New Qualification required for Current Position

My husband was recently asked to take an exam organised by the company he works for and failed. He has now been told that he can re-sit the exam and that if he fails again, his 'position will be reviewed'.

He was employed 13 months ago on his current qualifications and has been working at the level he is currently at in the industry for 25 years.

Does anyone know if an employer can require an employee to obtain additional qualifications to those they were originally employed with and can the employer dismiss the employee if they fail to achieve this?

Thanks and Happy New Year to you all!!

There is a general principle of employment law that an employer can't unilaterally change the terms & conditions of employment without negotiation & agreement. It seems in this case that this is what they are trying to do.

Has he a union or staff rep that he can turn to for support? The Dept of Enterprise Employee Rights section might be able to help advise on legal rights.

Hi DelGirl,

What does his contract of employment have to say about this?

aj

Hi RainyDay,

There is no union representation in the company.

We suspect that there may be more to this than the qualification. A new manager took over about 6 months ago and one of the first comments he made was that my husband was on a very high salary. This salary was negotiated and agreed with the previous General Manager and the owner of the company.

More recently, the Operations Manager, also new, made the same comment twice at a meeting in front of another manager.

They can't find fault with his work, so they're maybe looking for another angle to dismiss him - hence the sudden requirement for this qualification. The problem is that English is not his first language and the exam is quite complex - he may have misunderstood some of the questions and that's why he failed.

He has to re-sit on 6th January, so we'll see what happens then.

Ajapale, nothing in his contract about the possibility of additional qualifications being required in the future.

Increasingly employers can call the shots on the competence of their employees and of the level of qualification they (the employer) requires. That is why I get exasperated often with the facile dismissal of "the unions" (translated, the rights of 'the individual' vs. 'management').

In the UK NHS we have over the past few years all had our competency for the work we do re-appraised (re-applying for our jobs, in essence) and the unions here signed up to that. The next part of the process (called Agenda for Change) is annual independent assessments and productivity targets based on the requirements of the service (note - not the original training, ability or potential of the individual employee) and salary rise and/or promotion depend upon these annual assessments and willingness to re-train and develop whatever post one happens to fill. If management consider an individual has not sufficiently developed 'in post' in the preceeding year, or if the individual is reluctant to meet the new productivity demands, then the employer has a prorogative to specify necessary retraining/development. If the individual refuses they can be legally sacked. None of this has anything to do with our original professional and/or technical trainings. It is to do with service development and changed management objectives. These changes are agreed by our unions.

Is anyone else in your husband's firm affected or is this just happening to him? Is his salary in fact significantly higher than that of his colleagues proportionate to his level of responsibility and seniority?

I wouldn't sit back & wait for the resit of the exam. Take action now. Check out his rights with DETE. Consider getting advice from a solicitor who specialises in employment law.

Marie said:

Is anyone else in your husband's firm affected or is this just happening to him? Is his salary in fact significantly higher than that of his colleagues proportionate to his level of responsibility and seniority?

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All the Department Heads had to take the exam and two failed, both are non English speakers. The other person who failed has not been told that his position will be reviewed if he fails again.

My husband's salary is higher than the Operations Manager, who is technically his superior, and on a par with the General Manager. I think they were shocked when they realised what his salary actually was.

He's not exactly sure what their agenda is, but does feel that there's definite ill feeling toward him because of the salary level. He's very stressed at the moment trying to study for the exam with 12-14 hour workdays and only 2 days off over Christmas.

Yes Rainyday, I think we'll contact DETE to see if they can give any guidance.

delgirl said:

The problem is that English is not his first language and the exam is quite complex - he may have misunderstood some of the questions and that's why he failed.

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Be careful how much of an issue you make about the language point. If his normal working language is English, don't say anything that indicates that his English is not up to working standard. You could shoot yourself in the foot here.

Trying to study for the exam with 12-14 hour workdays and only 2 days off over Christmas.

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How could anyone prepare for a "crucial" exam under this sort of stress? He should seriously consider postponing the resit until he has comfortable time to prepare. A second fail will not do him any good. Can he get more time? Can he get more details on where and why he failed the first exam?

There are also possible Working-Time Act violations here. But I suspect if he reigned back the hours to concentrate on the exam they would have claimed his performance was not up to scratch.

After a year he is permanent. I don't see how they can dimiss him for failing an exam that was not required when they hired him. Your husband probably negotiated a good package on entry. It's not unusual for a general manager to be paid less than a subordinate with specific domain skills. I think you are reading between the lines and concluding they want your husband out. If as a company they have decided that, it's not worth it (career, health) to try and stay. But he can still put his negotiation skills to use and negotiate good exit terms (severance pay, good references etc.).

Document everything -- in the worst case they dismiss him and you have to take a wrongful dismissal claim to tribunal.

Also, you may wish to redact some of the detail given above -- together with your (unrelated) posts elsewhere on the board it may be enough for others involved to identify you.

Who sets & grades the exams ? Is it part of some external professional/trade body like City & Guilds or something, or is it (based on your initial post) an exam set by the employer ?

z