Hi all, still very new to all this but hoping someone can help me! A work colleague has been given an ultimatum today - decide if you want to be demoted or not. She is a head housekeeper in a hotel and our boss came up to her today and said the other housekeepers arent doing there job properly and she is weak. She has been told she can drop down 'because she isnt doing her job properly' and go on a casual contract. If not then he will hire someone else above her and demote her anyway. Can he do this straight away? He has given her till Monday to decide. My argument is, she has been there 5 years and no one has said anything to her earlier, nor has she had a performance review or anything. He does occasionally pass the odd comment that all his staff are 'useless' and he 'wants to get rid of us' but nothing official. She is scared of him and had her in tears today so I know she will just back down and accept if I dont help her get some advice! Thanks any advice would be appreciated

I have been working in a hotel as a reception shift leader since Jan 08. My usual working hours were 3 lates 2 earlys 2 days off each week. My partner worked in the catering industry. He lost his job at xmas so was unemployed for a few months. When he found a new job in april this year it meant he had 2 work a lot of late shifts which meant we had no one to look after my 2 girls, aged 7 and 2. I put a request in for flexible working on 6th May 09 which got refused on the grounds of 'creating unacceptable difficulties for us as we have been unable to make arrangements to reorganize the work among other staff'. So i thought ok fair enough i will search for alternative employment (My boss isnt the nicest of people so i didnt think i had a any chance of winning an appeal) Unfortunately its hard 2 look for another job at the minute so im still working. Since 27th April 09 I have only been working 1 or 2 late shifts (on my partners day off) and nobody has said a word to me, I even asked my line manager if it was a problem and he said he didnt see one!!! Its only been this week when i can only do one late shift because my partner hasnt had a day off that my manager has questioned my hours. He is now saying I have to do at least 3 lates. I really dont know what to do now, I cant just leave as I will have no income only my partners which we cant afford to live on!