NHS & TUPE advice please!

alicherry

Hello All,

I currently have a full time NHS contract with one trust, but split my day to day work 3:2 between two teams. Now I have been informed that the team I work 3 days for is TUPE-ing to a new trust but my 2 days are staying with the original. Surely I don't have to end up working for two employers? If I have a full time contract do the new trust have to protect this under TUPE?

I'm sure I can't be the only NHS worker this has happened to, so any advice would be great! Oh and I'm not currently in a union. I would join but their website states I might not be able to get any advice for 4 weeks after joining so it might be too late.

dippy3103

Will you be paid by one trust but your time split between two? Or will you be employed by both?

alicherry

Well that's the problem - they (HR) can't seem to decide what they want to do! I would rather the first option: being paid by one trust and having some kind of SLA to provide my time to the other team. My thoughts were that if my contract is full time then if the new trust want to TUPE me in they would have to protect these terms and conditions? Regardless of how my time is split? I'm calling ACAS Monday morning anyway to see if they have any nuggets of wisdom!

Savvy_Sue

alicherry wrote: »

Oh and I'm not currently in a union. I would join but their website states I might not be able to get any advice for 4 weeks after joining so it might be too late.

Well that is true, but if you think that having been TUPEd you will never have any problem with your new employer, or indeed your current employer, you have a very optimistic view of employment in the UK ...

nicechap

alicherry wrote: »

Hello All,

I currently have a full time NHS contract with one trust, but split my day to day work 3:2 between two teams. Now I have been informed that the team I work 3 days for is TUPE-ing to a new trust but my 2 days are staying with the original. Surely I don't have to end up working for two employers? If I have a full time contract do the new trust have to protect this under TUPE?

I'm sure I can't be the only NHS worker this has happened to, so any advice would be great! Oh and I'm not currently in a union. I would join but their website states I might not be able to get any advice for 4 weeks after joining so it might be too late.

Its was your choice to be on your own. And the advice probably won't be about things that have happened before you joined.

I'm sure all the union dues you've saved up will pay for some legal advice to get you out of the pickle you think you're in.

Manxman_in_exile

Don't expect a sensible solution to this!


Some years ago I worked in NHS education and training. The function was hosted by a trust for whom I'd previously worked for as a management accountant. During a reorganisation (the nicely named "Shifting the Balance of Power" IIRC) me and my colleagues were inexplicably TUPE'd over to a trust over 100 miles away, even though our work base never changed! It was nightmare until I got redeployed back to the trust I originally worked for.

polgara

Technically you would transfer it appears that you have one contract rather than two assignments. So your whole contract should transfer as you spend more time on the one that is transferring. It would be up to the new employer to find you other work to do for those 'spare' two days. In practice there might be some differences but you'd need to flag that to your HR department for them to liaise with the new Trust and you need to also raise that in any 121s.

alicherry

Thanks Polgara,

That's what I suspected and what I will use to stand my ground! I do have the chance to have interviews with the HR Project lead (I suspect they have not had much experience with this situation before) and I have already sent them evidence of my contract and continuous service (cos they got that wrong too!) Hoping for a not too painful solution...

alicherry

Manxman: Wow! That's crazy, but knowing the NHS I'm not surprised :-(
I'm assuming if you needed to get anything done like ID, permits, mandatory training, etc you had to make the long day trip over to the trust HQ?
Luckily the work itself is not changing so I will be staying in the same area. Another silly thing is that team number 2 for the original trust, will eventually, (guess what?) TUPE over to the new trust in 18 to 24months. It's just their timescales are different. Madness...

polgara

Yes things like Shifting the Balance of Power (Government decision) meant that commissioners couldn't also be a provider so lots of departments/people ended up being transferred to provider organisations (hospital trusts, community trusts etc) and now we have STPs which mean services are moving around too. If your other team is moving then the Trust might well talk about having an SLA for that short period until the other service transfers in.