possible redundancy and contract changes

[mrstiredandconfused]

Hi

This is my first thread and I?m really sorry to ramble ? please be gentle!

DH has been with the same small business for eight years (full time). The business has recently hit hard times and the boss has talked about either cutting pay significantly or folding it all up.

There was a discussion today where DH agreed to an indefinite pension holiday but nothing else has been agreed on at this stage. There is to be a further conversation tomorrow where pay will be discussed. DH boss has mentioned a 25% pay cut and that this would invalidate DH?s current contract including notice (three months) and redundancy. This situation would then be reviewed again in May.

Our concern is that if the notice/redundancy parts of the contact are null and void then, come May, DH could just be made redundant with only statutory redundancy pay. However if he takes redundancy now he would be eligible for three months salary plus redundancy. But without another job to go to obviously we're a bit about this option.

Does anyone have any advice? Should DH be looking to get another contract drawn up? Is there anything specific that we need to consider? I don?t know if we should be looking for a solicitor ? if so how do we go about finding a good one? Thankfully neither of us have ever had to deal with anything like this before but it means that we're a bit clueless....

TIA

Your DH's employer is trying it on. Varying one aspect of a contract doesn't make the rest of it null and void. In the same way as whenever someone has a pay rise they don't need a new contract, it's perfectly possible to write a letter varying a salary downwards without affecting the rest of the contract as well.

Your DH should not accept any attempt to change any other aspects of his contract, only the salary. He should also ensure he only gives consent for a variation until May, so that if the business owner wants to keep his salary at the lower level, he needs to get your DH's consent again, rather than having it indefinite and dependent on a vague 'review'. Alternatively he could agree specific business performance criteria for increasing it back up.