Dear Colleagues,
I wonder if anyone would be willing to share any advice, or point me in the direction of some advice
regarding changes to employee contracts, and/or the issue of "custom and practice".
With the loss of a member of staff, current library staff, who have been working just 8 late evenings
per academic year are now being asked to work 32. Irrespective of what might be the norm in other
institutions in terms of how many late nights are worked, do colleagues consider this four-fold to be
a reasonable adjustment that staff should just accept, or are there grounds for challenging it?
What sort of commitment is required of your staff in terms of providing late nights (admittedly here
we are only talking about up until 7pm), and are staff expected to step-in and provide cover in cases of
sickness or leave?
Where a contract, which staff here allege they have never seen, stipulates a certain number of late evenings
to be provided, but for the last 7 years all staff have been working to a different schedule, which takes priority -
the 2008 job description, or the seven years of "custom and practice"?
And finally, while it is appropriate that job description get changed, surely this has to be done with the agreement
of the employee, and it is right that an employer can strip out some elements (of benefit to the employee)
while retaining other elements (of benefit to the employer)?
Sorry if this is not relevant to large numbers of you, but any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Frank Trew
College Librarian
Rose Bruford College
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