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.

I do the same job and your DH (Potentially the same place!) I assume they're doing this due to removing flexi shifts from the resident roster? In my workplace flexi staff get first offer of the Sundays and there are a fair few who don't do them so there's usually one up for grabs, the current flexis work most Sundays. He'll still get a roster of sorts, so you'll know what days off he has just not what shift he'll be on. But it sucks. We're going over to 12 hr shifts too and I'm so pissed off about it!

@lolulop

I think car sales have gone up & that legacy will likely last a while.

I'm guilty of it too. Haven't bought a new car but haven't been on public transport for a year. I've been WFH and I thought I should leave space on public transport for those making necessary journeys, not me on a day out (last summer when we were allowed out).

We didn't use our car much in London pre covid but did last summer as we drove further out rather than getting PT in.

I can guarantee OP that there will be other people who this is beneficial to. If he doesn't have to take it he shouldn't.

He sounds very overpaid and the trains are crap and expensive so this is why,

You need to plan your debts repayment if you can’t work.
Life is unfair, in my job in retail fully flex is expected, those that don’t are a real pain.
What will be will be

YANBU to bot like the change to flexi; yabu tonrely so much on overtime - surely its not a guaranteed thing.

I haven't read the second half of the thread, but it seems very much like they're doing away with anything that in any way benefits the workers. It shouldn't be a race to the bottom, which this very much appears to be. Often, jobs which offer decent recompense for overtime or on call work aren't exactly lucrative for the standard 40 hour week - it's the extra that makes it worthwhile. Take that away and it's just another pretty poorly paid job.

British Gas are doing something very similar. Theirs includes increasing their hours (for less or no extra money) and taking away various opportunities to earn meaning significant real financial loss. They are using Covid as an excuse whereas British gad wasn't a huge casualty of the pandemic as people still paid their contacts. Just look at any comments on their social media the reason is poor customer service and not enough engineers and yet they are doing this. They are doing a fire and rehire, so they force everyone onto a new contract and if they refuse they have no job and no redundancy. They also are going to owe the company money/time if jobs run over which will have massive safety concerns. Imagine paying for a premium service that an engineer had to be in and out of the house within say 20 minutes and if he isn't he owes the company that time for free. They are pushing some engineers onto flexi contacts with huge pay cuts too.

I think British Gas have opened the flood gates to unfair employee disputes and because no one paid any attention when they did so, it will be all our jobs next, Tesco and bus company's have already started issuing fire and rehire notices. British Gas uncovered a massive loophole which means no company needs to pay redundancy or abide by contracts. Wants to save some money, cut your employees pay and just do a fire and rehire notice for their contract. It's really scary.

Have they explained why ?
Many companies are majorly suffering financially and prefer this to making mass
Job cuts

I can’t imagine that their revenue stream has been fantastic in the past year

It’s a better request and option than redundancy but they clearly need to explain why . Rationale etc

Definitely get legal advice however I suspect they can do this if they follow due process. It’s not new, lot of it goes on in the NHS too. Consultation process and you have to apply for jobs a grade lower or you’re deemed to be handing your notice in.

Hi op, my DH works for Northern rail as a driver. His union is fantastic at stuff like this.

Is your DP part of a union?
Has he considered becoming a driver? Better money and life/work balance.

www.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Annual-report-and-accounts-2020.pdf

They don’t appear to be suffering that badly

He actually would like to be a driver, and was going to apply. But I told him he would find it boring 🙈 but maybe he should! Although I think it’s a pay cut at first.

Thedarksideofthemoon30

It can be pretty dull i agree 😂

From memory, the pay was lower whilst training (classroom based), then increased once driving with a minder.

After 2 years DP is now on full pay (£55,500) working 35 hours a week.
Don't get me wrong some shifts are really early (4am 😳) but it makes such a difference to family life.

A few colleagues actually have set shifts, for example one works Mon-Fri 8-4 to work around children.

Ahh yeah same as signalling! Atm he does different shifts, like he’s on nights atm and then days from a week on Monday, then lates. He starts at 5 on early.

His basic wage is the same roughly. Il get him to see if there are any jobs 😂

The union is constantly fighting for pay rises each year too which they always get ... triple time for Xmas and Boxing Day too

Thing is, this is lovely in the good times, but when the bad ones come it has an awful way of biting back

It's good that you're not reliant on the overtime, OP, and involving the union's definitely the right thing to do, but sooner or later they might need to accept that they're not going to win every time

He has to deal with a lot of suicides weekly

And please don't do this, OP; people's tragic deaths aren't something to barter, and even if some "aren't reported" and that 5.4 a week around the country was multiplied by 10, it still wouldn't add to "a lot" for an individual worker

Wow, the pay is good isn’t it!! Is it difficult to get in to?

You have to go to signalling school for a few months and then move up grades. He started at grade four in a signal box in the middle of no where and moved to grade 9 in a control centre within 4 years. He’s worked so hard to get where he is and I’m so proud of him.

They have to learn morse code and everything lol. It seems intense, I couldn’t do it.

He originally worked with Network rail as an engineer for 6 years first though.

Wow it's very well paid. £55 grand PLUS £10 in overtime?!

They should definitely big this one up in school more.

Lots of kids learn morse code - I suspect there is more to it than that! What do they need to do to be an engineer (is that an engineering degree? Or engineer as in train on the job?)

Yes I was asking on behalf of my child🤣

He just has normal gcse and a levels. No university. They train on the job really.

They are always shouting out for signallers tbh or any network rail workers. They offered to pay for us to move to the over side of the country because they were desperate for staff. Which is why I know they won’t be making anyone redundant. They are always employing.

No idea how to link? But this is the lowest grade you start at, it’s £32k and you don’t need any special qualifications, you go to signalling school for 2/3 months.

iebsprodnwrl.omcs.networkrail.co.uk/OA_HTML/OA.jsp?OAFunc=IRC_VIS_VAC_DISPLAY&p_svid=2206424&p_spid=7059640&refsh=0