Legality of a Policy Change

[preciousjeni]

GC Lawyers or anyone who might have experienced this:

When I was hired, among the rules and regulations was a policy that stated I had a 30 minute unpaid lunch break and 2 paid fifteen minute breaks. I was told I could either take an hour long lunch or I could take a 30 minute lunch and use my breaks throughout the day. I work 8:30-5:00 in order to achieve a 40 hour work week. This policy is still reflected in our current documentation.

However, recently, we have been under pressure to increase services despite a very limited staff. Our leadership is attempting to compel us all to work overtime, which is ok for some of the staff, but not others. The catch is that our leadership is now saying that we work only 37.5 hours per week and we have an hour long unpaid lunch break.

We've been told that all the policies will soon change and we will have to work an extra 2.5 hours per week in order to achieve a 40 hour work week. We will also be compelled to work overtime beyond that to get the work done.

Is this legal? I mean, can they change the working hours that we were all hired under without our consent? Or is the acceptance of a job and its requirements a verbal contract that can't simply be changed in a document?