We work as security officers, but we’re now being told to replace the towels in the toilets and do general cleaning duties. We’ve been threatened with the sack if we don’t comply. Our union representative sides with the management.
Your employment contract should set out your duties. If you don’t have a written contract then what’s expected of you will have been established by custom and practice, in other words the work you’ve been accustomed to do. You can refuse to carry out the extra duties, but if you’ve worked for the security firm for less than a year you can be sacked at very short notice and with no compensation. The longer you’ve worked for the firm the stronger your hand will be. A compromise would be to try to negotiate more pay for the extra workload.