I am thinking of reducing the premium we pay to staff for working on a bank holiday from double time to time and a half.  We have a strong business case for needing to reduce our cost base.  It will also mean cutting those who have lieu time for bank holidays to 50% lieu time.  This rate of pay and lieu time is defined in the contract of employment and therefore it’s a change to contractual terms and conditions.

My proposed process is to consult with employee forum representatives on behalf of all staff for a 30 day period and if no suitable alternatives are proposed, issue everyone with a new contract of employment providing 12 weeks notice of the change.  We have just under 300 employees.

My questions are as follows:

– is this the correct process to follow?

– what pitfalls could we come across?

– will we need to meet with every individual employee to dismiss them from their old contract, or can this just be done in writing?

– what is the process if an employee refuses to accept the new contract?

Thanks