TUPE question. Any takers?

GaryBC

It's a bit of a long shot as there's no forum here which deals with it - but redundancy is sort of close-ish!


My wife is a field-based regional manager being TUPE'd over to a new employer. Part of her current package is a company car - a necessary part of her employment as she travels between facilities.
The new employer is talking of replacing the car with a car allowance.
This is problematic for a couple of reasons:-

• To lease a car involves an up-front 'deposit'
• The monthly costs are high for a personal lease
• There is a 'lock-in' period
• The penalties for exceeding the agreed mileage are high.

The car allowance being currently mooted comes nowhere near what would be necessary to lease a car so would have to be 'topped up' massively from personal coffers. Post TUPE there is no guarantee of continuing employment for the lease period lock-in.


To me this constitutes a massive shift of risk onto my wife and a significant change to her Ts & Cs. Within the rules of TUPE how much is her new employer on the hook as far as keeping her sufficiently mobile to do her job without expecting her (us!) to foot the bill for it?


Thanks,
Gary


(Having typed this all in I bet I now find out that nobody here is able to talk TUPE!)

ssparks2003

Why lease? What about buying?

sangie595

TUPE protects your terms at the point of transfer. After that, no matter what people think the law says, all bets are off. An employer can find an ETO reason to change terms, and the chances of challenging that in a tribunal are low - and you'll already have lost your job by the time it gets there anyway.

Buy a car, use the allowance to pay it off, plus the mileage amounts are often attractive.

A company car isn't a necessity. It's nice, yes. It's not tax efficient these days though. And she's able to travel by public transport if she refuses to buy a car. Yes, it'll take forever. But that would be the employers problem as they can't force her to buy a car for them.

Box clever!

Ozzuk

How much is the allowance? I'd be surprised if not a couple of hundred?

I've never done PCP, looked into it a few times though - you can get deals over many periods, some with very little up front, and very low cost - many deals around 99/150 a month. Obviously you aren't getting a high end car for that, but if cost is your priority who cares. If her job ends I think (check for yourself) that you can surrender when a PCP deal hits 50% anyway.

So cheap, worry free motoring.

suki1964

sangie595 wrote: »

TUPE protects your terms at the point of transfer. After that, no matter what people think the law says, all bets are off. An employer can find an ETO reason to change terms, and the chances of challenging that in a tribunal are low - and you'll already have lost your job by the time it gets there anyway.

Buy a car, use the allowance to pay it off, plus the mileage amounts are often attractive.

A company car isn't a necessity. It's nice, yes. It's not tax efficient these days though. And she's able to travel by public transport if she refuses to buy a car. Yes, it'll take forever. But that would be the employers problem as they can't force her to buy a car for them.

Box clever!

Welcome back Sangie x

tealady

suki1964 wrote: »

Welcome back Sangie x

These forums need more straight talking, and knowledgable people.
I do get annoyed when people ask for advice and expect a response tailored to what they want to hear. If I ask for advice I prefer a to the point response, after all posters like Sangie know their stuff and are doing it for free.
I say if you want to hear only what you want to hear then phone a friend.

PS OP this post was not aimed at you