employers wants to change my availibility

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My employer wants to change my availibility so I am availible evenings and weekends.

I am not as i have a 4 year old child.

He has told me if I do not give the availibility he wants he will give me 13 weeks notice and i will have to do it.

Can he do this?

I suspect not, but will depend on your terms of employment.......you should speak with ACAS to find out where you legally stand, its free & confidential

[[http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1461]

you might find info on their website, but I'd recommend giving them a call

www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1461

fingers got a mind of their own today

You have to agree to the changes, or the employer has breeched the contract.

from ACAS:

Where an imposed change involves a significant change to the contract,
eg: a reduction in pay or alteration of working hours, an employer may
well be acting in fundamental breach of contract. Where there is a
fundamental breach, the employee may treat the breach as bringing the
contract to an end and leave the job. In such circumstances and subject
to having the necessary qualifying service, the employee will have the
opportunity to make a claim of constructive dismissal before an
employment tribunal. In coming to a decision the tribunal will take into
account whether the employer acted reasonably in all the circumstances
of the case.

You should also look to see if employer has changed everyone's conditions, or just yours. Look at whether men/women are mainly effected by the change.

YOur employer, threatening to sack you if you do not agree to the changes, is already in breech of employment law.

How long have you been working there?

What does your contract say about hours/flexibility/varying contract?

Is it just you or others?

5 people have been spoken too.

CONTRACT SAYS NOTHING ABOUT CHANGING STUFF.

my head office says it is legal and they only have to give 13 weeks notice, although headoffice were a bit shocked at the way it has been done.

In my job (large high st retailer), "the 13 week rule" has been used in the past and is often trotted out to threaten persuade.

They are able to do this in the interests of "operational requirements".

The majority of the time this is in fact the case but I have suspected that in some cases it is a way of forcing someone to jump before they're pushed.

dough............I too work for large retailer.

The five of us did feel threatened and when headoffice rang my boss he said this

''i asked the ladies in question if they could open up their availibility if they canT it is not a problem''

BULLSHIT hE SAID NOTHING OF THE SORT.

We are waiting for our next meeting.
The last one was two weeks ago.

The respect of the staff is appauling.

We have all been their on average 8 years.

My son is 9 by the way ,,typing error, not that I think it makes a difference.

Check your contract again to check for the wording around operational requirements.

It appears on mine underneath my 4 week rota hours.

Something along the lines of:

"Contracted to work x hrs on the above rota or as operationally required"

This is enough to cover them from any contructive dismissal claims I guess.

I would get them to clarify how often they expect you to be needed on evenings and weekends. It might be a once in a blue moon thing which you will be given notice of. If it is occasional you might be able to arrange something. If not, and you are literally on call eg. every weekend, then you should be compensated for that. Ask if you will get any extra money for it. I'm sure the people in my work who do things like opening/locking the shop get a few pence an hour more for being on call then extra again if they are ever called out (for alarms or whatever).

It says nothing in the contract at all about hours.

They have told us the ''odd evening'' but I have worked there for 8 years and I know what they are like.

There is no way i can do weekends as oh works nights and is asleep sat/sun during the day.

There is no way they would pay any extra.
I am laughing at the mere thought of asking them.....

So it's not an on call thing it's a change of hours?

In that case I guess there's not much you can do except argue your case when it comes to it. Can you request a transfer of dept where your existing hours are suitable?

Why is there a need to change you all? There must be a business reason for it. Are they extending opening hours for eg? If it's something like this then I guess they have a case.

Sorry!

Yes I think I just have to argue my case.

We [the five] see no reason for it at all as their are plenty of people that do the evenings and weekends [college kids].

We are all sticking together and hopefully will have a meeting this week.

I will play the ''parental rights'' arguement all the way through.

No extened opening hours.

Thanks for the help and your time.

Will update when I can.

My employer changed my working day hours to weekend nights using the 13 week rule.

I'm a sahm now.