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Moving/changing hours/RHRP/Ideal Schedule

Started by Nomad, 23-09-08, 08:34PM

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Nomad

Moving People Around The Business, more commonly known as Right Hours Right Place are covered by Policies For Our People Section 2.1 regarding Changing Terms and Conditions.  As part of the Partnership Agreement, all members are entitled to be accompanied by a Rep during consultation meetings. Any changes being asked for should be reasonable. What is reasonable will depend on each member of staff. For example, to take a significant loss of pay or being asked to move from days to nights (or visa versa), would not be considered reasonable.  If members feel they cannot do the changes being proposed they need to make a case as to why. For example caring commitments, transport problems, second job and health reasons would be valid reasons why they cannot change their hours (depending on the change being proposed). It is important that both sides enter the consultation period with a little flexibility in mind and try to come to a mutual agreement. If a mutual agreement is not possible, the Company may choose to serve contractual notice. This should only be served when all other avenues have been exhausted and there is a clear business reason for the proposed changes.  Generally speaking once the Company has served contractual notice members have three options: Accept the change and work under the new terms and conditions. Work under the new contract but "under protest" however members need to make this protest absolutely clear and should do it in writing to the Company. They should raise a grievance if they feel the changes being made are not reasonable. Ultimately a member can resign from the Company and claim constructive dismissal at an Employment Tribunal.
Policies For Our People   Section 2.1 Changing Terms and Conditions We want to ensure that we treat all our employees fairly if there is a need to change their terms of employment. We should therefore always take into consideration the following:
1 Is there a real business need for the change, for example, extended opening hours in stores which mean revising shift patterns.
2 Is it a reasonable change to make? 
3 Consult with the Union explaining the proposed changes, giving them full details including how many people it is likely to affect.
4 Consult with the employees concerned over a 4 week period, discussing the proposed changes with them and the reasons for the change.
5 Discuss the impact the change will have on each individual, remembering to be sensitive to personal circumstances, for example, a proposed change may mean changing hours of work to include earlier start times. This may not impact on the majority of people but if there are people who have certain commitments like childcare responsibilities which may make it impossible to start the working day any earlier, this could be seen as unfair. 
6 Always consider volunteers first with any changes. 
7 Make every attempt to reach a mutual agreement during the consultation period, looking for compromises and alternative positions for those who cannot make the change. Each case will need to be judged on its own merits. 
8 For those who agree to the change, you can enter into the new agreement as soon as possible and send out a new statement of terms and conditions within 4 weeks of the change taking place. 
9 For those who do not agree; Remember to advise them of the grievance procedure. Consider extending the consultation period if it is likely that an agreement can be made. ONLY when an agreement cannot be reached AND you are satisfied that the employee is unreasonably refusing to accept the new terms and conditions should you decide to give notice to dismiss the employee. 
10 At the end of the 4 week consultation period, we need to give employees notice that we are changing their terms and conditions and therefore ending the current contract of employment. This must be done in writing following discussion and the amount of notice given is dependent on their service with the Company. This is a minimum of 4 weeks and increases by 1 week for every year of service up to a maximum of 12 weeks. 
11 Follow the protection policy guidelines if a change affects an individual's salary and/or shift premium. (Remember that whether the change is compulsory or voluntary, protection will be applied to ALL employees who undergo the change.) If the change within the job is significant, it may be a redundancy situation, for example, reorganising the hours to accommodate business needs may not be a redundancy but removal of work/change of job may well be.   
12 If we change a term of employment and an individual does not give us written consent, then even if the change does not immediately impact upon him/her, the individual will still be able to raise objections to it in the future. Continuation in the job does not imply acceptance of the new terms. We must therefore ensure that all our employees sign and return their terms of employment.   

Section 2.22  Protection  There are five types of protection:  Pay Rate For colleagues on an Office contract, employees will be placed on an appropriate amount with the pay-range (up to its maximum). The difference between the old annual gross total and the new annual gross total will be paid as a one-off taxable lump sum. Alternatively, the individual may be left on the payroll system for 12 months and then the new rate will be actioned in 12 months time.
Personal Rate  In Stores and Distribution (Up to Store/Depot Manager), employees will be given a Personal Rate. The difference between the current and new salary up to a maximum of 25% of the new fixed salary, will be allocated as a Personal Rate. The Personal Rate will not attract premium payments. It will be reduced by any salary increase. The payroll system is programmed to automatically do this as any increase happens. However, in order to ensure that the original Personal Rate reduces by a minimum of 25% each year, the system automatically reviews the payment on its anniversary, and makes any necessary adjustments. NB The Personal Rate erodes over the 4 year maximum period
Pension If an employee is within 5 years of normal retirement age, they will take on the new job with no change to their current pay for one year, while benefits are retained in accordance with the Benefits Table. At the end of one years pay protection, employees will be placed on the appropriate amount for the new pay band (up to its maximum/rate for the job).
Store Re-categorisation  If a store goes down from its current category, the Store Manager's salary and benefits will be protected for 2 years. If after this time the store is still below the original category, then the normal protection policy will apply.
Protected Element Employees will only receive a protected element if their job is downgraded after an evaluation exercise. The implementation of protected element can only be administered by the Personnel Manager Group (Stores)/Personnel Manager (Head Office/Distribution). Protected Element will, as a general rule, only apply whilst the employee is in the job they were in when they were given protection.  Calculating The Loss In Pay Whichever type of protection is applied, it will be necessary to calculate the loss in pay. This calculation varies according to population.  The loss in pay equals the gross total of the current weekly pay minus the gross total of new weekly pay.
The following is worth reading: TUC: The Law in relation to Contractual Changes

Moving People Around The Business Usdaw Guide Section 1.1  Before entering into the consultation period the relevant manager must first establish a legitimate business case for the change. It is important to note that it is not simply enough for a manager to say there is business need, they must be able to demonstrate a legitimate business case for the proposed changes and clearly show that other options have been considered before the proposal to change hours has been put forward for discussion.  If the proposed changes are in relation to moving hours, then the business case must be established using the Right Hours Right Place report. This report allows managers to identify where hours are needed in store. This will depend on a variety of different factors and will be different for each store.  It is important to remember that Reps are entitled to see the business case. If the Company are unable to demonstrate a legitimate business case for the proposed change, then an individual may reasonably refuse to accept the change.  For example, moving hours in order to accommodate the needs of other employees would not be considered a legitimate business case. Staff should not be disadvantaged nor have their department/hours moved in order to accommodate other employees who wish to move. Another example may be where there is a significant reduction in trade on a particular department where they can no longer support the current hours; in these circumstances the Company should be able to demonstrate a legitimate business case.  The Company should also ensure that there is a permanent need to change, and not just to accommodate fluctuations in market conditions as a result of, for example, promotions. Temporary changes like this should normally be staffed using other measures, such as overtime or staff who are already on flexi contracts  Only after the Company have established the business case and all options have been explored should the manager consider starting the consultation period. These options could include looking at labour turnover, known leavers, future refurbishment plans or further business initiatives.

  Future 3 (Ideal Schedules) have been agreed via the Partnership Agreement:

Following a major review of the business and feedback through the Forums and Listen & Fix, staff have told Tesco that their jobs have become harder in stores, there are too few hours, staff are under pressure and morale, sales and service are being impacted.  Following a review of these issues, Tesco have acknowledged that more investment is needed in additional staff hours and training to improve customer service and reduce pressure on staff.  However, the review also highlighted that the situation could be improved significantly by scheduling the contracted hours available in stores to the right place to serve customers, carry out routines and processes and reduce pressure on staff.  The situation has occurred for a number of different reasons. 
* Customer spending and shopping habits have changed. 
* The current economic climate.
* There has been a slowdown on people leaving Tesco. 
* There is increased competition from other retailers.
* The introduction of new technology and business improvements.
* Retail continues to change and evolve.
There are major activities taking place in stores around moving hours to the right place.  There has been no change to the existing policy of Moving People Around the Business and this is the process that stores should be following as normal.  Ideal Schedules will identify the contracted hours available in stores and allocate them to the right place to serve customers and carry out routines and processes. As a result of this the Company will be asking staff to move their hours to where they are needed most.  The request to move hours needs to be reasonable and we must trust mutual agreement can be achieved to deliver the needs of the business as well as the individual.
No existing members of staff will be required to move onto a flexible contract as part of moving peoples hours.  Page 30 of Tesco's Guide on Flexible Contracts under the section Moving an Existing Non- Flexible Employee onto a Flexible Contract clearly states:  we would only move an existing member of staff who was on a non-flexible contract at the request of the individual or where there are vacancies that existing staff can apply for.   Where additional investment is being made in the first instance the store should be offering any additional hours or overtime to existing staff. This is purely voluntarily and the Company cannot make staff take on the extra hours if they do not want to. If the store is unable to find enough staff to cover the additional hours then they can recruit from outside.  In order to achieve this it is important for everyone to work together, cooperate, compromise and show some flexibility to ensure any movement in peoples hours are mutually agreed.

Availability Form.  Members do not need to complete and sign availability forms as part of  moving people around the business. It is unnecessary and more importantly, does not form part of the policy regarding changes to Terms and Conditions. Availability forms are only completed by those employed on a Flexible Contract.  If there is a need to move people's hours, then it must be done in accordance with policy via the correct procedures as already mentioned. Anyone who is asked to complete the aforementioned form should refuse and refer Management to their contract and make clear to them, that should they wish to change their hours, then it must be discussed via a consultation period where a mutual agreement/compromise may be met. To be asked to complete such a form is contrary to the correct procedure.  It is advisable that, when entering into any discussion regarding contractual changes or being given forms to sign, members should speak with their Union Rep.   There is no need to sign a form to state that one does not wish to change their hours.  You have a contract.  You have signed that contract.  To be asked to sign anything else without consultation is both unnecessary and not procedural.

Contractual Changes/Selection Criteria  1 Ideal Schedule is another version of Right Hours Right Place. They are both measures used by the Company to identify where hours are needed in store and involves a selection process when deciding how many employees need to be consulted, where all other avenues have been exhausted e.g.: volunteers, overtime, known requests for transfers, labour turnover and known leavers.

2 In the majority of cases, the nature of the change will enable Management to identify individuals that need consulting e.g.: early closure of the Petrol Station. However, in some cases, it may not be so obvious, such as reduction in target hours for a department/store. This may mean consulting with all staff and seeking volunteers or mutual agreement from staff to achieve the change. If this is not achieved, a fair selection criteria will apply to identify who would need to move for example to a suitable alternative role in another department/store. This would need to be discussed with the Group Personnel Manager to ensure all options have been considered prior to applying any selection criteria. These criteria would need to be applied to select the individuals to be given contractual notice if agreement to change their working arrangements is not reached.
3 There is a "Moving People Around The Business - Summary Of Changes Form" that should be completed by the Personnel Manager and Line Manager initially at the planning stage and then updated during and at the end of the consultation period. This form includes details of the type of change needed, details of the change, the total number of staff in the department/store and the total number of staff to be consulted including their names, years service and age.

4 There are 4 change scenarios:
* Changes to schedules - department/store target hours.
* Discontinuation of a role.
* Changes to an existing job role - content.
* Replacing one role with another.
5 A group briefing with the affected individuals must be conducted prior to individual consultations.
Start Of Consultation Meeting
1 The consultation process must be explained to the individual and representation offered.
2 The Manager must describe the changes and what this means for the individual's role.
3 The Manager must discuss the options available to them and consider any suggestions from the individual. This could include:
* Changing their working hours
* Moving to another department for all or part of their shift
* Moving to a vacancy at another Store, Distribution site or Head Office
4 The Manager must record what hours the individual is available to work and their mobility for vacancies outside of their current store. Any other information that may need to be considered must be noted when identifying suitable alternative roles/vacancies. The "Considerations When Changing Hours/Finding An Alternative Role Form" must be completed by the Manager as per page 11 of The Moving People Around The Business Policy.
* This form is not to be confused with an Availability Form used for Flexible Contracts.
* This form is not to be distributed to staff prior to consultations.
* This Form is to be produced and completed by the Manager at the start of the consultation period (one to one).
5 Suitable alternative roles have:
* similar hours.
* similar working conditions.
* equivalent terms and conditions/same pay.
* similar status/same grade.
* similar skills set.
* same location, unless an alternative store is similar distance/travel time from their home as their current store, or if further away the employee agrees to move to another store.
Considerations under the Equality Act regarding reasonable adjustments would need to be taken into account and a risk assessment may be needed for an alternative role before it is considered suitable for some individuals.
6 For each individual, the Manager must capture a summary of discussion, questions and concerns that still need to be resolved, including next steps for both parties on the "Record Of Meeting Form" as per page 10 of The Moving People Around The Business Policy.
7 It is important to note that this meeting marks the start of the 30 day consultation period to allow individuals to consider the changes and options available to them.
8 Individuals can have as many interim meetings and updates as they need during the consultation period to help them make a decision.
Nomad ( Forum Admin )
It's better to be up in arms than down on your knees.

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