TUPE Help please

sar77

Morning all

Need a little bit of advice please
The company i work for has lost the renewal of the contract i work on, it has been confirmed that i will be transfered over to the new company as of the 03/07/2015,
The new company office location is 280 miles away from my current one, we have not yet entered in to consultation talks this start this week with a group one followed by induvidual ones.
My question is can i demand/ask to be made redundent due to the distance of the new office ??
My current contract states i can be asked to work in our other office which is accesable to me but they will also be relocating to the new one.

Also the new company have been advertising our jobs but under a different title on their website these were posted over a month ago, Is this allowed as they have not even entered in to talks with us yet ??

Any advice would be greatfully welcome

Thanks

ableandy

Hi,

Did you have a consultation process (https://www.gov.uk/transfers-takeovers/consulting-and-informing), this should have been where your answer was provided.

You could ask for voluntary redundancy (which will be from your new employer). Advertising your roles is risky as they would be effectively sacking you and you would be able to claim constructive dismissal.

That said are you sure they are your jobs? If you are then when you have your consultation meeting you should take a copy of the advert with you and ask them to explain - you could call their bluff and agree to move to the new location and ask about re-location expenses.

keith969

I worked for a company which was taken over by another some years ago. They could not give me the same job title and with the help of a good employment solicitor, went for constructive dismissall and did well out of it.
The company had to pay the solicitor, so it was worth the try...

Under TUPE, expecting you to work 280 miles away may well be a contradiction in your original contract. But I'm no lawyer...

BobQ

sar77 wrote: »

Morning all

Need a little bit of advice please
The company i work for has lost the renewal of the contract i work on, it has been confirmed that i will be transfered over to the new company as of the 03/07/2015,
The new company office location is 280 miles away from my current one, we have not yet entered in to consultation talks this start this week with a group one followed by induvidual ones.
My question is can i demand/ask to be made redundent due to the distance of the new office ??
My current contract states i can be asked to work in our other office which is accesable to me but they will also be relocating to the new one.

Also the new company have been advertising our jobs but under a different title on their website these were posted over a month ago, Is this allowed as they have not even entered in to talks with us yet ??

Any advice would be greatfully welcome

Thanks

I take it you are not a member of a Trades Union. They can be very useful in situations like this.

You have a contract of employment at present. Does it explicitly say that you are required to work at one of two offices by name? Or does it say you may be required to work anywhere they have an office? What matters is the area within which you are expected to work not what offices they have now or in the future. If for example it said Location A or Location B or any other office within 50 miles, that would define an area of mobility.

If you are contractually obliged to work at any office your current firm has, this will not change after TUPE to a new firm. That said does your current contract or employment manual state anything about terms of transfers to other offices (relocation allowances etc.)

If you are currently only required to work at one of two offices, moving 280 miles would be a contractual change and redundancy should be an option since the job you have (with a contractually defined location) is not transferring with the same conditions.

It is difficult to say what they are advertising. It might be they have won other business and are simply recruiting to staff that work. It is also possible they are doing this to manage their risks. That is they want to recruit a few people, but are willing to recruit more if staff do not move. So they may want you to move but are realistic about the matter and do not expect you to do so. This is what the consultations are about.

Remember that if your contract indicates a requirement to work at any location, you would not necessarily get redundancy and a refusal to move would be equal to resignation.

There is a lot of useful stuff on the ACAS website and ACAS has a helpline.

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4852