Can an Employer Change Your Job Role or Job Description Without Consent?
Firstly, an employer does not have to provide an employee with a job description at all. The legal requirement is to provide an employee a statement of terms within 2 months of starting.
This must include:
“the title of the job which the employee is employed to do or a brief description of the work for which he is employed” (section 10(f) Employment Rights Act 1996).
That said many employers include a clause in the employment contract which gives them increased flexibility to amend a role in the future to ensure its demands are met as the role develops.
By way of example a contract may include the following: “You will be employed as a secretary. Your duties will include, typing, filing, administrative duties and any such other duties as the Company considers appropriate.”
With this clause included, if the employer decides that it wants the employee to work on the reception desk (for example) then this wording provides a degree of contractual flexibility. Therefore on this occasion, without the need to engage in consultation or to seek the employees consent, the employee could be asked to work on the reception desk and cover telephone duties as part of her role.
What an employer cannot do is be unreasonable. In the above example, the employer cannot simply decide that the secretary is good at numbers and side-line him/her into becoming a book-keeper without her consent as this role sees a total change to her duties. If this was to be the Company’s desire, then a consultation/ restructure process will need to be instigated.
Obviously all scenarios needs to be considered on a case by case basis.
Posted on 03/01/2017 by Ortolan
