Hello Sidewinder, thank you very much for your reply, well the business reason they gave for wanting to reduce my hours was that they wanted to spread my responsibility around as when I am away or sick then I'm difficult to cover. It wasn't a reason to save money as such. The restrictive clause was in the new contract, so effectively they wanted to reduce my pay by 43% and stop me from working for other employers to make up for the shortfall in pay unless they agreed in advance. I have claims against them for victimisation and discrimination with lots of evidence including recordings of meetings (not concealed recordings) so they really don't want me around now and I suspect if I did manage to find other work they would stop me in an effort to get me to resign.

Hello everyone, they terminated my contract because I objected to the drop in hours and in the new contract there was a clause that stated that I couldn't work anywhere else that was similar in nature without their agreement. It's so acrimonious now I don't trust them to allow me to work anywhere else. I can't afford to take a 43% drop in wages so I declined their offer. They said they would put my termination in writing, but no mention of redundancy payment. I'll phone ACAS tomorrow and see what I have to do next Thank you all for your replies, I will keep you posted.

Hello, they aren't victimising anyone else, and this started when I complained about the proposed change to my hours. I was both bullied and ignored which made me sick with stress and the anxiety aggravated my asthma. I went off sick before the consultation took place. I lodged a grievance though and I'm going through that now while they sort out my return to work and consultation. By the way, I suppose it's normal for a grievance response to admit no liability, but no investigation was carried out and none of my specific issues were dealt with. I'm going to appeal but I think it's probably futile. Oh I would like to add that they have actually changed their business reasons for the second attempt at consultation. I was off sick for about five months, back then they said their reasons were to spread the responsibility around (as when I go away I'm the only one doing the job and I'm hard to find a temp for) but now they are citing a small improvement in footfall as the business reason for cutting my hours. Could a judge say that a new contract with a 43% drop in hours (this equates to a loss of about £8,900 gross pay not including company holiday pay and pension etc) is a suitable alternative (just in case I have to go down the unfair dismissal road)?

Hi there, thank you I'm not off sick, I've been fit for work for three weeks, they have been prevaricating my return to work - I've just been waiting for my return to work interview and they want to combine the consultation with it.

Hi Becky, Thank you for your reply, I appreciate your help. I don't think this is a variation as the change is 43%, they tried to enforce these changes on me before I went sick with all the stress. There are no business reasons as I checked it out, they were saying that I had too much responsibility and wanted to spread it around a bit, so they are trying to take my contracted hours and give them to casual workers, as and when. If I said that I refused to accept the new contract could this be viewed as a resignation and could that absolve them from making notice and redundancy payments? I've been there donkeys years and it is worth a fair bit, so they will probably try anything to try and wriggle out of paying it.

Thank you very much Sidewinder, I was wondering if they have the right to reduce hours from me and give them to casual workers (I am a contracted employee). I also have claims with ACAS for discrimination and victimisation, so this wouldn't have gone down well. I won't go back on the reduced hours contract as it's not worth the stress. I've been bullied by members of the management team including HR so they would have to make me redundant (but would this be a true redundancy as I was told by a colleague that if the job still exists then it's not a true redundancy it would be unfair dismissal). Also, if I took redundancy can I still pursue my claims in the ET?

Hello, I was hoping for some guidance please, I have been off work long term due to work related stress. The employer wants to hold a return to work interview and a consultation about the proposed reduction in my hours at the same time. I refused to go to the first consultation as they said they had asked for details from occupational health on how to do any risk assessments but they did not have the details yet. So I thought there's no point going to a consultation if they don't know how to handle the situation yet. They say I'm in breach of contract by refusing to consult, and they are giving me a second chance which is fine, but they said in the letter that even if I didn't come to the meeting or refused to comment they would terminate my current contract anyway and start me on the new reduced hours one. Do you think I've been reasonable in refusing to attend the first consultation meeting beacause they didn't carry out the risk assessment, am I right in thinking the return to work interview should be held before the consultation and are they entitled to just reduce my hours without my agreement (the reduction is about 43% and they will not budge on this so it's more like a dictation rather than a consultation)? Thank you for your time