’s so bad for me and the rest of my team. If any of us want to leave we will be lucky to find a new job who will wait 3 months for us.

I suspect they have done this because in a period of 4 months we had 3 employees leave and the time it takes to advertise, interview, offer, begin work and the be trained is about 3-6 months.

Just thought I’d ask incase anyone has had the same or who knows if it’s allowed.

It goes both ways though - if you lose your job you may be glad of it.

We used to have a 3 month notice, it's 2 months now. Higher positions generally say 3 months. If you went for an interview you would just tell them 3 months then and there.

But it's a bit rubbish the way they have done it x

My company has a 3 month notice period as standard. So it's not unheard of. However, I don't think they can just force it on you like that....

Some good info on the gov.uk website here: www.gov.uk/your-employment-contract-how-it-can-be-changed/dealing-with-problems

If an employer makes a change to a contract without getting agreement (including by using flexibility clauses unreasonably), employees may:

have the right to refuse to work under the new conditions
say that they’re working any new terms under protest, and are treating the change as a breach of contract
resign and claim constructive dismissal
be able to take a case to an employment tribunal

If an employee disagrees with new terms and conditions but does not say or do anything, this may count as agreeing to the changes