Employers Breech of Contract?

GreeBo

Hey all,

about 1 year ago my company decided to down grade the office, moved to short term rented office and gave out new contracts which stated that your place of work will be "The companies office and your home address".

At the end of this month (and since making 8 staff members redundant) the company is closing down the office permanently.

So effectively I am now forced to work from home full time. My contract states that I have committed to work 1 day per week from home and 4 days per week from the companies office. At the time there were not enough desks for everyone to come in everyday so people randomly worked from home/office.
I did the same for several months but for the last year or so I have mainly worked from home as there might be no one or no seats in the office and we were sharing space with a noisy travel agency (I'm a Software Developer)

Now that the office option has been removed, is the company breaching the terms of employment, is it constructive dismissal?

Appreciate any opinions/options anyone has.

Thx!

bbam

I suppose it depends on your angle..
Lots of folks would love if their office had closed and they "had" to work form home..

In order to construct a decent case you usually need to first bring the case through the internal complaints procedure in the company..
Your case would only be good if you have documentation showing that you complained and nothing suitable was done as a responce..
If you just walk out and then take a case you will be seen as not giving the employeer any options to remedy/reply to your complaint, this would reduce your chances of success..

I would say the fact that you have been doing more than one day a week at home would lessen the chances of Constructive Dismissal.. did you work any full weeks from home during this time?, did you complain at having to spend more than one day per week working from home ??

GreeBo

Thx for the reply, I did "complain" to my manager about the situation with the new office, nothing official or documented. We have been explicitely told that the office will not be growing, no one will be replaced and and new people will be hired.

Yeah I probably mostly work from home now, the office is an old used call centre its not exactly conducive to working tbh. Especially when we were sharing a room with travel agency call centre with a radio playing...

Working from home is great when you have the option, but its a big change to not/never have the option of having a building etc.

For example I wouldnt have taken the job if this was laid out from the begining...

Also the company encouraged us to work from home whenever we wanted to as they openly stated that there would not be enough office space for everyone to come in...

the_syco

Hrm. If working from home, try to have a "work room", as it helps draw the line between "work", and "relaxing at home".

eejoynt

Your employer still has responsibilities under health and safety law.
How are these set out in the company safety statement?
What advice has been given as to the border line between your house insurance and your employer's insurance

follow link to HSA website

http://www.hsa.ie/eng/Topics/Hazards/Lone_Workers/#What%20if%20I%20am%20a%20lone%20worker,%20working%20from%20home?

TheBlock

Does your employeer contribute financially towards the additional costs of you working from home? Heating, Electricity, broadband, phone etc?