Employer forcing change in location on me, can they?

[SoPassRemarkable]

Have been employed for over ten years with same organisation.

I work at location A, always have, contract states Location A.

There is a location B, over an hour away and the person doing same job as me left years ago and they've never managed to replace even after lots of adverts.

So now I have been told I will have a thirty day consultation and my contract will be changed to say I have to work at both locations.

They are also going to advertise the vacant post again but this time rather than it been an advert for Locstion B, say it is for both locations. So the idea is me and the new person have to cover both locations between us.

I feel like this advert would be advertising my role/job. There is very much a business need for my role at Location A.

Can they do this? I have told them that I would refuse to sign a new contract. I understand they can then choose to dismiss me but that I may then have a claim for unfair dismissal? If I'm dismissed do I get redundancy?

The short answer is yes, possibly.

The exact answer depends a lot on your role, contract, industry, etc, so I think it would be best to speak to a solicitor.

Thank you. I guess my union have legal experts/solicitors who could tell me for sure. Will see what they say.

It depends on what the reason for the relocation is and what your contract says. A lot of contracts will say you will be based at Location A but may be required to work at other locations in accordance with business needs

Only reason is because they can't find anyone to do my role at location B. They still need me at A. So they basically think i can do two jobs. My contract doesn't say anything about maybe being required at other location.

Sounds like time to start job hunting.

Sadly I'm qualified in a professional capacity and am quite specialised in that area. The next nearest organisation which employs people in my area is further away than Locstion B.

So if I totally chucked my teddy out the pram and walked I would be worse off/commuting further. I could try and explore the option of staying with the organisation within my professional capacity but not in my specialism and could stay at Location A. However it would mean going back to working shifts which would be a pita.

Or I could walk away from my career completely and work in a totally different field.

Worked for me...

As they can't recruit as it is, losing you would be obviously bad even for the most stupid manager. Do they not realise this may make you leave?

I told my immediate manager on Friday that I will leave rather than sign a new contract. They said they hope it doesn't come to that. I said I don't want it to come to that either.

They're going to tell the big boss early next week. I'm not looking forward to the fallout from that!

I'm rehearsing the MN mantra of "no, that's not going to work for me"

My car is genuinely in the garage on Monday as it's making a horrible noise. If the bill is big I really don't know if it will be worth fixing a ten year old car. Am thinking of not replacing it if that's the case and cycling to work from now on!

If you like your job and want to stay, think about what you can negotiate. So a pay rise to cover the extra travel costs, work 2 days a week at each location then the fifth day from home. Basically if there's anything that would make the change bearable, ask for it.

It's NHS so there's no negotiation!

You probably won't be able to negotiate a pay rise but Agenda for Change does allow for payment of travel expenses if you relocate. I think it's for up to four years. I'm also NHS and our office is going to be relocated, which I how I've heard about it, although I haven't looked into it in detail myself as our relocation is to an office closer to home for me.

My location was moved 25 miles away (also NHS). I was paid relocation mileage but it also meant an extra hour commute each end of the day.
Nothing I could do about it