Ask the expert: Reduced working hours and pay

Posted by HR Zone in Employment law on Tue, 14/04/2009 - 14:41

Ask the expertDue to the current climate, an employer would like to reduce working hours to three days per week. Esther Smith and Matthew Whelan advise on the legal implications to be aware of in terms of a reduction in pay.

The question:

If we want to reduce employees' working hours so they only work three days per week, what are the legal pitfalls associated with reducing their pay to 60%? What steps do I need to go through to achieve this?


Legal advice:

Matthew Whelan, solicitor, Speechly Bircham

Unless you have a right to reduce hours and/or pay, then ideally you should obtain and properly record each affected employee's agreement to this change.

To read the rest of the article you'll need to log in below

If you've forgotten your details click here for a reminder

If you haven't got an account, it's free and only takes a minute to set one up,
click here to register

Create your free account

  • Access all articles in full
  • View multimedia
  • Receive email bulletins
  • Private messaging
Register now

Login

Forgotten your password?

Editor's Welcome

 

Hello! And welcome back as we enter 2012, with a busy year ahead of us all. With talk of double-dip recessions, a possible partial or even full break-up of the Eurozone and unemployment rates set to hit nearly 9%, topics such as organisational streamlining, staff resilience and talent management are likely to be on many an HR professional's lips over the next 12 months.
 
But to lighten the gloom here in the UK, we also have the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and its attendant public holidays to look forward to at the start of June. Followed by two weeks of Olympic Games from 27 July to 12 August and the Paralympics from 29 August to 9 September, each generating their own excitement, but also issues to work through for hard-pressed HR departments trying to sort out the multifarious staffing issues in advance.
 
So with an interesting but challenging year to come, HRZone promises to be with you, supporting you all the way and providing our usual insightful blend of news, analysis, community blogs and expert comment to help you sort the wheat from the chaff. As ever, we love to hear from you too so feel free to either post your words of wisdom to our blog section yourself or, in the case of longer, more in-depth ‘expert voice’ articles, drop me a line with any ideas to cath.everett@siftmedia.co.uk.....
 
Cath Everett
HRZone Editor 
 
 
Here's our pick of some of the latest hot topics on the site:
 

HR Yearbook 2011

HR Heath and wellbeing