Can they do this? Angry and worried

[whatwasleft]

I've been working for a large multi-national company for several years in a project management type role. Management reshuffles are pretty common and one last year put me reporting into a team in London which does a kind of customer service role, though I don't do this role.

I have now been told that I will have to work some weekends being on call in the customer service job. I'm pretty aghast as I emphatically don't want to do a customer service job, much less work weekends. There has been no indication that my role is going to change.

Can they do this? I am gutted because I love the project management bit of my job and I don't want to have to leave, but I'm furious that they are trying to force me into a role I don't want and never asked to do.

I know the next question will be 'what does your contract say' and while I can't remember the exact wording, it will be fairly standard along the lines of 'work until the job is done, company's discretion etc etc'.

Once you've checked your contract wording, come back. You need to check exactly what it says about working hours, and also what it says about varying hours and varying terms and conditions generally.

Do you know if they still have a need for your PM role, ie they aren't trying to get rid of you because the role is no longer needed but they want to get out of paying you redundancy?

You may find a possibility of constructive dismissal, if they are making your job unbearable by changing everything about it, the conditions and content, however it would be a long drawn out process.

Definitely need to see what your contract of employment says.

Thanks for your responses. :)

I looked for my contract last night and it's not where I thought it was, but I now think it's with a load of paperwork which has been stored in the loft so am going to go up and retrieve it at the weekend.

There is still a need for my PM role. I suspect they might be trying to double up on people's jobs to avoid having to recruit extra people into a department which is chronically understaffed.

I did have a brief chat with my immediate manager about it yesterday and he tried to imply that I didn't want to do customer service because I consider myself better than them which was so bizarre that I couldn't really think of much to say in response. I questioned why I was on the weekend call list when I don't actually do that job and was basically told that 'everyone' has to do it and got a lecture about being a team player. It's just all really odd.

Will update as soon as I have got hold of my contract.