Does anyone here have any experience with Employment Law

[magicroundabout]

ok i'll phone them tomorrow.

doing my nut here as got a house + 3 kids to feed and dress.

my employer is a cunt

[blah blah]

they cannot force you to sign anything, or sack you if you dont, but it really depends on how much of a change this is from your current T&Cs. If it is such a change that it could be viewed as a different job, you may have a claim to redundancy pay if you dont sign it, but this will depend how long you have been there etc.
Employment law is a real nightmare, I dont know who you work for but if they are a decent sized company they will probably already have taken legal advice before asking employees to sign it, so that probably tells you that they think they are within their rights to do it.
Citizens Advice or ACAS are the right places to start, but I wouldn't recomend the constructive dismissal thing, that has a very small success rate

[magicroundabout]

i work for a company called JMP Consultancy.

they employ roughly 300 staff and have got lawyers envolved over this.

it is a massive change to our contracts as ours clearly state we work 37.5 hours per week etc where as there slauses state we are required to work when they want us. basically a zero hours contract

[Sippo]

If it was me, seek advice. Sign the contract anyway. End of the day its better to have a job than no job. Then look for another job whilst you tick over.

[magicroundabout]

sorry sippo i'd rather not sign to those terms. a zero hours contract basically means if you're not needed next week or he 3 weeks after then you have no pay and can't claim anything to supliment this.

resulting in no bills being paid, no food being brought and the kids go without. this i can't and will not do

[stfcinbmth]

From my poor understanding of employment law. An employer has to give two weeks notice of changes to your terms and conditions. You have to actually agree to them before the changes can take place. blah blah has certainly raised a couple of worthwhile points

[blah blah]

I would hold out for as long as you can without signing it. If you sign then go back and say "actually I dont agree with it and dont want to sign up to this", you wont have a leg to stand on.

If the workforce is 300, you may well also be able to set up an employee forum where 4 or 5 of you enter discussions with the Management on behalf of the rest and also take advice from employment law specialists. It is a bit like an ad-hoc union - they are often used when redundancies are announced, dont see why you cant use one here too.

[magicroundabout]

yeah his points are noted. i've raised concerns over the contract and will just go through the consultation period with everyone else to iron things out etc but if they impliment it i wont sign and shall work under protest until something is agreed. if it is not i shall resign and seek constructive dismisal

[magicroundabout]

I would hold out for as long as you can without signing it. If you sign then go back and say "actually I dont agree with it and dont want to sign up to this", you wont have a leg to stand on.

If the workforce is 300, you may well also be able to set up an employee forum where 4 or 5 of you enter discussions with the Management on behalf of the rest and also take advice from employment law specialists. It is a bit like an ad-hoc union - they are often used when redundancies are announced, dont see why you cant use one here too.

got representatives setup mate ready to start meetings on Monday

[stfcinbmth]

You certainly do need specialist advice on this matter. Good luck, it must be very worrying for you

[Sippo]

But if for whatever reason you leave, are you confident enough of getting another job? Is it worth the risk?

[magicroundabout]

what i shall propose in our pre meeting monday morning is if people want to throw £30 each into a pot to hire an employment lawyer to aid us.

[magicroundabout]

But if for whatever reason you leave, are you confident enough of getting another job? Is it worth the risk?

nothing is certain in life sippo. but being unemployed makes me feel less nervous than being employed by my current employer on those terms

[RobertT]

http://blogs.findlaw.com/solicitor/2010/02/unite-union-workers-win-battle-over-zero-hours-contracts.html

[magicroundabout]

excellent Rob. cheers.