TUPE/Tripartite agreement and conflicts of interest

Mackle

Hi,


I work in a team where each member is currently in scope of TUPE. The actual date of transfer is expected to be March 2015, although details of the Tripartite settlement that we will be offered by the new provider have already been given to us.


The grounds for TUPE are that the majority of the work carried out are for a contract that was re-tendered, and the percentage of worktime that each team member spends on the this customer is 85-98%.


So far so good.


However, I have recently been told that I have to get more and more involved with a new offering that the company is bringing to market, and have been on training courses relating to this offering. So in the period between now and March of next year, my percentage of time spent on the contract that has put me on the TUPE list may drop significantly.


So far none of my other colleagues have carried out work on or training for, this new market offering. What is starting to concern me is that being given knowledge that my Tripartite agreement will be a years salary and three months PILON and that I am in scope of TUPE, is that by my line manager deciding to send me on courses and give me work that is related to a different project, that I then find out six weeks before the date of transfer that I am now out of scope of TUPE whilst my other colleagues collect their golden handshakes.


When I raise my concerns about this additional work taking me out of scope of TUPE, my line manager will just say that until six weeks before the date of transfer no-one should assume that they will remain in scope and besides the commercial interests of the company in giving the right work to the right people takes priority over peoples wishes to remain in scope, OR else he will say peculiar things about "money isn't everything" and "Yes a years salary is a nice idea but at the end of the day if I were you I'd be much happier being in a job".


HR haven't been much help either; in making the observation that it appears that in my situation a line manager is in a position to decide that he doesn't want certain individuals in scope of TUPE so can get them spending more time working on other projects, a rather angry rebuttal about not being prepared to provide an answer to "a question that seeks to call in to question the integrity of our people managers". Upon trying to get any kind of usable response at all, the best that I could get was that no guarantees could be given if the new service provider requested an updated TUPE list and that the stipulation for in scope with a service provision change was that the employee worked on that service wholly or mainly in the immediate period prior to the transfer.


As far as I know, I can't refuse to work on new things, my contract says that I work in that team, but my job description isn't exact in stating that I am dedicated to supporting one contract or another. However, the idea that after being in scope because for the past few years 95% of my time has been spent on a particular service yet in the last few months of that service one manager could decide "he's my senior guy, he can work on this instead" knowing that it takes me off of the TUPE list when I've made it clear that I believe the Tripartite settlement figure is best for my life situation.


It creates a bit of a conflict of interest because the line manager would like to keep certain people, but they want to remain in scope and receive the tripartite settlement instead.


Timeline-wise, we found out in December of last year that we were unsuccessful in retaining this contract, and in March the new service provider was announced. Then in June those of us who were currently in scope were notified, and soon after were given details of the tripartite agreement settlement that we would be offered six weeks before the date of transfer, which currently is scheduled to be in March.

sangie595

Unfortunately your employer is right - there is no right to be considered in scope for TUPE, and if your employer decides that their business needs are best served by having you work on something else, then that is the determining factor. There is absolutely no conflict of interest here (not that it would matter if there was - you aren't entitled to be part of the TUPE, nobody is) - the manager is acting in the employers best interests, which it is their job to do. That's what their job always is. Your "life situation" is of absolutely no concern to the employer.

getmore4less

^^^ agree.

It is upto the employer to deploy their people how they want.


The way you have to tackle this is from two potential angles.

Become a person they do not want to keep.

Make sure you stay on the contract, the people you provide the service too, make shure they know the team currently working on the project is changing and see if they care.

The othe issue is that once TUPE the new supplier mght just decide to keep the people on the job.

(I asume you mean March 2016)

sangie595

getmore4less wrote: »

Become a person they do not want to keep.

Which may well work out. Or get you dismissed! There is always more than one way to exit employment, and I doubt either employer will weep buckets at not having to pay you off.

Mackle

getmore4less wrote: »

The othe issue is that once TUPE the new supplier mght just decide to keep the people on the job.

(I asume you mean March 2016)

The new supplier has stated that their preference is Tripartite agreements.


They have also said that a lot of the functions will be off-shored to India and the Philippines so a lot of staff will likely be made redundant due to ETO, but those jobs remaining in the UK will be based out of Newcastle (everything is London based at the moment) and no relocation help will be offered.


It's been stressed by the employee reps that the new providers redundancy terms are statutory, so we've been encouraged to accept the tripartite which in my case is a years salary.


I did mean March 2016, yes. It's been pushed back to April 2016, and we've been told that the Tripartite agreement offers will go out six weeks before the date of transfer.