Rate this!
Mike Proudlove
Member - 5 posts
Probably, as many manufacturing companies, we are undergoing a difficult phase and suffering a squeeze as our major customers all clamp down on their annual budgets etc.
We have had financial losses over the past 2 years but are confident that we are strong enough to weather this period. With redundancy as a last resort we are considering short time working - possibly 40hrs per week down to 32 for a period but only for some departments.
Can we be selective within each department as to which personnel to put onto short time or does it need to be across the board. Do we need a consultaion period?
Rate this!
John Turnbull - BPE Solicitors
Online advisor - 2 posts
Short time working occurs when employees are laid off for a number of contractual days each week, or for a number of hours during a working day.
An employee is considered to be on short time for a week if during that week he gets less than half a week’s pay. The proposed reduction in hours from 40 to 32 is unlikely to fit the criteria for short time working, in which case you are therefore looking at a contractual variation of the employee’s terms of employment. As such, you will need the employee’s consent to vary or reduce the normal working hours, either express or implied, failing which, any attempt to impose a variation will be a breach of contract any may result in an unfair dismissal claim.
You should therefore consult. The business rationale behind this variation is to avoid redundancies. During the consultation period to reduce hours, if you are not reducing everyone’s hours, when selecting you will need to ensure that any selection is made fairly and not for a reason relating to e.g. age, race, sex, disability, religion etc. This list is not definitive.
Rate this!
James Fairchild
Member - 257 posts
John - would you say that a last in/first out or an 'experience' based policy would be age discriminatory?
0 (0)
