Generally, you can't change terms of employment without first obtaining your employees' agreement. But there are some changes you can make if you have built 'flexibility' into your company’s employment contracts, for example, by stating that 'Employees may be required to work anywhere in the UK' or that 'Employees will work eight hours in 24, day, night or shift work'.
Another way you can put flexibility into an employment contract is by using terms that can be changed or removed. For example, you could say in the firm's employment contracts that an entitlement to a bonus may be at your discretion or that you may reserve the right to remove the entitlement without compensation.
Creating flexibility in employment contracts
If you want to be able to change the terms of employment in your company's employment contracts more easily, you can include a statement in the employment contract which says that a Staff Handbook will be 'issued from time to time'. This means that matters dealt with in a Staff Handbook could be changed and that change would be automatically incorporated into the contract, without you having to get your employees’ express consent.
If the employment contracts contain such flexibility, then you will be able to change the terms of employment in line with these clauses, provided that you introduce the changes in a reasonable manner. For example, if a mobility clause is included in the employment contract, you should give reasonable notice to your employees before asking them to relocate.
Offering new terms of employment
If there isn't any flexibility in your firm's employment contracts, then you must follow the correct procedure if you want to change the terms of employment. You must offer your employees new terms, and they can either accept or reject them. There is no legal way of accepting the employment contract change - it can be oral, written or by conduct.
If your employees do nothing, this doesn't mean that they have accepted the new terms of employment. The only time your staff not responding can amount to acceptance is when your letter, which changes the terms of employment, includes a clause such as, 'If you do not object in writing within 14 days, you will be deemed to have accepted the change'.
Alternatively, employees can accept the new terms of employment by their conduct. If they change their behaviour to comply with a term of employment that you have changed (e.g. they turn up for work at a new time), they will be deemed to have accepted the new terms. Your staff could also continue to work under the new terms of employment under protest, making it clear that they're not accepting the revised terms and are treating the changes to the terms of employment as breach of contract.
Dismissal and offering employment on new terms
If your employees don't accept the change in terms to their employment contracts, you can dismiss them and then offer employment on the new terms. But if this happens, they may have a claim for breach of contract, unfair dismissal or redundancy if you haven’t followed the correct procedures and fair reasons why you dismissed them don't exist.
More expert guidance, from an employment lawyer, on the proper discipline and grievance procedures you should use, as well as everything you need to know about employment contracts, dismissal and redundancy, can be found in our book Employment Law Made Easy .
Find out more on how you can create employment contracts with our Employment Contracts Kit or download employment contracts now .
