Your rights: Staff working style does not fit in

BY CHRIS PATTERSON

Q. I own several bars and restaurants and have been in the business for more 15 years. Recently I bought a new cafe/bar, which was run very differently by the previous owners of the business. Because of this I have inherited several problems, one of which is recruiting and managing the staff.

I am going to spend a significant amount of money on upgrading the fit-out of the cafe. I have introduced a new menu and wine list and I am also going to spend quite a bit on advertising.

However, I want the staff to buy into the changes and take a different approach to service delivery. In short, most of them do not fit into the picture and do not have the feel that I want for the place. The previous owners were boring and so are some of their staff, who I reluctantly agreed to employ when I bought the cafe.

The staff can do the basic core elements of their jobs okay. They are performing every item on their job descriptions, so I cannot issue them with warnings. The problem, I guess, is I cannot change their style to fit the direction I want the cafe to go. I want to avoid a fight with their union over this issue.

A. This is a difficult area. It appears that you are dealing with staff whose "style" may be redundant.

The common and general rule is that you can make only a position, not a person, redundant. You cannot terminate an employee's employment on the grounds of redundancy and then replace them with another employee.

But employees cannot expect that their positions will remain the same forever, and as a business changes employers can expect their staff to adapt to the change.

You may need to offer some training and support to assist your staff to adapt to the change which you wish to implement.

I suggest that you consider starting a consultative process with your staff. You should advise them of the changes you require from them so that their style is consistent with the evolution of the cafe.

You should take into consideration what they have to say about your proposal. You may find that they have some constructive ideas that you had not thought of.

If, after consulting your staff, you are still of a view that their style needs to change then you will need to begin a redundancy process.

You need to have private meetings with each staff member. You should tell them in advance the purpose of the meeting and that you may need to consider whether you can keep them employed, because of your decision to declare their style redundant. You should also tell them in advance that they are entitled to have a support person or representative present at the meeting.

At the meeting you should tell each affected employee that you want to hear their thoughts and comments in relation to the cafe's new style requirement and that you will review their comments before making a decision.

You may need to adjourn the meeting so each staff member has sufficient time to come back to you with their thoughts and comments. You should consider their thoughts and comments and then proceed to make a decision.

If you decide to introduce a new staff style requirement then you will need to have a final meeting with each of the affected employees. You need to tell them in advance the purpose of the meeting, and that their continued employment may be in jeopardy.

You should also advise them that they are entitled to have a support person present. You should tell them that the cafe's current style requirement is redundant and that a new style requirement is to be imposed. You should tell them that you will be offering them training and support.

However, if your staff cannot adopt the new style requirement then their employment will be terminated on the grounds of redundancy.

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