TUPE/Redundancy

James95_2

Hi,

The company I work for has been sold and we are to be Tupe'd to the new company from 1st December.

Today, the new company came in to tell us that due to the location of their offices, 116 or 150 or 230 miles away, they were offering us relocation or redundancy. As of today, we were under 30 day consultation with them.

Can they start the consultation with us this early bearing in mind, we are not currently their employees?

They have not offered a relocation package, they advised they will 'support' us...as in pay fuel, help us find somewhere to live but no actual package as such.

To be honest, I feel completed sold down the river by my exisiting company. Surely it was obvious that their staff couldn't move to any of the 3 locations on offer.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

snowcat53

Are you in a union? - I certainly hope so as you need to get expert legal advice from them or elsewhere quickly.

My (purely layman's) understanding is that they cannot just make you redundant as a result of the TUPE (ie without an ETO reason) as this would automatically be unfair dismissal. But they are are offering you relocation so not sure how that affects things. But if it is a long way and not a reasonable commute then you may well have a case.

Peelerfart

My understanding is anything more than 90 minutes travel time from your house to your new location would be considered unreasonable.

SarEl

They are not making the employees redundant because of the TUPE - they are making them redundant because of the fact that they will have nowhere to work where they are currently located. It is quite right and proper that they should consult as quickly as possible, and both employers in a TUPE are legally responsible for such things, so the fact that your employment has not yet transferred and, in practical terms, may not do so, means it is now that they must consult.

No emploter is required to offer a relocation package. Given the situation is would be impossible to force you to move - but that does mean that your only option is redundancy.

snowcat53

Thanks for the correction SarEl.

OP- it is a good thing they are consulting so soon, most problems come from employers doing it late or not properly. Even if the outcome looks likely to be redundancy it does give you a chance to try to negotiate as good a package as possible.

James95_2

Thank you for your replies.

In reality, the only option is redundancy. No relocation package being offered, only SRP.

My annoyance is that both of the companies involved are large multi international companies, offering basic SRP and making us redundant before Christmas. That's life I suppose.

TM2010

Wow! I'm really sorry to hear of your dilema. It seems that a lot of multi-national companies and powerful establishments are becoming embroiled in this type of situation. I know of a case involving a FTSE 100's company (Babcock Education and Skills Limited) and Lewisham Council, they both refused to take responsibility for nearly 30 staff after the expiry of the contract between the two of them and so the staff who worked on that contract (Lewisham Connexions) were left without jobs or redundancy packages. Many of the staff concerned had given over 20 years service. The staff are fighting back though by taking both Babcock and Lewisham Council to the Croydon Employment Tribunal. I think that there is supposed to be a public Pre-Hearing Review for this case within the next 2 or 3 weeks...should be interesting! You can find out more about the case at school-info4u. Anyways, I wish you all the best...I hope that you get a satisfactory outcome.