Losing shift pay

We have been told that we will lose our shift pay in 4 weeks but will have to work the same hours. They have offered upto 2 years shift pay paid as normal or 1 year as a lump sum. When I took this job 11 years ago it stated that a 21% increase would be paid for working shifts. Is this a breach of contract ? what can we do? I have been informed from other staff something similar occurred approx 20 yrs ago and they received 5yrs shift pay as a lump sum

Hi

I am a little confused. I think you are saying that starting in 4 weeks' time you will either start on a two year period during which you will continue to receive your shift allowance and at the end of which it will cease, or your shift allowance will cease immediately and you will be paid a lump sum equivalent to one year's shift allowance. You choose which option you prefer. I will base my answer on that understanding.

This would indeed be a breach of contract if it is imposed upon you but you can only bring a claim for breach of contract at the Employment Tribunal (and, therefore, for free) if you are no longer employed. You could of course resign in response to this change if it is being imposed upon you and claim constructive unfair dismissal (that is, that you consider yourself constructively dismissed because of a fundamental breach of contract and that the dismissal is unfair). This is quite a high risk strategy as there is no guarantee you would succeed and you would not have a job.

The other option is to claim unlawful deduction from wages in two years' time when your shift allowance stops (you can bring such a claim whilst you are still employed). However, that would only apply if you refused the employer's offer and continued to work under protest. Your employer may in those circumstances decide to terminate your existing contract under notice and to offer to continue your employment under the new terms, so there would be no unlawful deduction to claim. Of course, if that were to occur you may decide not to accept the new terms and claim unfair dismissal, but you would be unlikely to win such a claim if the employer could show that the had a good business reason for trying to bring in such a change and that they had followed a reasonable procedure in ending your employment (consultation, offer of a buy-out of the shift allowance, etc).

I think if I were you I would try to negotiate a better deal but ultimately accept one of the choices on offer. You could then start looking around to see if there are any better paid jobs. In the current climate that may be unlikely (which is why the employer is probably feeling that the course of action they are taking is quite low risk for them)

Hope that helps

Pete