smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

What the employer is effectively doing here is varying the terms and conditions of your employment unilaterally. The issue, as you suggest, is the lack of consultation with you in respect of the changes. I suggest that you approach your manager informally first and make your objection known. Ask whether they have considered the adverse impact it would have on you, and draw their attention to your right to have one month’s notice. If agreement cannot be reached by any other means, you may wish to raise a grievance with your employer using the statutory grievance procedure to which all workers are now entitled.

If you are still not satisfied with the outcome, you could refuse to work under the new terms. However, there are always two sides to each story, and if your employer can show that the reduction in hours was necessary for business reasons, even if that was in respect of just one part of the business, then they may be entitled to do it regardless. A tribunal would try to work out whether it was more reasonable in all the circumstances to cut your hours, or maintain them.

In any event, you have a good chance of claiming compensation for the loss of hours (even without working them), as this was the number of hours you would have worked and been paid for during the contractual notice period.