Advice needed, employer forcing change of contract

[Airtrixx]

I wonder if any one could offer a bit of advice.
My 16 year old Daughter has been working for a large department store in the Catering section.
She has been there for approximatley 3 months.
Last week she was at college and broke her thumb during a night school class.
Upon hearing this her employers have requested that she go in and sign a contract because they had made a "mistake" and they are paying her to much.
I think they are just trying to get rid of her because all the other staff (some her age) are all on the same rate as she is on now.
I have told her not to sign anything with out me being present but wondered what your thoughts are.
As I understand it she already has a contract, even if verbal.
She is clearly being singled out after her accident.

[jasper gilder]

Hi - Employers are under a legal obligation to provide written particulars of employment ( a contract) not less that two months after the employee started. Any attempt by the employer to change the terms and conditions therafter would be considered to be a unilateral change by the employer and, if the change was fundamental to the contract it could be held to be a fundamental breach which goes to the heart of the contract. Such a fundamental breach may be grounds to bring a claim of unfair constructive dismissal. This is where the good news ends. To bring a claim the employee has to have completed 12 months service, which your daughter has not. Her only way to really rattle them would be to claim that she is being discriminated against, she can't claim disability because, although her injury renders her temporarily disabled, the condition will not last for more than 12 months. Her only recourse, should she choose to leave, would be to claim that she had been discriminated against on the grounds of her sex and in view of the nature of her employment I suspect that this ice would be wafer thin.
Her best bet is to bluster about the fact that her employers are outside the law in failing thus far to give her a written contract and to try and agree with them that she won't make a fuss if they leave the contract as it is - if they agree she should then work like stink to ensure thay have no further opportunity to try and change things

[airtrixx]

Thanks for the reply Jasper.
It turns out that I had not got my facts straight and although my daughter was being paid the same ammount as her work mates she was in fact being paid more than the other sixteen year olds.
I now believe that there is a jusitifed reason to drop her money and that she is not being victimised for her abscence due to a broken Thumb.
The good news is her employers say that they will not recover the wages she has been over paid and she has now signed a contract.
Once again thank you for the reply.