TUPE and administration

phuzzy

I'm currently in the following situation:

The company I had been working for for the past 7 years, went into administration with a view to be bought out as a going concern. Some staff were made redundant immediatly, while myself and four others were kept on as key employees. However, after almost two weeks of been in administartion we were also made redundant. We were given the claim forms by the administrator for back pay and redundency pay, which we filled out, and also signed on at the job centre. It now looks like the assests of the company are now being bought out by newco, with the oldco going into liqudation. I think that we are going to be offered our old jobs back again at newco.

Question is, are our old contracts protected by TUPE, even though we were made redundant? And if so, is our redundancy claim now void?

Also if we refuse the offer for the job (there has been a lot of ill feelings over what has happened, and why it happened) is this seen as we have resigned so we will not be entitled to redundancy, payment in Lieu and even JSA?

Debt_Free_Chick

No, you will not be protected by TUPE if you are employed by newco as your old employment has been terminated by reason of redundancy. If you are taken back, it will be as a brand new employee with a new contract.

TUPE wouldn't normally apply to a purchase of assets, anyway.

RobertoMoir

What DFC said.

If you've been made redundant then you've been made redundant. That's one issue
If you get a new job offer from the new company that's another issue. The only connection is the happy co-incidence for you and your new employer that you'll quickly get the hang of your new job, should you work for them, as it will be remarkably like your old one.

Your redundancy money is "safe", but any contracts will clearly be new ones.

It's up to you but I'd make any decisions on working for the new company purely on a business basis - don't get feelings about something that happened at your old company get in the way.

Assuming you don't mind the job this seems like a way of getting some money under your belt with the redundancy and keeping a wage coming - in these tough times that's nothing to sneeze at. If you want to leave, I'd still consider taking the job for a while and then leaving on your own terms, depending on your money situation.