Anyone good with employment law ?

Ol!ver

Ol!ver

Ol!ver

Soldato
Joined
4 Oct 2003
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Location
Sheffield, S.Yorks
Right, I'm not sure how I'm going to get this across in a post, but I'm going to give it a go.

My fiancée had been off work for 6 weeks due to a work related sickness. This was all covered by various doctor's notes and was 100% legit.

Upon returning to work, she was informed that the company (which is a franchise) was going to be splitting her hours between two different stores (in two different cities). To cap that off it wouldn't be the same job as she was currently doing.

The kicker is this: the store they are trying to send her to isn't a franchise, it's not owned by the same company as the store she works at. Contracts at the two stores have a completely different company listed as 'The Company'. Based on that, I'm not sure how they can do it.

The HR department of the parent company don't want to know because it's a franchise, and the grievance procedure sends you to the bloke who's making the decision in the first place. With them being different companies, I can't see how they can send her there any more than someone working at OCUK could send someone to a competitor. It's a different company.

We've tried the CAB and they don't want to know because they aren't funded to help people who are in full time employment ! That's another rant for another time.


So, I don't really know what I'm expecting anyone on here to come up with, but I've gone over it so many times in my own head I figured someone on here might have an idea !


Cheers guys, much appreciated.
 
Give the ACAS helpline a call, they're pretty good and straight to the point.
To me though, smells almost 'constructive' if she left as they're changing her job. They could say that they're simply making adjustments for her just to cover themselves, so check the conditions of her return to work and get things is writing is always a plus.
Good luck.
 
Nanobot said:
Give the ACAS helpline a call, they're pretty good and straight to the point.
To me though, smells almost 'constructive' if she left as they're changing her job. They could say that they're simply making adjustments for her just to cover themselves, so check the conditions of her return to work and get things is writing is always a plus.
Good luck.
Click to expand...

She's still working there, though she's given them a letter stating that that in no way means she's accepted her new conditions.

When asked for a copy of her new contract, she was told that it's not changing. Same job description (which is a job she won't be doing !), same money, same hours.

Cheers for the advice.
 
Ol!ver said:
How do you mean ?

She's got a doctor's note saying she is fit to return if that's what you mean.

Cheers
Click to expand...

I mean the employers duties. The Health and Safety Executive have guidelines for the treatment of employees returning to work after illness.

Health and Safety at Work etc. Act (HSWA) 1974
You also have responsibilities under the Health and Safety at Work Act to protect employees, after they return to work, if they have become more vulnerable to risk because of illness, injury or disability.
Click to expand...
 
That's a massive change to her work (what she is contracted to do/job description) and would certainly require her contract to be amended - and I'm sure there's little they can do if she doesn't agree to the changes. A different job, in different cities for different companies! - the only way they could get away with that is if she agrees to it and signs up.

I'm almost certain they can't enforce it as it's far from being 'reasonable' in terms of how they've not doubt worded her current contract.

How long has she worked there? And she is a permanent employee isn't she?
 
Cybermyk said:
I mean the employers duties. The Health and Safety Executive have guidelines for the treatment of employees returning to work after illness.
Click to expand...

Again, interesting. So if she's been off, they shouldn't have thrown all this at her within 5 minutes of getting through the door ?
 
TriedandTested said:
That's a massive change to her work (what she is contracted to do/job description) and would certainly require her contract to be amended - and I'm sure there's little they can do if she doesn't agree to the changes. A different job, in different cities for different companies! - the only way they could get away with that is if she agrees to it and signs up.

I'm almost certain they can't enforce it as it's far from being 'reasonable' in terms of how they've not doubt worded her current contract.

How long has she worked there? And she is a permanent employee isn't she?
Click to expand...

Been there a couple of months shy of 2 years, and is a full time employee, yeah.


EDIT: I've got to go to work myself now, but keep the ideas coming please. I'll have my iPhone on me so will try to reply to anything that needs clarification. It's really appreciated, at the moment we feel a but alone with it seeing as we can't be paying for a solicitor (at least without knowing we've got something) and no-one else seems to want to get involved.

Cheers again.
 
She should be able to join a union on the fly just to get a representative if nothing else.

As the job is totally different then they should be going along the route of consultation then rendundancy and then looking at redeployment. It seems like they are trying to skip on time and costs.

If there is a grievance procedure is there no right of appeal after?
 
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