I am cutting and pasting from something AllWobbly said on another thread:
"Here’s a direct quote from the employment ordinance website re varying contracts
Under the Employment Ordinance, the five valid reasons for dismissal or variation of the terms of the employment contract are:
- the conduct of the employee;
- the capability or qualifications of the employee for performing his work;
- redundancy or other genuine operational requirements of the business;
- statutory requirements; or
- other substantial reasons
It depends whether one thinks grounding almost all of the fleet is a ”substantial” enough reason to vary a contract or that ” requirements of the business “ are such that the company could justify it.
I guess the only way to find out what it really means would be to run it by an employment lawyer or test it"
I have it on good authority that management are resting what is to come on points 3 and 5. It is nice to believe that they will "honour" our contracts on every point, but this time round they are planning to move aggressively to restructure the business once and for all. I know that isn't a palatable thing to hear, but realistically what would we now expect. I don't know specifically what they are planning (only that they are), and they may change their minds prior to implementation, but I think it wise for everyone to prepare themselves for difficult days ahead. Sadly, fear of an invisible bug has caused our entire industry to collapse. Black Swan event indeed.