Question about Scottish employment law?
July 2nd, 2009 | by admin |
Dave Spart asked:
There is currently a rumour at my company that the senior management intend to try to force a few long-term employees, who are employed on better terms than those who started after mid-2003, to either agree to sign a current standard contract or resign. This would mean accepting a salary cut of about £1500, fewer holidays, and a few other changes resulting in poorer terms and conditions.
There is currently a rumour at my company that the senior management intend to try to force a few long-term employees, who are employed on better terms than those who started after mid-2003, to either agree to sign a current standard contract or resign. This would mean accepting a salary cut of about £1500, fewer holidays, and a few other changes resulting in poorer terms and conditions.
My questions are:
Is this legal?
Would this constitute grounds to claim constructive dismissal?
If someone was sacked for refusing to either sign or resign, could they make a claim for unfair dismissal?
My employer’s head office is based in England but the office concerned is in Scotland.
One Response to “Question about Scottish employment law?”
By paul b on Jul 4, 2009 | Reply
Most British and even European law is the same anyway.
It is legal if you agree: an employment contract is only an agreement between two parties and if both agree to a new one the old becomes invalid
I’m guessing you won’t agree though, in which case you can not be forced to resign.
You could be made redundant after a long consultation process, but the company would not be allowed to replace you outright.
Constructive dismissal would depend on how forceful they were about the situation.
If you’re sacked for no sign/resign definitely infair dismissal
Are you in a union?
Stand your ground: if things even start to get nasty, get legal advice. If you can’t afford it perhaps Legal Aid (not sure how this works in Scotland)