If a contract of employment states that someone is employed on a full time permanent post and they find out their hours of work have been halved to 16, do they have a case to fight to retain her full time hours?

Firstly, the contract of employment should be reviewed to ascertain whether short-time is provided for or if it is provided for in a redundancy policy within the Company, e.g. in an Employee Handbook. If it is expected that the reduction in hours will be temporary, it is entirely lawful for an employer to place its workforce on short time in circumstances where it is unable to provide the previous level of work.

However, the employer is only entitled to do so where it is reasonable for it to believe that the short time will not be permanent and where notice to that effect is given to the employees prior to their being placed on short time. Furthermore, as the relevant legislation does not