Dh work making people go flexi and take a pay cut

[Thedarksideofthemoon30]

Dh works for Network rail. He’s been with them roughly 10 years but at his currently job for 3.

He’s a signaller and they are changing the hours from 6/2 - 2/10 6/6 etc to 12 hour days/nights.

But they have announced they need 14 people to go flexi, meaning they won’t get any overtime or Sundays etc. We rely to the overtime and 2 Sundays a month.

If people go flexi he would have to take a £10k pay cut from missing out on the overtime etc.

They said it will be the people who haven’t been there the longest.

Aibu to think this is wrong and the job he applied for wasn’t flexi shift? Can they even make you do it?

It also means he won’t know his shifts until a week or so in advance, which with young children makes things so much more difficult and hard for me to work.

Definitely isn't hence why you get enhancements

It’s to be expected that a company wants to reduce its overtime bill. 10k is huge. I would have expected any new shift to introduced to all staff. Saturdays, Sundays, bank holidays, including Christmas Day are normal work days for me too. There’s no extra payment for working those days.

Network Rail and other parts of the rail system in the UK have been sticking it to their staff and customers for the last few years.

But for this to work it needs to be a change of contract which he can accept or not accept. If he doesn't accept it he will be "released from his contract" (aka fired) I don't believe however that they can change contracts just for those who have worked for less than X years, that it would have to be everyone in a particular job.

Check with the union.

Sunday isn't part of the working week

What century do you live in?

The OP said near the beginning of the thread that this has been under consultation since before Covid and therefore the unions are probably already involved and indeed If It has been put to workers already agreed by the unions.

Every company I’ve ever worked for apart from my current one has done similar to me. It makes me think that contracts aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. They can just do a consultation, produce new contracts and you either sign them or they get rid of you. It stinks. I’ve had my shift length changed, I’ve been moved to work in another city over an hour away, paid breaks taken away so suddenly every day instead of working 8 hrs you’re working 7.5 and every month have to work 6 days a week one week to make up the shortfall.

Dh they stopped paying his overtime which resulted in about a 20% effective pay cut. Said they could take TOIL instead but then nobody could as they were too busy, then they made them all 4 days a week instead of 5 days a week so another 20% paycut but still had the same amount of work to do. So he was working 6 days a week and getting paid for 4 days and had lost about 40% pay!

@Tinkerbell1010

Sunday isn't part of the working week

Greetings, Plymouth brethren!

Unfortunately it’s not the 17th century anymore. A LOT of the population works Sundays. Most don’t get a cent extra for it.

Not being able to do overtime isn’t a pay cut. It’s taking away an additional benefit not a basic right.

Could you (or the union or your DHs behalf) argue that 12 hour shifts are unsuitable for the job?

He already does 12 hour shifts, that’s not the problem really it’s more the fact that he won’t know his shifts until the week before etc which causes massive issues with me working and our children. Atm he gets his rota for the year so we can plan etc

@Thedarksideofthemoon30 As I suggested upthread, he can request a set pattern via a flexible working request. This is by no means unusual.

I feel for you as it will obviously affect your home life of you have relied on all this extra money though like others said, you shouldn't have been relying on it, overtime isn't a right
No business surely can afford to be paying out that much overtime each year, the numbers are outrageous especially for a governmen agency, it's not value for money especially now when the country is in such a mess
It makes sense that they are reviewing this especially now you've mentioned the safety aspect
I hope you get to sort out the hours for your family life and your job but you've been extremely lucky to get thousands extra every month, all good things come to an end,I hope you saved some of it

Sounds like cutting costs to reduce the need for redundancies.

It may be crap, but having a job he loves is obviously so much better than having no job.

don’t understand why you all think it will come to a end lol?

They pay that much because it’s a Sunday shift, and usually 1 Sunday a month need covering (he works one or two normally contracted anyway.) so if he didn’t take the shift and get the extra someone else would. They pay that amount for anyone who does the Sunday shift...

Those making the sarky comments about Sundays being part of the working week: for many on the railway Sundays are not included in basic remuneration, hence the phrase in the industry of "Sundays outside". There may or may not be a contractual obligation to work them as overtime, I don't know which it is for NR. Some TOCs have "Sundays inside" and consequently higher salaries, others, as I said, have them outside with either an (untested, AFAIK) obligation to work a certain number on overtime, or no obligation at all so the company relies entirely on overtime.

relies entirely on volunteers, that should have said.

@Thedarksideofthemoon30 because in the vast majority of companies you’d be laughed out of the place if you said you wanted that kind of money just to work on a Sunday. The idea of massively inflated pay for working some part of a shift only exists in the heavily unionised parts of the public sector. Very few private companies would put up with that because it’s terrible value for money.

First rule, don't really on overtime to finance your regular budget.

this 💯

Well it’s not his problem if NR pays time and a half on a Sunday is it?

@tentative3 not completely relevant to the OPs question, but relying on overtime to cover Sundays perhaps explains the issue with my local rail service and cancellations for lack of a driver.

@tttigress

First rule, don't really on overtime to finance your regular budget.

From the management side if someone is getting £10k in overtime, something has gone seriously wrong with the management in that department previously, and it isn't a suprise that they met to correct it now.

This!

@Thedarksideofthemoon30

Well it’s not his problem if NR pays time and a half on a Sunday is it?

No, of course not! It’s great you had that and enjoyed it while it lasted, but you can hardly be surprised that someone looked at the numbers and said “WTF is going on here” 🤷‍♀️

British Gas are trying this big time as said above and yet I have not seen it properly covered in the papers, all they report is that the engineers are striking again with no details given as though they are being prima donnas. They want to fire and 're-hire. Worse terms and conditions in every area of the job but if you don't sign you lose your job. Unions cannot get them to budge. Please spread such information around and let more people know what is going to happen to all of us once such big companies succeed.

What do you mean? They people working Sundays will still be getting paid £500 even when they change to 12 hour shifts?

If people are getting 10k overtime something has gone far wrong
Unless it’s guaranteed in his contract unlikely to be anything h can do but speak to Union /ACAS