Take it or leave it

princessdewdrop

Now this is quite long so sorry in advance:

My boyfriend and I work together but on different depts. At the beginning of 08 my OH took an internal position in the company and he moved to another dept, after he had signed contracts and been in the job 3 days he and his whole dept where told that ther jobs were being outsourced to a Third Party. Obviously my Oh was quite distressed at this considering he had only been there 3 days. He took his worries up with HR and asked why he was allowed to move depts when all the managers would have know this was going on? There answer...we thought you wanted the job and didn't think you 'd mind doing it else where...nice of them to make that assumption for him.
Anyway the move over to the TPA is in full swing, no one is being offered redundancy as they are all being offered new jobs with the TPA. Our company is London, the new office is outside is outside london but is driveable in about 40mins if no traffic....we have one car between us, so if I wanted to go out in the evening or on a day off..I couldn't till he got home.
We get our annual bonus paid at the end of feb, our company has told all the staff affected by the TPA that is they do not sign there new contracts in 30days that will be accepted as there resignation...and they will not get there bonus! my oh has worked for this company for over 5yrs, many others have been there for over 10yrs!!!! how can they get away with forcing people to take jobs they dont want and not have to pay out any redundancy!!! is this all legal???

ceridwen

That is pretty immoral - they should have told him.

Hopefully someone will come along soon that can say whether he is bound to this.

I have bumped up a Guardian article on my thread "If your employer tries to cut your pay" on the Employment Forum - just in case theres anything useful to you there.

Spirit_2

It sounds as if your OH is being transfered under TUPE "transfer of undertakings protection of employment" legislation - which means staff transfer to third parties that take over a business, on their existing terms and conditions.

This legislation is to protect staff from redundancy or from having their terms and conditions cut when businesses transfer. It does also mean that if your OH does not take a job he may forfiet any right to redundancy, what is key to this is whether to the additional travel to work for OH is reasonable. During the consultation on transfer these things should have been discussed - is a TU involved?

I cannot see why the existing employer would require your OH to sign a new contract though.

princessdewdrop

TU?

he his 40mins away by car (in no traffic) they haven't actually said the rule for reasonability is blah blah...they are going on a case by case basis? so no one really knows what they consider to be "resonable" if my Oh didn't drive it would mean a bus journey to another station 30 mins and 30min train journey or over an hour of buses...and apparently walking to and from stations/bus stops is not consider in the journey time

LittleVoice

TU - Trade Union

princessdewdrop

no...no trade union involved....don't think they have one??? in honestly have no idea what a trade union does

Spirit_2

Trade Unions explained here
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/TradeUnions/DG_10027544


TUPE legislation explained here:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/DG_10026691


TUPE and substantial changes in working conditions here on page 18;
http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file20761.pdf it is not clear cut,and it may be possible to argue that the new location is too distant in time and expense terms.

hope this helps.

spirit

Degenerate

princessdewdrop wrote: »

our company has told all the staff affected by the TPA that is they do not sign there new contracts in 30days that will be accepted as there resignation...and they will not get there bonus!

Unfortunately, they definitely can force him to transfer. He may be entitled to reasonable relocation expenses, eg mileage payments, for a period of time. What I do know is that there is no need to sign a new contract if you are subject to a TUPE transfer. I strongly suspect that it's a sneaky attempt to have it as a "voluntary" transfer to weasel out of the TUPE obligations. The "sign in 30 days" thing is total bull - they would have no grounds to terminate employment. Don't sign a thing - if they try to let him go on those grounds you'll have a watertight unfair dismissal claim.

ceridwen

princessdewdrop wrote: »

TU?

he his 40mins away by car (in no traffic) they haven't actually said the rule for reasonability is blah blah...they are going on a case by case basis? so no one really knows what they consider to be "resonable" if my Oh didn't drive it would mean a bus journey to another station 30 mins and 30min train journey or over an hour of buses...and apparently walking to and from stations/bus stops is not consider in the journey time

Then in that case I wonder if he could "get rid of" his car - then they would have to take into account the amount of "travel to work" time it takes by bus - which is too long (and hopefully they would have to accept that) - rather than the travel to work time by car (which would be considered reasonable).

My understanding of travel to work time is that it should include literally every single minute of the time from the second you step outside your front door to the second you walk in the door at work.

errr.....and he would be well advised to join a T.U.- there will be a relevant one, even if they are not represented in this workplace. However - the fact that the transfer is being done under TUPE suggests there is a union involved - as I doubt an employer would bother with even that level of protection for employees if there wasnt.

chatnoir

AKA Princessdewdrop.

Thanks for all your responses...the car is actually in my name so technically he doesn't have one...which he his pointing out in his meeting with our HR today....OH said that they are signing a new contract as its a new company? is this not correct then?

Degenerate

chatnoir wrote: »

AKA Princessdewdrop.

OH said that they are signing a new contract as its a new company? is this not correct then?

Definitely not necessary and highly suspicious.