If you can’t rely on the existing contract, the quickest and easiest way to bring about a change is by negotiation and agreement. It’s also the best option for maintaining good relations with your workforce.

We’re not talking about formal consultation here – that may come later – at this stage, it’s simply a commercial negotiation. This is where your sales pitch comes in; you will need to sell the benefits of the change or the potential consequences of not agreeing to it. In more normal times, this may involve a bit of bartering, though right now it may come down to the unfortunate reality: unless savings are made, redundancies could follow.

James Tamm, Director of Legal Services at Ellis Whittam, says “You may be thinking, ‘if only it was that simple’. However, say you have a big hole in your finances or pension fund and need to save £300,000, and you can do that by either making 10 people redundant or giving everyone a 10% pay cut. Most would agree that the latter is the lesser of two evils. That’s how you need to sell it to your workforce. You should, of course, explore all other options first, such as a recruitment freeze, an overtime ban, etc.”

He continues: “Even if you don’t think you can get everyone on board, it’s worth trying to sell the change first, as you may find that instead of having to dismiss and reengage 100 people, you only have to dismiss and reengage 10, as you are able to persuade 90% to agree to the new terms. As the rules around collective redundancy consultation also apply to dismissal and reengagement, by getting the number of those who don’t agree down to 19 employees or fewer, you may be able to avoid the need to collectively consult.”