Transfer of Employment

killerkev

Hi My wife has worked for a large company for 14 years but has just been informed the branch she works for has been sold to another company.
All employees will be transferred to the new company, my wife is not keen to transfer to the new company so asked for redundancy (she retires in 8 months anyway), Has been told this is not possible as her job is still there and she goes to the new company or quits!!!
Can the old company force her to transfer??? or lose her job without compensation?

Pennywise

As long as the new employer honours the existing employment contract, i.e. same pay, same hours, same job, etc., then she has no right to be made redundant or get a redundancy payment (presumably what she's hoping for!). If she doesn't want to work for the new employer, she can resign, but won't get a redundancy pay-off, just accrued holiday pay etc.

What exactly is her objection to working for the new employer for a few months? Does she expect different working terms or is she just hoping for an excuse to trigger redundancy so she'll get a payoff?

https://www.gov.uk/transfers-takeovers/transfers-of-employment-contracts

"Employees can refuse to work for the new employer. This is the same as resigning - they won’t normally be able to claim unfair dismissal or redundancy pay."

killerkev wrote: »

Can the old company force her to transfer???

No, she's free to resign as above.

killerkev wrote: »

or lose her job without compensation?

Yes, if she resigns, she won't get compensation.

Her only hope is that the new employer decides to materially change her working situation, i.e. different hours, different pay, etc., or do something else that makes her working there impossible, in which case she could claim redundancy or constructive dismissal. But, realistically, the new employer knows she has only a few months left, and will know how much they'd have to pay in redundancy if they got rid of her, so are more likely just to let the next few months run their course as it will no doubt be cheaper for them to pay her normal wages and have an experienced employee.

Undervalued

killerkev wrote: »

Has been told this is not possible as her job is still there and she goes to the new company or quits!!!
Can the old company force her to transfer??? or lose her job without compensation?

Short answer is yes. I'm not sure why you find that so surprising as to warrant three question marks and three exclamation marks.

No one has a "right " to be made redundant. If their position is genuinely redundant they have a right to some compensation. The firm has a duty not to make people redundant unless it is unavoidable.

Under some circumstances it may be possible to negotiate so called "voluntary redundancy" (which is actually a mutually agreed seperation and not technically redundancy at all) but that can only happen if both parties agree. Clearly here the employer doesn't.

killerkev

Her main objection is that she worked for the new company before she took up her new job and did not like the way she was treated (so resigned) All pay and holiday stays the same, her new pension scheme is much poorer (but with only 8mts would not join anyway).
Also 12 months ago she was moved from a very profitable branch to a under-performing branch, and a much younger staff member went the other-way with hing sight clearly a move to get staff members they wanted to keep in position.

Undervalued

killerkev wrote: »

Her main objection is that she worked for the new company before she took up her new job and did not like the way she was treated (so resigned) All pay and holiday stays the same, her new pension scheme is much poorer (but with only 8mts would not join anyway).
Also 12 months ago she was moved from a very profitable branch to a under-performing branch, and a much younger staff member went the other-way with hing sight clearly a move to get staff members they wanted to keep in position.

I'm afraid that is very unlikely to be valid reason to refuse the transfer and be eligible for redundancy.