TUPE - increased travelling costs?

spykey_uk

Good morning!

I have been told by my employer that they are merging with another company and we will be TUPE'd across to the new employer within the next couple of months. The new base will be 16 miles away from our current location and will have no parking (at the moment we have free parking at work). I currently travel about 30 minutes to work, but this will take me up to about an hour each way.

I have worked out that with the extra 32 miles per day and the parking costs, this is going to work out at about £200-230 more per month in petrol and parking (it costs £5 per day to park at the cheapest local car park).

I am currently 4.5 months pregnant and am desperately trying to save for my maternity leave (as I will be on statutory maternity pay then) but this is cutting what I can save by 2/3rds. Am I within my rights to ask for some sort of additional compensation as a result of the increased travelling costs? Also, my pay review was due in August but our employers haven't mentioned a thing - does TUPE affect the annual pay reviews?

My employer also said that everyone at the new company works 9-6 whereas we work 9-5. He has said that strictly speaking we don't have to agree to work the extra hour but it would be "strongly recommended" that we do so as to fit in with their existing employees. With the extra hour that I will already be travelling, this will add two hours on to my day, which I think is a bit too much for me given that it will be happening when I am at my most pregnant. Am I within my rights to refuse the extra hour and work my existing hours?

He did also say that I would be required to come back full time after my maternity leave, which I didn't think they were allowed to say. I was under the impression that they have to try and be flexible if I could only work part-time, but I must confess I hadn't gotten around to reading the law on this.

Help?!

heretolearn_2

I don't know anything about TUPE so will leave that to others.

On maternity though, no you don't have a right to come back part time. You have the right to return to the same job as before on the same employment terms and conditions as if you had not been away. That's all.

As the parent of a child aged 16 or under you are entitled to request a flexible working pattern. The employer must consider your request and respond to you in writing, but they can say no.

Jarndyce

Briefly, the answers to your questions are:

You can ask for help with travelling costs but the employer is under no obligation to provide this.

Whether your August pay review is honoured depends on whether it is a contractual entitlement or not. Even then a review can result in a zero increase. But generally, if this is a contractual obligation on the employer, it would would transfer with you to the new employer.

Re the extra hour yes you can refuse this, but the new employer could try and impose the change for genuine business reasons. If you did not agree this you could claim to have been unfairly dismissed (as to do it the new employer would have to technically dismiss and re-employ you) but that is a risky strategy to deploy.

Finally, the employer cannot have a blanket policy against part-time work - you have a right to request flexible working upon your return, which they have to seriously consider and can only refuse on genuine business grounds.

THere are several qualifications to all of the above which others may have time to expand on, but that is your basic position.

spykey_uk

Ok thanks guys. That is really helpful.

My main concern is the fact that I will be £200-230 out of pocket every month and every penny is needed at the moment. It looks like I will have to ask but they don't have to give it to me, but I guess there's no harm in trying.

Thanks for all of your help!

SarEl

I agree with Jarndyce. I think you may have misunderstood what your employer has told you - as Jarndyce says, the right to return is the right to return to your existing job and nothing else. The current employer cannot commit the new employer to flexible working in advance of your maternity leave, so there is no promise on the table of part-time working, and I think that was what he was trying to say. It would appear that you have discussed returning part-time (otherwise the subject matter seems a little odd to out of the blue say that part-time working isn't allowed), and he was perhaps just clarifying that any assumptions about what you current manager might agree (or have promised to consider) cannot be enforced on the new employer, and you will have to discuss it with them.

I would suggest that as far as working hours go - wait and see what the new employer says! Your current employer isn't really in a position to say what the new employer may or may not wish to do - for all you know they may have no interest in changing your hours (at least for some time anyway); they may decide to move everyone 9-5 ; or even it might be 9 - 6 flexible working with the opportuniaty to start a bit later / finish a bit earlier. It isn't really appropriate for the current employer to be saying what may or may not happen, and it smacks a little of scare-mongering. Yes, it might happen, but lots of possibilities exist and this is just one of them. Looking on the bright side of speculation, the new employer may also find themsleves overstaffed as a result of the TUPE and you may be one of the few people almost impossible to make redundant! I would suggest that you wait and see what the new employer says about these things.