Advice from Employment Law Gurus please

Good evening all, thought I would post an update for those that might be interested.
Gee how time has flown!

A lot to say so get in a comfortable position with refreshments to hand as this is not a short posting!!

So since my last posting there was a mass meeting of those involved at the beginning of November. During the meeting they showed a presentation of what had been agreed to. This was the same presentation that was given to the reps the previous day. The presentation basically covered all of the business reasons as to why this was happening, followed by the decisions made as to which roles would be offered accommodation and the reasons why. For those that were not going to be offered this they explained that a care package would be offered to assist the transition into public rental.

Forgive me if I repeat some stuff, just want to be exact with their words So here we go, the presentation stated under the heading ‘Support and Care Plan’

New Annualised contract from January 5th 2017 offering guaranteed fixed hours and pay each week

Team Leaders will have a new base minimum salary – Team Leaders to be considered as the business pipeline to future leadership positions – New Role Profiles and development plans to be put in place

Deposit and first month of rent paid by the business (capped at £1500 each)

Loan for administration fees (up to £500 per property)

Company will act as Guarantor

Free furniture from team accommodation help with removal to local property

Now final date for moving out 20th May 2017 – no longer 28th February

A couple of other little bits about deciding on who will live where (applicable to those being offered accommodation)

Then ‘Next Steps’

Individual consultations start the next day – an opportunity to discuss what these changes mean to you personally
.
They did state in the presentation that we can bring a representative to these meetings, if we so wish, but they must be from the company.

Q & A’s at end. Various questions were asked and answered. I asked “how many were still effected by no offer of accommodation” (bearing in mind that I thought that this would be far less than the original numbers spoken about ie 200+) the answer I received was that there was still approx. 201 effected, that surprised me. I then expressed an opinion and that being “that not just myself but the others too, although appreciative that the company were offering the support to move into the private rental sector, me and I’m sure others too were concerned about the ongoing affordability of the monthly rental costs on our current hours and rates of pay”. The answer I received was “ Appreciate your point and that is what the 1-2-1s are all about, to discuss your concerns”

So that was the mass meeting at the end of which everyone was notified of the date for their first 1-2-1 meeting. So my thoughts looking back, was that there was little or no time for the reps to make any contact with those they represented before the mass meeting. Another point on this was that there was never any minutes provided about the final reps consultation meeting and although I asked for them from HR there has been nothing forthcoming. Guess that’s not really a vital point just thought it would have been due process to have circulated them as a matter of course.

My meeting, was the next day in the morning!

The meeting was scheduled to last 20 mins. During the meeting the person was basically reading from a script, verified that I was at the mass meeting and was aware that I would not be offered accommodation, also if I had any questions he would note them down to be answered at the next meeting in December. Covered again virtually all that was stated in the presentation and remarked that the company was keen to keep me and therefore was willing to offer a Care/Support’ package which was over and above what most employers would do. Asked me if I intended staying with the company and would I be looking to take advantage of this package, also what were my feelings about this situation, had I any questions. My response was to say that I appreciated that this was an exceptional thing for an employer to do, yes I was intending to stay and yes I would seek to utilise this package. I asked if he could ascertain on what terms this max loan of £500 for admin fees would be granted, duly noted that, ie term of loan and would there be interest charged. As for my feelings I gave him an A4 sheet of paper that I had prepared the previous evening. On it I had some stick figures, first one was sad because no offer of accommodation for me. Next one stated scenario of renting a 1 bed flat, stick figure jumping in air saying ‘yipee’ privacy and place of my own followed by a statement, to not be out of pocket financially I need an hourly increase of £3.70p per hour to afford this. Next one (put in to raise a smile!!!!) a male and a female stick figures holding hands with smiles on faces, 1 bed flat only requires for each to get an extra £1.52p an hour, much cheaper option for company, maybe they would start up a resort dating site to keep costs down and a happy team LOL. He barely looked at it, did not even smile and was surprised when I said he could keep it. The sheet did finish giving other scenarios but hey whats the point. All the figures I had got from a spreadsheet that I had compiled to give people an idea of the real costs out there so they knew what they were up against. I had sent this calculator to HR asking if it could be shared with others effected but never got anywhere with this lol.

I was then handed a copy of the new proposed Annualised Contract to take away and study so that if I had any questions I could raise them at the next 1-2-1 meeting. I said that I had already seen a copy (from my representative) and had questions about ‘claw back’ and the term ‘Opportunities’ to make up hours if need be. He noted them but said to raise them at the next meeting. So end of meeting duly signed the paperwork he had. Given a letter to take away. The letter just ‘again’ re-iterated everything from that meeting.

However as I prepared to write this I have noted that there is no mention of the company acting as guarantor in this letter and I will have to listen to the recording I made of the meeting (so NO I did not tell him I was recording it, but now I am glad that I did).This point could be important and I will refer back to it later, sorry yes there’s more.

Have a coffee now!

During the time before the next meeting I spoke to a few other people about there thoughts and feelings. Some were reconciled to the fact they will just have to find a room somewhere and hope they can survive if there is no pay increase, some said they would not even take the care package as they did not want to feel obligated to the company. I spoke to someone who was a Leader and they told me they were going to receive and increase in pay to £8.38p an hour (£17000 pa) which was nice if they had not to rent privately and they told me that their team would be receiving £8.18p an hour (obviously that will be reduced by the accommodation cost of £42 pw) again nice for them yet a small deferential for being a team leader but even with this increase they (leaders) would still be below the part time permanent team rate of £8.50 ph currently being offered.

So received letter inviting me to 2nd 1-2-1 meeting. Apart from stating what was spoken about at the first meeting it also said

“The purpose of this meeting is to answer any questions that I raised at the first meeting and to discuss any feedback I have about the proposal to offer me an Annualised contract from 5th January 2017”.

So 2nd official 1-2-1 meeting 5th December.

Again a script followed but this was with a different person, actually a more down to earth guy (he was not senior management like the first one). A few basic tick boxes to complete to ensure I knew where I was, lol. Then he gave me his sheet and said maybe I would prefer just to read through a section on his form and then raise any questions which he would endeavour to answer.

In the box it stated that the annualised contract was still a ‘proposal’, that the pay period maybe changed to monthly from fortnightly. That as the date to finally move off resort was now in May they wished to offer me a seasonal contract from the 5th of January that will last to 31st of March 2017 when a new Annualised contract would be issued. My first comment was “this is all so fluid how anyone can make any decisions when things keep changing?” His response was that it is still just a proposal at this stage so nothing is set in stone and there is now plenty of time to discuss any issues before May.(The seasonal contract is, I believe, exactly what we all have currently, one that has a termination date every year, so guess this one will state 31st March).

In relation to the draft/proposed copy of the Annualised contract I had been given I raised my concern in relation to possible clawback at the end of the year. He then went on to describe how it would work. He stated that if my contract stated say 35hrs per week but I worked 45 then I would be paid for the extra 10 hours. I said that does not seem to be right in my mind as over the year I will have weeks when its less than the 35 hrs so therefore I will or end up having to payback money. He admitted he had explained it in the way he thought it worked based upon what he had been told that morning. However he was happy enough to call over head of HR to explain it in case he was wrong. So along comes head of HR. The way it will work is that we are employing a person whose soul job is to create a yearly profile based on the previous years’ work pattern and it will be their job also to monitor this and inform my line manager if I am slipping behind or getting to many hours (Lol that’s a good one). So it appears that say according to my profile in a certain period it may say should be working say 25 hrs pw (quiet period) I will paid my 35 hours, then say my profile says 35 hours pw but I work 45 then I will be paid the extra over my profile hours and say in the busiest time my profile may say 50 hours pw but I only work 45 hours (which is what I will be paid for) my line manager will be informed to ensure that I get extra hours to make this up, so hopefully I will not have to pay anything back. The onus apparently will be on the line manager to ensure that I get the hours I need to reach the 1820 hours per annum. Least that’s my understanding of it.

Having dealt with that he asked if I had any concerns or questions I would like him to take away from this meeting to be answered at the next meeting at the end of January. I said that I was still concerned, not just for me but for all those in my situation, about the ongoing affordability of renting in the private sector, also that for this not to be a financial burden an increase in pay would be required but up to this point no discussion had referred to increasing my wage. He noted this down but did say that all depts have budget constraints, he also noted that I asked when there would actually be a formal contract put on the table so that we can make decisions.

Meeting lasted 45 mins having started 30 mins late due to mix up by them in the appointed times. (and YES I recorded that one too) Again there was no mention of ‘Guarantor’ that I can recall, will check recording but fairly certain.

Nearly finished, hope you are hanging in there!

Letter given at end stating what was mentioned above but in relation to the Annualised contract I want to write here their exact wording

“The Annualised contract of employment will have a base number of hours that you will be required to work across a 365 day period, and you will get paid this set amount each week. The contracted hours on your Annualised contract will be a minimum of 35 hours and a maximum of 39 hours. This will depend upon your average hours worked in the past 12 months.

There is an opportunity to earn additional overtime if you are successfully completing the amount of hours that are required throughout the year.

A typical profile of the hours expected to be worked throughout the year on an Annualised contract could be – Peak = up to 50 hours per week, off peak = 0-35 hours per week.”

So my friends that’s it and all that is left is a couple of comments from me.

Firstly – What was the consultation process all about – yes sure about the accommodation accept that but where and when has it been about this floating ever changing Annualised contract? Still stating that it is a proposal!

Are they just dragging this out to minimise the final costs? Are they acting in a manner fit for purpose?

Any pitfalls about them offering another seasonal contract?

Finally as I said earlier….I was going to refer to the omission of any reference at any of these two 1-2-1’s about that word ‘Guarantor’. Is this deliberate? As tonight I met someone that had just been to HR, now they are not a typical case as they had issues in their private life a few months ago and the company helped them by allowing them to live on resort as a temporary measure but as far as I know he has been included in all the meetings that the rest of us have been to. He had been to see a flat and had been to talk with HR about this and they said that the company cannot act as guarantor and this had been verified by the legal eagles the company uses. Could this be the reason there has been nothing given to any of us at the 1-2-1’s that has anything in writing about the company acting as guarantor.

If this is true then there could be 200 people who may not be able to rent in the private sector. LOL, if I can get any further clarification on this case I will post an update.

Any comments/advice or opinions gladly accepted and appreciated, from anyone out there.

Hi
Just checked on Zoopla and in the local area they list 60 properties from 1 bed flats through to 5 bed houses and on easyroom mate site there are 3 bedrooms to rent. So assuming that every landlord would take in multiple tenants and assuming they would allow sharing renters and assuming all concerned were happy to share not only a house but share their room too I guess at a tight squeeze it might just be possible, but there are a lot of things that would have to fall in place, be accepted etc for this to happen.

Affordability is another aspect as the prices range from £570 pcm to over £1700 pcm.

Public transport is available from most of these areas, houses generally have parking spaces and walking is an option with some of the properties listed.

Oh right.

Too be honest this would be very unlikely as most I guess would not have the money to run out and buy a car, if you bare in mind that all the properties would need furnishings too, plus obviously all the other costs involved in car ownership which would just not be feasible!

Thanks for the last reply, I will keep that in mind. For now though here's what happened yesterday.

Being a Friday it was as usual one of the busiest days of the week. There are only 4 of us that work in a particular area and we were one short as they were on holiday. However I was summoned to go to HR to see the HR manager. No reason given for this summons.

I duly left my position and went over to HR and was shown into an office where the 'new' HR manager and the HR person for my particular area were waiting for me.

The manager explained that they had called me in to discuss some areas of concern. Apparently within my area of work they had received some concerns over my attitude towards the company. Apparently I had been overheard running the company down and some members of the team, in which I work, had raised comments that my attitude was one of negativity. Now in my daily work I will associate with my immediate team mates (there are only 4 of us that work together) for maybe 99% of each day and as for the remainder of the complete team I will see them for the other 1% of each working day if that. The discussion was all generalization with nothing specific put in front of me. I did ask if the could substantiate what the were saying and was told that they could not divulge names, but that still did not make them quote any specific events, ie dates and what occurred. It all seemed to be based on verbal comments from who I don't know.

Alright I agreed that I had sent it written details of things that I saw as being issues with the way things were being done, about actual comments made to me from team members across the resort, one that often came up was that there is little point in voicing any concerns about anything as no one listens. Although they did not specifically refer to this being the reason for this discussion I did get the feeling that it was the main and probably only reason that they were unhappy with me. One comment that alluded to this was it was not necessarily what I said but the way in which I stated my points so I was told I needed to voice my concerns in a more acceptable way and stop being so negative.

I asked if this was actually a disciplinary meeting and they said no and stated that it was not a formal meeting and nothing would be placed on my file. However they stated that they will talk with my immediate line manager who will speak with me and who will be asked to monitor me in the expectation that my attitude changes. Should that not be the case then they may have to consider other alternatives. I asked if I would receive any notes on this meeting and was told again its not an official meeting so no there will be nothing in writing. I also asked if there had been any complaints about my attitude or service from any guests and was told that there had been none and that they appreciated that I had received several comments praising my attitude and service when dealing with guests. That pleased me greatly as I pride myself on the level of customer service/satisfaction that I provide to everyone.

I was not the only one summoned that day but one of my immediate colleagues, who has been here a number of years, also was called in, for the same thing as me.

Thats all for now, need to get to work, cannot be late and give them fuel to burn me with, lol.

Thanks for the response.

Maybe I have confused my position a little with my choice of words.

I personally am not one of the representatives, I did put my name forward but was not selected, probably due to the fact that I had only been here at that time 1 year. This 'rant' originally started back in May of this year when the company have an annual team survey and in the section 'other comments' I submitted a reply that was about 4 A4 pages long, all about things that I had come across from my discussions with various team members from across the whole resort which on the whole depicted that things were not all rosey in the garden lol. The 'rant' I referred to in my post was completed about 2-3 months after this and came to about 8 Sides of A4.

As I stated in one of my earlier postings my own rep was previously hauled in to HR and taken to task about his own personal views and he too was hauled in last week about his attitude like me.

Unlike him I will not qualify for redundancy as I have only 15 months service but my issue is with the many versions of where we stand at this time on contracts. Yes our contracts have a termination date as I stated before (if I get one in January it will be my 3rd one) but on the one hand I was given the letter that stated they wanted to give me a seasonal contract till March 31st,
in my discussion with HR they said that my line manager will monitor me and have weekly meetings with me over the next few weeks to see if things are going the right way (seems to imply contract will be renewed as there is only 2 weeks left of old contract, surely not enough time to properly carry out what she said was the way forward) and then yesterday being told nothing is finalized re new contracts being issued at this point. Also seems strange that letter stating what they will offer me in January comes from senior director, followed by HR manager saying over a period of weeks I will be monitored to a lowly Line manager saying nothing is finalised at this point but will be in the next few days. All very confusing!!

We shall see what transpires just a shame they are not all singing from the same Hymn sheet Lol.