We've recently merged with another company. There's been lots of redundancies and people leaving, including most of the team that I worked with. I didn't have to re interview for my role in the end as so many people had left.
My previous role/contract was fully remote with occasional travel (once or twice a month) to sites across the UK. Mileage/train/hotel/food would be paid for by the company. This was the same for all the support functions across the company and so it didn't matter where we lived. Everyone was dotted all over the country.
I asked if it would remain the same during the consultation and after I was informed that my job was secure, to which they said that it would be exactly the same - remote with occasional travel. The reason I asked this was because the company that we merged with were originally office based but are now hybrid (not every week, but at least 2-3 times a month). It's not an issue for them as their team live near the office, however it's 3.5 hours away from where I live.
Anyway, I finally received my new contract yesterday and they've changed the working location from remote to hybrid. They also won't cover any travel costs as it's technically a hybrid role now and it's up to me to cover the costs. They said it wouldn't be fair to pay for my travel but not the rest of the team and that the contracts have to be fair across the board. The difference is though that I live over 3 hours away whilst the rest of them live 30 minutes away. They're being very vague with answers and won't tell me how often I'll be expected to go into the office, which obviously makes a difference in terms of cost and how much I'd need to be budget every month for travel. I'm so upset as I feel like they've strung me along saying it would be remote, but have now changed the goal posts. If they had been transparent during the consultation period I could have applied for voluntary redundancy (not much but still better than nothing) and then looked for a new job.
I haven't signed the contract yet, but I'm assuming there's nothing that can be done other than hand my notice in?