Our hours have been cut due to rising costs, according to our employer. Now we find out they are hiring a new staff member with a full contract.
I thought this should not be allowed unless our employer offered the cut hours back to staff and they did not want to take them back?
While this may seem unfair based on the information to hand, it depends on the type of work this new employee has been hired to do, says independent HR consultant and workplace investigator Michelle Halloran, of Halloran HR Resolutions.
“If a new staff member has been hired to do the same job as the people whose hours have been cut, then certainly I would question that decision because that doesn’t seem fair,” she says.
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However, if the new staff member has been hired to fulfil a different role to those who have had their hours cut, that would be a different story entirely, she says.
Hiring someone into a specialist role that no employee already within the organisation would have been able to perform would be valid, she says.
“Say the employees who have had their hours cut are manufacturing operatives and the new staff member is a quality technician brought in for regulatory reasons, well then you’re comparing apples with oranges,” she says.
However, if the new employee has indeed been hired to fulfil the same role as those who have had their hours cut, “it may be advisable to raise a grievance and question the fairness of that decision”, she says.
[ Your work questions answered: My employee has changed hours without permission, what can I do? ]
Damien McCarthy, founder and chief executive of consultancy firm HR Buddy, advises seeking further information on the employer’s decision to cut hours.
“If your employer has told you that they are unable to continue employing you on your current terms and conditions of employment you always need to consider your employer’s request very carefully,” he says.
This constitutes a change to an employee’s contract of employment, he says, adding that any change to this contract must be agreed by the employee and the employer.
“They should ask their employer for details of the reduced business activity or increased costs, who else has been asked to reduce their hours of work or pay and what was the criteria for selection,” he says, the latter of which must be reasonable and applied fairly.
“If there is a downturn in business or rising costs and they don’t accept a cut to their pay or hours, their employer may make them redundant,” he says.
He suggests requesting written details of the change in working hours, including a review date, further advising to stress that any acceptance on behalf of the reader is temporary.
“At the review date, the change to your contract can be reconsidered and you can ask to return to the original terms and conditions of your contract,” he says.
However, if internal processes fail, employees are entitled to make a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission.
Often when an employer insists on reducing an employee’s working hours or pay, the worker may feel they have no choice but to resign, he says.
In that case, “they can claim constructive dismissal because their employer has breached the terms of their contract. Before they do this, they should always get detailed legal advice as proving constructive dismissal can often be difficult,” he says.
Separately, if a worker feels that the cut to their hours is a breach of their employment contract, a case through the civil courts is another route, he says.
However, like Halloran, McCarthy reiterates that the hiring of a new employee on a full-time contract as described may not be wrong or improper, as the role filled may be different from that of employees who have had their hours cut.
“However, if that new employee is being hired in the same job title or job role and has the same job duties, then it would appear that the reader has avenues for complaint and challenge as to how this has been dealt with,” he says.
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