Urgent help required - can DH's manager to this to him?

[TiredofNHSCuts]

Am a regular but have namechanged to be on the safe side

DH works in the laboratory biomedical field. He has been there for over 10 years and currently, the part of his contract for the out of hours shifts details them as voluntary

He has been doing the out of hours night shifts and standbys as soon as he was qualified to do so. In the last year or so, he's stopped doing early shifts, weekend days or lates as wasn't compatible with child care/family life but still carried on with the nights and standby call outs.

He stopped doing out of hours completely after Xmas as we have a baby due any day and he did not feel that there was adequate cover should he be working and needed to leave in an emergency.

The standby rota has now been abolished and in any case, he was hearing reports of the people who were meant to be on standby turning their phones off and one person even went up North for a weekend jolly when on standby so he did not feel confident about it at all.

Added to which, he also has a heart condition which gives him palpitations if he is over stressed and tired. Despite this, he has still carried on with everthing, only stopping as its got closer to due date of baby

He was called in by management today and told that HR were getting involved as he was not on the out of hours rota and they wanted the meeting as soon as possible - the end of this week or next week - I thought they had to give more notice than this?

He had no warning that the management were doing this - no informal chat, no formal chat etc, no written notice - can they do this?

Furthermore, they are also talking of changing his job role completely to another section when his contract and job role is specifically for the section he is in now

The section they want to move him to is one that is rapidly diminishing as the lab work is outsourced, so he feels they maybe doing this to push him out in order to save money

He is contacting the union rep and will be taking it forward but I wanted to see what advice I could find on here also

It is interesting to note that a number of the part time mums are not on the out of hours rota but management are not targeting them - DH and I are wondering if they are trying to make an example of him and in doing so, scaring people into joining the rota as its less hassle to target DH than a part time working mum - even though DH has family commitments

Sorry this is so long!

Shag does his contract say about shifts and standby rotas?

What, not shag!

tired,make an appt with CAB they can offer advice.(My da is a CAB employee) it is free.

Also make sure his union rep is there for any meetings etc.

Management are entitled to ask for a meeting with a member of staff at any time. If it is disciplinary the member of staff must be told the nature of the charges against them and must be able to invite another member of staff or a union rep to accompany them to the meeting. However, it is not clear whether or not this meeting is disciplinary from what you have posted. The fact that HR are involved does not necessarily make it disciplinary.

If his contract clearly states that these shifts are voluntary he is on strong grounds if they try to take disciplinary action against him for not doing any out of hours shifts. However, if the contract indicates that some minimum level is expected that would be another matter.

If your husband is moved to another section and doesn't want to make the change he needs to consult an employment lawyer. He may be able to resign and claim constructive dismissal but this depends on the exact circumstances. It is a risky approach and should not be done without taking proper legal advice first.

Thanks for the advice everyone

Union rep has been in contact and is very much on DH's side as his contract states the out of hours is purely voluntary and the fact that they have HR involved without even talking to DH informally first is not good practice etc

Bloody hell though...he's knocked himself out for that place and is late most nights so that samples get processed etc and this is how they repay him

Bastards

Is he a member of the IBMS - there is some insurance associated with that. They also have people who act as professional advisers for the different specialities. He may also find support on the IBMS forum.
I know that alot of labs are facing changes to the OOH (I'm assuming he's in path?) but what's happened sounds fairly unusual compared to the other stuff that's circulating.
Another place to get advice is the Wessex NHS health site run by David Houliston, he also runs a Unite group on yahoo. If you DM me I can send you a link.
It sounds really poor practice to me and he should be getting full support from the union. From my experience, I'm not sure that the management can spring this on him, however there has been some discussion as to how trusts interpret AfC and the change to OOH so this may be why management has taken this tack.
Good luck.

Nothing wrong with setting up a meeting with a member of staff, and nothing wrong with involving HR either.

Sounds as though they are planning to adjust his terms and conditions to make it compulsory for him to work the out of hours rota, and it's right that HR should be involved in that process.

If they are proposing changes to his terms and conditions they need to consult with him and he can refuse to accept those changes. If they then discipline him for refusing or something, he may be able to take some action, but that isn't happening at the moment - all it is is a meeting with HR about their desire to change his terms.

Not sure why it's seen to be such a bad thing to involve HR staff? Surely that's the right way to do things - consult with HR experts ,to ensure that the company is doing things the right way from the start, so as not to be unfair.