Being Tupe'd: Advice Please

WishIwasrich · 5 March 2011 at 10:23AM

Hello all

Im new to this so if I've posted in the wrong place, apologies.

Just need a bit of advice from anyone who has experience with TUPE. My husband is due to be tupe'd over to a new company on 1st April. He currently works from a London office and is a Contracts Supervisor. He had a one to one with a representative from the company who is taking over the contract he works and was told "we don't need Supervisors we've got our own" and then informed he would be expected to work in their office 60 miles away and not as Supervisor and we presume not on the contract he currently works now. Can they do this? His employment contract states that he is expected to work out of the London office and that he is a Supervisor. He doesnt want to have to travel 60 miles to his place of work but he hasnt told them that. He knows if he doesnt turn up for work on 1st April it will be classed as him resigning and he will lose any rights to redundancy pay etc. (Redundancy was mentioned at the one to one although he wasn't told he would be made redundant just that there wasn't enough jobs for everyone being tupe'd over). They haven't put in writing what they expect from him yet. My understanding of TUPE was his place of work, terms and conditions had to remain unchanged (please correct if my understanding is wrong).

Also if he is made redundant who pays his redundancy?

Sorry if I've waffled on abit - any advice on what to do would be really appreciated.

Thanks

getmore4less · 5 March 2011 at 11:22AM

Looks like a redundancy situation if after the TUPE transfer the company has to make changes that eliminate the possition and no suitable alternative job is available.

Company taking over are responsible for the redundancy.

If you google you will find information on redundancy process on ACAS and direct.gov webs as well as loads of other places.

NVRAM · 6 March 2011 at 11:03AM

As far as I'm aware this covers T+C's and any benefits that may have been built up, Length of service also has to be maintained.
Just checked directgov:

If you are involved in a transfer that qualifies for TUPE protection you should be guaranteed that your:

job transfers over to the new company
employment terms and conditions transfer
continuity of employment is maintained

We have recently been TUPE'd over from outsourced to in house, our place of business did change.
I'm not 100% sure on where they stand if your partner is TUPE'd over and then they decide that there is no job for him.

Im sure there was a minimum term you had to serve after TUPe in which you had job security tho.

Definatley get in touch with ACAS

Were still on the TUPE contracts over a yer after moving over, theres people on 5k+ more than us, that do the same job

Weve also been told that regards to pay we MAY get some form of info at the end of the next tax year ...

So at the time we thought the TUPE was a good idea, at the end fo the day tho weve become the cheapest workers in the place and therefore get everyone elses work dumped on us as well

WishIwasrich · 6 March 2011 at 2:41PM

Thank you both for for advice. I'm going to look at the sites you've suggested and hopefully that will make things clearer.

getmore4less · 6 March 2011 at 3:52PM

Soould have put in at least one link

I find this booklet OK
http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=747

It is a good idea to read up at least a few alternatives because the interpretation of the rules is expalined differently and you get a better feel of what should happen.

What you need to decide is what you want the end result to be and try to make that happen,.

WishIwasrich · 12 March 2011 at 4:52PM

Quick update. A friend put me in touch with someone they knew (solicitor) who specialised in Employment Law. He very kindly looked over my husband's employment contract and advised there didn't appear to be a Mobility Clause in it giving the employer the right to change the employment location and also that the Regs state that where the transfer involves a substantial change to the employees working conditions to his detriment, he is treated as having been dismissed with notice, which basically meant that if my husband decides against moving location (which he does for the reasons of distance and he wouldn't be supervisor anymore) he would have to be treated as being made redundant and should negotiate on that basis.

My husband then had another one-to-one and was told at that meeting he was most likely going to be made redundant and today we received another letter confirming no supervisors were needed so we are resigned to the fact that its almost 100% he will be redundant at the end of the month. The only way this won't happen is if he is successful in moving to another office within the company he presently works (he's just waiting to see whether he has been successful at any of the internal interviews he's been to)...so fingers crossed.

WishIwasrich · 1 April 2011 at 5:21PM

Hello All, back again!! I'm hoping someone will be able to answer my question. My husband got transferred over to the new company today and he had to go and see them this morning. They informed him that he is still "at risk" and that in two weeks time he will be paid his PILON and lump sum redundancy and then at the end of the month he will get these two weeks pay. They have given him 4 consultation dates within this two week period when he can go to the office to ask questions and he has been told he can ring or email if he has any questions if he prefers. Is there a minimum consultation period when there are fewer than 20 employees at risk of redundancy, I've looked online and can't find anything that mentions the minimum consultation period when only 5 or 6 people are at risk of redundancy - does the 30 day consultation period also apply to fewer than 20 employees or is it just 20 and over.

kevin52 · 1 April 2011 at 6:29PM

You say the new company has supervisors. His position should be considered as part of the larger pool of supervisors employed by the company.
Have they sought a volunteer from the other supervisors? Are there employees with shorter service then him (his continuity of employment of course is preserved). In short why him and not one of the other supervisors?
Because he has been TUPE'd doesn't make him more eligible for redundancy.

WishIwasrich · 1 April 2011 at 7:59PM

My understanding is that they do have their own Supervisors and we haven't questioned why it should be my husband and two other Supervisors "at risk" and not their own mainly because it didn't occur to us to do that but also because at the initial one-to-one's it was suggested that my husband would be expected to work from their office 60 miles away (they don't have an office in London) and he would be "demoted", so we just accepted that because he wasn't happy about having to travel that far or be demoted that he would be up for redundancy, and all the letters he's had had indicated that he was "at risk" along with others in his office. We just want it over now but wanted to make sure they were following the correct procedures for redundancy.

Being Tupe'd: Advice Please

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