Contract change concern

My employer has recently asked me if I would be interested in amending my contract from 30-days notice to 90-days notice. I'm not the only one they have approached with this request. Nothing has been issued formally yet.

Now, myself and others know that the only reason they're doing this is because, due to significant business changes, we have recently lost four key personnel (they resigned) who were all on 30-days notice. This has left us in a vulnerable position in several key areas so the Directors had an emergency meeting last week to discuss how they could keep this from occurring again. Their solution was to get some of us to sign 90-day notice amendments and to put the spin on it that this will increase our job security and they are doing this because we are key to the business and greatly appreciated so this is a reward.

I call BULL-5HIT! I gain nothing from this. There were no pay increases or additional perks to be offered with this, just me signing away another 60-days of my life so I can't move on with ease should I become so fed up with current conditions that I can't take it any more. The only reason this company would/could make me redundant is if we have to bar the doors and close up for good. If that happens I'm not getting my 90 days notice pay anyway so in what fantasy world does this benefit me?

When I was approached I said I'd be willing to discuss the option during my regular annual review so we could arrive at some sort of mutual benefit. This was passed along to my ultimate boss who, I was told, actually got indignant that I was not willing to do this without some negotiation. This is a man who I respect and that I've been able to work with for almost nine years in a completely trusting relationship. I'm now questioning whether he has gone over to the dark side.

Can anybody tell me if I'm obligated to sign an amendment if they decide to issue one?

I know a few years ago they tried to do a similar thing to my husband. His company rolled it out new private insurance or pension or something (sorry, it was a few years ago now) and said that to get one they had to do the other. DH ignored all the emails/memos about it, and when they eventually left a new contract on his desk to sign he just pushed that to the side and never mentioned it. He still got the pension or insurance or whatever it was as they were rolling it out company-wide, they were just strong-arming people into signing.

So no, you don't have to sign it. If they're desperate to keep you, as you say, they're not going to fire you for not signing. But it could make waves in your workplace.

Today I was informed that we have a lot of extra work to do over the next six weeks in order to get ready for our year-end audit. This extra work was created by the business changes that were implemented 9 months ago and have been snowballing every since because resources were not available to correct things as they arose.

I noted I am already working about 55 hours a week (my contract states I'm required to work 37 hours per week and I'm salaried so I don't get overtime), at which point I was told that the hours stated in my contract didn't matter because I signed an opt out agreement when I joined the firm almost nine years ago stating that I was willing to work more than an average of 48 hours a week and that I would need to honor that agreement.

Let the games begin. I intend to send a letter to HR tomorrow withdrawing my opt-out agreement. Said withdrawal will go into effect in seven days.

I still can't believe that after this long in a mutually beneficial arrangement they are going to try to pull this kind of crap with me. They don't seem to realize that all they had to do was ask nicely and I'd be willing to do what it takes. It's the manner they're going about this whole thing that's rubbing me the wrong way.