TUPE; Urgent - plaease help...

HiFreq

I work in retail and earned, (pre-tax), last year £18500, consisting a salary of £6.00 per hour and the rest in commission. In order to earn the commission, I had to generate a clear profit of £4000 per month at 30% margin.

The branch of the business I work at has now changed hands and I have a letter from the previous employer stating that we are entitled to enjoy the same benefits as before - the existing contract still has six months to run, I believe.

The new employer has presented us with a new contract and t&c's to sign which entitles us to a basic salary of £13000 p.a. and 1.2% commission on everything sold, over £50, after vat. I've worked this out, roughly, and it means I'm going to be about £100.00 per week worse off. (Any financial whizkids out there who can give a more precise figure would be welcomed warmly...).

I love my job and the people I work with and have no desire to leave. I'm very good at it and have been the top seller for quite some time. Where the heck do i stand? What is an ETO and does it apply? Can he sack me for not signing, can he enforce redundancy, even though he will be forced to replace me? Can he actually make these changes? Please help as time is short and he expects the paperwork back soon. Thanks, guys.

Mudd14

They can not force you to sign a new contract under their conditions, the whole point of TUPE is to protect the employees and the existing contracts that they are on. If you were to resign or they were to sack you because of this new contract then you can claim constructive and unfair dismissal and would win in tribunal easy.

With reagrds to redundancy they would need to prove the job does not exist and consult with all employees prior, if not again unfair dismissal.

It sounds like they dont want you on your current contracts and are forcing you to agree to their conditions which as I ahve previously stated is completly ignoring the reason why TUPE exists in t he first place (PE in TUPE - Protection of Earnings!)

mountainofdebt

TUPE (which stands for Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)) means that when you are transferred to the employment of to another employer preserves the original contract of the employee so in effect the new employer can't change your contract for the worse.

I know when I was transferred to a new employer under TUPE I had to sign a new contract but my new contract merely reflected the benefits of the old employer - which was particularly beneficial when I was later made redundant.

As far as ETO is concerned, this means that any dismissal relating to the transfer is considered unfair unless its for 'Economic Technical or organisational (hence ETO) reasons - these could be duplication of roles etc.

What would have happened at the end of six months with your contract had the transfer not taken place?

CFC

Was your commission rate contractual or non contractual? Many bonuses are non contractual and frequently specifically state that they can be changed at any time.

cazziebo

CFC's point is the critical one. If your bonus was not contractual, and if under the new scheme it's not IMPOSSIBLE to match previous earnings, then you don't have a case. However, the incoming owner will want a happy productive workforce so why not talk through your concerns with them?

(ETO is used more when an organisation has too many people, therefore has to let some go because of economic reasons (eg no need for two branches in the same location))