TUPE and Notice

Nednats

I was going to be made redundant from a job I have done for 8 years. Therefore I started to looking for another Job. I'm now not been made redundant and I have TUPE'd over to another company. CBR checks etc have been done. Now I have Job offer from one Jobs I was applied to before. The job is better than the one I am currently doing. But now because of TUPE do I have to give 8 weeks notice? When I applied for the other job I expect my current job would have ended. Any suggestions?

hex2

TUPE means that pretty much everything transfers as it stands - including your notice period as agreed with the previous contract so yes on paper you have to give contractual notice.

Have you already transferred? If not you can 'object' to the transfer and refuse to go. That would see your employment end at the point of transfer without notice being due from you.

If you have already transferred then it may be worth asking new company to release you. Explain that you are unhappy/not enjoying their culture and ask if you can reduce your notice period. Most will let you go if they can. People with TUPE rights are challenging to look after from a HR point of view.

Finally what can they actually do to you if you don't serve your full notice? Is it written in your contract that they can recover costs? I personally do not recruit people who are willing to break their contractual notice obligations on the basis that you would do the same to me going forward but I suspect I am in the minority on this point.

anamenottaken

Nednats wrote: »

I was going to be made redundant from a job I have done for 8 years. Therefore I started to looking for another Job. I'm now not been made redundant and I have TUPE'd over to another company. CBR checks etc have been done. Now I have Job offer from one Jobs I was applied to before. The job is better than the one I am currently doing. But now because of TUPE do I have to give 8 weeks notice? When I applied for the other job I expect my current job would have ended. Any suggestions?

You would only have to give 8 weeks' notice if that is what is required by your original contract.

It sounds as though your contract has a notice period which increases by one week for each year of service. Is that notice which you have to give the employer as well as being that which the employer has to give to you? Whilst the law requires that the employer has to increase the notice they give in that way (up to 12 weeks), there is no law which requires employees to increase in the same way - though some do include this parity of notice periods in their contractual terms (which then, of course, does apply).

pjread

exactly correct as above - refuse the TUPE if it's not happened, otherwise your existing notice applies (but may well not be hard to agree to break, as many employers might quite like to 'leak' a couple of headcount after an event necessitating TUPE...)