Changing job responsibilities for a protected class

Moses · September 2004

Can a company legally change my job responsibilities, reduce my salary, and/or assign me to a different department? Why or why not.
I'm female and over 40 but not sure if this makes a difference.

Hunter1 · September 2004

Unless you have an employment contract which says they can't, yes, they can do all of those things. They just can't do them for reasons which violate the law. Having your job responsibilities changed, having your pay changed (you wouldn't question it if they wanted to raise your pay, would you?), or changing your department assignment are all within the rights to manage the company.

Of course, you have the right to say no, I won't work under those terms.

marc · September 2004

Welcome to the forum Moses. What a tough, personal situation to define for your first post. Hunter is correct with his response, all of those things can be done by the company. The why not's would involve reasons that are illegal, such as retaliating for being a whistle blower, or for filing a workers comp claim or for taking FML. If these types of things happened, then you get into some of the why nots. Other unacceptable reasons could include discrimination under Title VII. Absent any of that, as Hunter said, the Company can do those things as necessary to run it's business.

rad · September 2004

Being in a protected class protects you from action taken because of your protected class. It does not protect you from normal BAU strategic decisions your company has to make, however unpleasant they may be.

If you find that only over 40 years old women had salary reductions and job reassignments, you might be onto something.

Don D · September 2004

What happened to the notion that the Forum is for Employers and HR professionals, not employees an other folks?

rad · September 2004

Now that its for subscribers only, Moses must be in HR, right? That was my thinking anyway.

Don D · September 2004

Well, in that event, sorry. The answer is yes, an employer can change any of our assignments, responsibilities, duties and conditions of employment unless we have some sort of contractual relationship precluding that.

Moses · September 2004

Thank you for reminding me to clarify. I am relatively new to the HR arena and should have identified myself. I am an HR administrator in a business with 48 employees. As I am attempting to further my education in this very commanding field, this question came up in an employment law course I'm taking. I thought it would be nice to see how the "veterans" of our industry responded. I'm looking forward to conversing with everyone and hope that I too may be able to contribute some knowledge in the future. Sorry for the confusion.

marc · September 2004

Don strikes again! I thought this was real and since the forum is now limited, never gave it a second thought. Now that it is identified as a class project, I feel duped somehow.

Oh well, when the time comes that I go for my certification, perhaps the forum can sit by my side and take all my tests. All I need is a camera phone and a wireless internet connection, right?

rad · September 2004

Boy, do I feel kind of dumb! I swear Don's got some sort of 6th sense.

Changing job responsibilities for a protected class

Comments