Is this an enforceable contract clause...
- Thread starter Amleto
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"business needs"
The clause is usually worded along the lines of "... and other duties as the business deems necessary from time to time". I suppose if all of a sudden you were finding that your daily role involved cleaning toilets and doing something completely different to your job description you could probably claim constructive dismissal, but if you're asked to do various other things from time to time I don't think that's entirely unreasonable.
It would hinge on just how different the role is I would imagine. The example above is a good one - if you're paid as say procurement staff and are being asked to clean toilets every day then that's unlikely to wash. If however you're being asked to help out detailing draft contracts(unlikely as it is) then I can't see there being much wrong with that.
as I mentioned in OP, titled role is 'Consultant', but actual duties are software/tablet tester. It's perhaps a bit of a grey area, and acceptable for short-mid term. But I don't think this is reasonable once the time scale gets over ~9 months. Do others agree or disagree here?
I think that's reasonable, historically the big software consultancies (Accenture, IBM, HP etc) have always taken on testing work and supplied "consultants" to do the work.
Besides, software testing is only a menial task if you let it be. Decent Test Analysts/Managers earn good money and will have done their time running tests. If you really don't like testing my advice would be to make that clear to your line management and have an idea what you would like to do and why, but show that you're a good guy on your testing role in the mean time.
Besides, software testing is only a menial task if you let it be. Decent Test Analysts/Managers earn good money and will have done their time running tests. If you really don't like testing my advice would be to make that clear to your line management and have an idea what you would like to do and why, but show that you're a good guy on your testing role in the mean time.
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It is likely to hinge on the reasonableness of the request, for a short period of time provided the request isn't being made in a punitive way then the chances are that being asked to do some short term testing of software in a role that's not a million miles away from what you do now is likely to be fine. It would be down to an employment tribunal/court to determine the relevant length of time but I'd suspect periods of less than one year would be broadly ok, after that point if you're not doing the role you were employed for and there is no prospect of there being sufficient work for you to continue doing that role then essentially your role has ceased to exist - whether that's constructive dismissal (a bit unlikely) or an option for redundancy (perhaps a bit more likely) would be up for question.
Although consultant as a description could (and does) cover a multitude of sins so perhaps once this is over you might want to think about getting a slightly more defined role if you're not happy with the prospect of being occasionally asked to perform other tasks to what you think you're meant to be doing.
Although consultant as a description could (and does) cover a multitude of sins so perhaps once this is over you might want to think about getting a slightly more defined role if you're not happy with the prospect of being occasionally asked to perform other tasks to what you think you're meant to be doing.