We want to implement some flexibility in our start and finish times (8am-9.30 and 5pm-6.30pm), but along with this wish to change the required lunch break from 30 minutes to one hour, meaning staff have to put an extra 30 minutes in at the beginnig or end of the day.

Although the working pattern is expressly outlined in our employment contracts, There is also a sentence which says 'these times may be reviewed and amended from time to time'.  I have assumed that this counts as a contractual right to vary the working pattern, or flexibility clause, meaning we can implement this regardless of 100% staff support - but am I wrong?

I am also confused as to how much notice of this change is required, as there seems to be many differing opinions.

As of next week we will also be covered by the Info & Consultation Regs, so assume will need to consult at that stage?

Can anyone help with this please?

Thanks

You should definitely consult on this as it would have a major impact on your employees. You should also bear in mind the fact that some people are likely to be less able to comply with your wishes to work earlier or later than the current contracted times (due to external commitments / transport etc).

Should you decide to impose a unilateral change of contract if you cannot reach an agreeable conclusion to your discussions, employees could resign and claim constructive dismissal or discrimination so you should tread very carefully with this approach.

So long as you can demonstrate genuine business benefits from making the changes and commmunicate this as a proposal with flexibility on receiving feedback, you should start off on the right foot for some productive discussion with your workforce.

Good luck! 

I used to work in a Customer Contact centre and we had a period when the hours of work were requested to be changed to suit the hours of the campiagns on which agents worked.

The shifts changed from 12pm-9pm to 2pm-11pm. We had a similar clause in our contracts so sought legal advise as to how we could go about implementing this change. The law stipulates you need reasonalbe notice, we were informed that this was 48 hours. Written notice should be provided upon request, but this isnt neccesarily needed.