Survival of the business

If the employer’s motivation for changing an individual’s contract is in order to respond to serious adverse trading or budgetary conditions, in any subsequent assessment by the courts of what has occurred, employers may be given more latitude. Unions can consider whether it can be shown that the reason for the changes proposed is not “so pressing that it is vital for the survival of the business that the terms be accepted” (Catamaran Cruisers Ltd v Williams [1994] IRLR 386).