Employment rights - help please.

[Beamur]

I've been speaking with my Mum, she manages a shop and has had a meeting with her Area Manager today. Apparently some of her staff have approached him and said they don't think she is capable of doing her job, he has now said he wants her to stop doing her job and take another in a different shop, but not as a manager and is proposing a 50% cut in her hours. I don't think this is legal as she had has no warnings or anything like that, no feedback from appraisals and no capability issues. However, saying all that, I think my Mum is struggling at work and the alternative offer has its merits, but the cut in hours and pay would be punitive. Can anyone advise me of her rights in this and what we should be saying back to her employer? Thanks.

If they want to impose this change they have to follow a proper disciplinary process. If they fail to do so your mother would have a good claim for constructive dismissal. Any damages she received could be increased by up to 25% because of their failure to follow the correct process.

Before it got this far, the company should have been reviewing her performance and providing feedback. If she was under performing appropriate support and coaching should have been offered. Formal action should generally only kick in when informal approaches have failed.

prh47bridge is absolutely right (as always) about the legal position.

However in your mum's position I would consider carefully which of the following 4 outcomes are acceptable:

i) no job and a claim for constructive dismissal, which may only amount to a few weeks wages

ii) going through a capability process and ending up with no job and no claim for unfair dismissal

iii) going through a capability process and ending up with the lower paid job and a bad record with her employer

iv) taking the lower paid job and attempting to make a new start with a clean sheet

Many thanks for your comments.
My Mum has always had an excellent relationship with her employer and she has no desire for a fight over this, if anything she is just terribly sad and upset but also worried about the financial implications.
I think they are trying to help her actually, by still offering her a job, as I suspect if they really wanted to they could challenge her ability to do her job and given her age too (60) she would find it hard to get another - I think her confidence would be shattered, this has given it a huge dent already.
I'm just trying to give her some appropriate support really.