Does changing your hours change your contract

[Bearmaggie]

Hi,

 

I'd been working for my employer for 7 years when I decided to go part-time in work so that i could do a uni course. They happily let me do this and have been excellent in letting me arrange my work hours around my uni timetable. I'm now coming to the end of uni and have asked to come back full time. They are saying that this change of hours back to full-time constitutes a change of contract, and therefore want to put me on the new contracts, which means evening and weekend work.

 

My argument to them is that when I originally changed to part-time hours, I was never given a new contract. I have said that despite changing the number of hours worked within the week, I am still working within my original contracted hours (8am to 5pm), therefore no contract change ever occurred, and this shows as they never sent me a new contract when i went part-time.

 

I'm loathed to start working evening and the odd weekend, as this is something that i did years ago and I am quite happy having a 9-5 job, which is why I took the job in the first place. These new contracts have been in for a few years now, and anyone new starting gets put on these new contracts, but they have left those on the old contracts alone.

 

Where do I stand? Is a change of hours deemed a change of contract? Can they make me go on one of these new contracts?

 

Any advice greatly received.

 

Bearmaggie :-?

[Bigredbus]

Hi,

 

Prior to starting your university course, you came to an oral agreement with your employer, in which you agreed a working timetable suiting your attendance at your university. That did, at the time, constitute a variation of your working hours...

 

You now want to return to work full time. You are requesting a variation of your working hours from what you used to work whilst at university and a full time...

 

A change of hours is deemed being a change of contract...