Can I be fired for not signing a new contract under new management?
I’ve worked for this business for 4+ years, our old employer (we’ll call him C) sold the business to a large company (we’ll call them B) a couple months ago. C never gave any of us a contract, he was very old school. He said he gave our terms of employment in the financial agreement. B are a UK company who have now started buying independent practices in Ireland.
5 out of 6 of us do not want to sign the contract but are fearful of being fired on those grounds, the 6th will sign the contract after hearing she’ll be promoted to manager. Do we have any leg to stand on if we don’t sign the contract, since we only had terms of employment previously?
Some of the things our draft contract states that we are not happy with are;
Any broken/damaged merchandise (that is always replaced by our suppliers free of charge including delivery) would come out of our wages. This feels unfair and redundant as we would be getting a free replacement anyways, it feels like more of a punishment for something thats guaranteed to happen every now and then due to the nature of the job.
We would have to sign over all personal data including our social media or any and all forms of ID.
We could be sent to another practice (in a different country) at their requirement.
Part-time and full-time staff would have to work 48-hour work weeks at B’s requirement (full-time staff don’t even work 48-hours)
We have to consent to be examined by a medical practitioner of their choice as they wish (double checked and it’s not for drug tests or anything like that)
Even with a sick cert for however many days we would have to ring our manager before 4:45pm everyday to confirm we will not be in the following day (I’ve never taken a sick day in the years I’ve been there but this sounds excessive)
They will switch us from our standard weekly pay, with a Christmas bonus and a pay rise every year to monthly pay, no Christmas bonus and will only give a pay rise if minimum wage exceeds our current pay.
Please give any advice, I’m not sure where to start with my own research.