Work say I have to resign

[Lambzig]

I went back to work after maternity leave 1.5 days per week last November. The discussions at the time were that I would increase my hours to 2.5 to 3 days per week when DD goes to school in September 2014. I have a contract letter confirming my hours at 1.5 days per week

I have been told this week that I need to increase my hours to 3 days per week by beginning of June or resign. I am very upset, but have offered to do 2.5 days as I can get childcare to cover and it can work with DH's travel. They have said no.

Now I understand that they have a perfect right to not want me to work those hours, and if that's the case fine,but my position is that I want them to handle this properly if they don't want me to work there any more.

I have worked there 7.5 years (large international firm used to be FTSE 300) and worked my butt off and I am a bit upset that this is being dealt with in this way. Shouldn't they be making my position redundant? Can they actually tell me I have to resign? HR say it's up to my line manager.

I think it depends on whether your 1.5 day contract was a permanent one or a temporary one. I hope somebody comes along with a knowledge of employment law. I think they are within their rights to ask you to increase your hours to the three days as you had previously discussed. I am sympathetic to you but from the firm's point of view I would imagine that it could be said they are acting in a reasonable way.

They can't tell you to resign, but they could make your post redundant.

I'm an employment lawyer - they can't "tell" you or force you to resign. That would be constructive dismissal.

If the job hours have genuinely changed, then that is a redundancy situation. In that instance, they need to follow a fair redundancy procedure to dismiss you (including looking for suitable alternative employment) and allow you to work your notice or make a payment in lieu plus a redundancy payment (check if they customarily make enhanced payments) and payment of accrued but untaken annual leave.

Refuse to resign and sit tight

I think you need to speak to a solicitor or specialist in employment law asap! Are you with a union?

If you have a written contract saying you work 1.5 days a week, and they are telling you that you need to change that with short notice then I would think (I an NOT an expert!) that it would constitute a change in your terms of employment. They can force this through with enough notice, but less than one month would surely not be considered reasonable notice! The change is doubling your hours, which is a significant change.

Have they given a reason for asking for this now rather than Sept as originally agreed? Was there anything in writing ie contractual that they stated you were to increase later, or do you just have the notice for 1.5 days?

They can't force you to resign - that is for you to choose, not them.

Plus, if I was advising them, I would tell them that they would need a very very credible business related reason as to why they couldn't wait the extra three months (ie September rather than June) for you to increase your hours rather than make you redundant. If not, they could be looking at a discrimination claim if they couldn't prove that the work could not be carried out in 3 days rather than 2.5. It all looks rather odd as they have obviously previously believed that the role could be done in 2.5 days or they wouldn't have made the initial agreement

kirsty - to "force it through*, you would have to dismiss and re-engage the OP. You can only do that in very specific circumstances and it's generally only ok when employers are having to change contractual benefits as they genuinely can't afford them anymore.

Employers are not allowed to do this if it is done to subvert a redundancy. Which would be the case in this instance. What could be dine is that the op is made redundant and the 3 day role offered as "suitable alternative employment". If the OP refuses, arguably no redundancy pay is due

However, I think it highly unlikely that any Emp Tribunal would find that the role was suitable alternative employment as the hours as so different so there is no onus on the OP to accept. She should be made redundant and receive the payments I've set out above

Thank you so much for the fast replies, I went to have a bath to calm down a bit.

Just to be clear, I may have explained incorrectly, my actual contract dates from 2006 and is a permanent employment contract. I have a letter dated October confirming my hours returning from maternity leave at 1.5 days per week and confirming my pro rata salary and stating that all other previous terms of employment apply. The letter says contractual letter on it. The discussions about 2.5 to 3 days from sept 2014 were verbal only.

I think they feel that they are not getting good value from so few hours and want to push it to three days. My line manager is clearly getting pressure from somewhere. I have offered 2.5 days which is all the childcare I can get, but they want three.

I am quite resigned that I will have to leave (have been seriously contemplating retraining for a while so maybe this is the push I need), but I don't want to resign.

Thank you so much as your responses have confirmed that they are not doing this properly and that I am not just being petty.