loss of seniority - uk employment law

fairplay

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Nov 23, 2009
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There is no legal definition of 'demotion' in uk employment law.

Does anyone have any examples of reducing seniority or demoting an employee outside of a disciplinary procedure? If so what legal advice did you follow?
 
Unless you have the most extraordinarily worded contract or they are on some kind of trial period with an express right to put them back where they came, you will find that you can't impose a demotion without consent. Well you can, but it may well cost you a lot of money.

All employees in the UK regardless of service have the benefit of protection from discrimination and those with more than one year's service have unfair dismissal protection as well.

If you just go take a demotion you are opening yourself to a constructive dismissal claim (a resignation in response to the demotion) and or a discrimination claim (a demotion is a 'detriment' within discrimination law.

If there is a reason why you feel the need to demote then there is probably a process you can go through to get agreement; this week I have organised temporary demotions for retraining (with consent), permanent demotions as an alternative to redundancy (with consent) - so you can get where you need to, it is a question of how you get there. That is shaped in great part by why you need to go...Happy to talk offline FOC to see if we can help...
 
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There is no legal definition of 'demotion' in uk employment law.

Does anyone have any examples of reducing seniority or demoting an employee outside of a disciplinary procedure? If so what legal advice did you follow?


Sack them that soon gives them a reduced feeling of seniority ,really takes them down a peg or two !!!!
 
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Sack them that soon gives them a reduced feeling of seniority ,really takes them down a peg or two !!!!

You are quite right. But it is
a)unfair
b)unethical
c)unreasonable
d)unlawful
e)unintelligible
f)unjust
g)unusual
...and downright spiteful
 
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There is no legal definition of 'demotion' in uk employment law.

Does anyone have any examples of reducing seniority or demoting an employee outside of a disciplinary procedure? If so what legal advice did you follow?

Not quite sure what you're trying to get at, but a demotion outside of a disciplinary procedure would effectively be the termination of the current employment contract, replaced by a new one - an unfair dismissal in respect of the original employment.

If you consider a demotion might be appropriate, there is no reason not to follow the disciplinary procedures, and reach the conclusion at the appropriate stage.

All easy enough to do where this is justified, but I can't offer specific legal advice without knowing the circumstances - please PM if you want this looked at.


Karl Limpert
 
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You are quite right. But it is
a)unfair
b)unethical
c)unreasonable
d)unlawful
e)unintelligible
f)unjust
g)unusual
...and downright spiteful

And if you're running a small business in this harsh climate, the above eight things are all irrelevant compared with
z) putting bread on the family table.

Do you really mean a demotion, or do you simply mean a salary cut?

What are your reasons for wanting to do this? Depending on this, others can perhaps help you with a strategy.
 
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Yorkshire james has a point, taking the earlier points as they were set out:

a)unfair - it may not be morally unfair (or unethical) to demote someone who is not doing their job - we dont know why you want to demote this person
b)unethical (see a)
c)unreasonable (see a)
d)unlawful - that depends on what your contract says AND on whether you can get consent.

e)unintelligible ! No idea!!! This to me is unintelligible
f)unjust (see a)

g)unusual No we do it all the time
...and downright spiteful - only if there is no good reason to want to do it - which is most unusual

You can solve your problem but you need to be careful about how you do it.
 
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Hi, I own my own business ran it myself
For 7 yrs backed off 3 yrs ago an made the deputy manager, basically she's hopeless has her m8s am family there treats it as her an in general driving me nuts, It got pretty bad I can't even work with her anymore, the deputy quit an gave me 4 weeks notice so I want to go back in full time so iv told manager just that she comes out having a fit saying I'm demoting her I said I'm not as money will be the same but I'm basically putting her back on shop floor as office is only big enough for 1 an plus I can't
Work directly with her, where do I stand, it's up for sale an had an offer so I'm hoping it will only be for a few months but she's been there 17 yrs iv owned it 10, hopefully someone can set me str soon please, in passed iv said she can't stick to same shift as all others change so point Blank refused so I think that her main prob r working with ppl she normally tells what to do an doing different shifts which everyone else does, Im hoping to use the position is no Longer available but then I'm worried about paying her off
 
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