Change Redundacy Terms

Skyline_R32

Hi,
My Employer is trying to change my Redundancy terms and conditions, with the threat of Form HR1. Are they legally aloud to do this? They are targeting employees that were employed before 1st September 1996 (when the company was privatised) Our Redundancy terms at present are what civil servants used to get. We all transferred under TUPE. The main reason for the change is they consider that the very significant costs of the present enhanced redundancy payment entitlements restrict the company’s flexibility when considering future staffing needs – is this sufficient reason to change our terms? They must be concerned about changing our contract because they are offering a payment for us to sign. Here are the main points of the change of contract. The current compensation terms paid to pre 1996 staff under the age of 60 who are made compulsorily redundant will be changed on 1st July 2014 to a single compensation payment of one months salary for each year of service capped at 12 months. Reckonable salary will be arrived at by adding any regularly paid allowances (whether pensionable or not) to base pay; A minimum ‘Lower Pay Threshold’ will be applied to salaries at £23,000 for full time staff, or pro-rata. All pre 1996 staff will be entitled to 6 months’ notice of compulsory redundancy. We are being offered a payment of £7000 to sign away our old contract. We stand to loose out on a considerable amount of redundancy pay. Obviously we have all worked for the company for more than 16 years and would in effect get 3 years redundancy pay if made redundant tomorrow. Where do we stand with the threat of the HR1? What if we do not agree to the new terms? Can we all loose our jobs? I know I should be gratefull I still have a job at the moment, but I can see the end coming soon and that is the reason they are trying to change the terms. Constructive comment's only please.

SarEl

No they are not concerned. Changing your terms without ANY compensation would take a few months, but would be relatively easy. Your TUPE protected your terms at the point of transfer. After that they were take game. Now...? Easy pickings. They could even do it without redundancy. Just legally serve notice and you take it or leave it -- resignation on your part. Can you stop them? Possibly. It will mean a fight, and I mean fight. It's called industrial action. If you can't or won't do that, or you can't win even if you did... Then I afraid you take the offer.

One POSSIBLE route, and it is exceptionally rare, is to examine the terms of the original TUPE. In very rare circumstances they protected certain terms for ever. But I'm not hopeful.

getmore4less

I am not sure the how the HR1 is a threat.

AUII that is the notification to the authorities they will be making redundancies

Would that not be the best option cash in the years you have at the current redundancy rates.

Chances are they will never be that good again and job security is not a certainty.

For the older ones there may also be some pension benifits that got TUPE over in the agreement.

GEt a cope of the original outsource/TUPE agreement