Can employee's work hours be changed on management's whim?

My employer is changing my work hours. My supervisor has decided to work part-time - in the morning hours. I have worked for 5 years (a morning schedule 5 a.m. until 1:30 p.m.) Now they told me I have to change my hours to 8 to 5:30.

I have a 2 year old child in day care. His day care does not have openings past 4 p.m. I don't want to have toolook for another place for him. I want to keep my hours as they are. I like them.

Do I have any rights? Can they change my hours to accomodate another employee wanting to work only morning hours? Am I out of luck? Any suggestions to make them try to work with me? Any ideas on what I can say to the company to convince them not to change my hours?

Rita Risser's response:

Unless you have a union contract or employment agreement, there is no entitlement to work certain hours. The employer should give you a reasonable time to make other arrangements for day care (maybe a week or two) and then if you can't comply, you could be terminated. You might be entitled to unemployment since it's not your "fault" that you had to quit, although the unemployment judge might rule that it would be reasonable for you to look for alternative day care. If you look and don't find anything, you will be more likely to get unemployment insurance than if you don't look at all.

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