Unless expressly provided for within the contract your employer cannot alter your employment terms and conditions without your agreement. Any attempt to do so may amount to a breach of contract entitling you to resign and claim unfair dismissal if the breach is fundamental.

Alternatively you could ‘stand and sue’ i.e. remain in your job working under protest and bring an action for breach of contract to remedy that breach.

Yur employer does have the option of simply terminating your old contract, with due notice, and offering a new contract under new terms, this does not require consultation. Whether or not you chose to work under the new terms you would be able to bring a claim to have been unfairly dismissed from the old contract.

I note that you say you have gone past your retirement age of 55.

Where an employer imposes a ‘normal retirement age’ of less than 65 years old it must be able to objectively justify this lower retirement age otherwise you may be able to make a claim that the retirement age contravenes age discrimination regulations. Even if your employer can establish that the lower retirement age is justifiable, it must follow the statutory retirement procedure in order to dismiss an employee on grounds of retirement. These procedures require an employer to provide the required notice and an opportunity for you to make a request not to retire, which must be considered. You should seek further advice in relation to obtaining more detail on these complex procedures.

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