Change of contract - Office based to site

[RammyMP]

Hi! I work for a construction company so travel is inevitable but, I am currently office based which is 9 to 5, 20 minutes from home. We have a new director who has dictated that my role is now site based and with that my terms and conditions have changed so I will be on a site up to 1.5 hours away and my working hours have increased by 1/2 hour a day. To be honest I do much more than the contracted hours but it's the travelling that narks me off more.

Can my employer change my job role and my contract to being site based without consultation?

Cheers!

[RammyMP]

Update: I've had an email from my boss telling me to arrange a meeting with him to agree the change. Might just agree then start looking for another job.

[figtree]

Any news?

[RammyMP]

No. Think I'll have to suck it up, accept it and get on with things

[4x4Tyke]

Actually no you don't have to suck it up.

One party cannot make unilateral changes to a contract without the agreement of the other party. Any change in a contract must be by agreement of both parties. This applies to employment contract just as much as it applies to any contract. You are perfectly entitled to refuse to accept the change, or negotiate additional consideration (something of value to you, additional pay, holiday etc.) in exchange.

This holds true even if the contract includes a variation clause. The most important word in a reasonable variation clause is the word 'reasonable' not the variation.

Edited by 4x4Tyke on Friday 16th September 21:11

[RammyMP]

Thanks for the reply. I am inclined to refuse to accept the change but I don't then want to be branded a trouble maker. One of my colleagues who's in the same boat had said is our pay going up in line with the additional hours and our boss just laughed at him.

[4x4Tyke]

RammyMP said:

One of my colleagues who's in the same boat had said is our pay going up in line with the additional hours and our boss just laughed at him.

In your shoes I would raise the same question as your colleague back up by what I raised earlier. It could well be a strategy to manage you out, so avoiding trouble may not make a difference. In practice your choice is probably leave or suck it up.

Take a look at this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalation_of_commit...

[Flooble]

All very well fighting, but realistically if that is the company culture then I'd say the best bet is to find a new job and get away from them.

[RammyMP]

Update:

Myself and one of my colleagues have both resigned (though I think they will talk him into staying) so the 'management' have backed down and are now not changing our contracts. Nevertheless, I now don't have a desk in the office so my contract will not be changing but I'm still working from site.

Hey ho, only two weeks of my notice left to go, onwards and upwards!