Tupe

Streamside

I work for a local government organization and was transferred two years ago from another government Dept . TUPE applied and this was confirmed to us in writing. Policies are now being reviewed by hr and I'm being told that I'll lose an on call payment which I've been in receipt of for 20 years. I've advised the employer that I don't wish the new policy to apply, I wish for my previous conditions to be upheld through tupe. There's a bit of a stand off at present with my line manager telling me tupe doesn't apply, hr tell me that pay roll will have to advise me and pay roll won't respond.Meanwhile the line manager tells me every day that tupe doesn't apply so I will lose the payment and have the same conditions as the others I work with, all of whom are new employees who didn't transfer.Any thoughts?

Marcon

See https://www.gov.uk/transfers-takeovers/transfers-of-employment-contracts and read the section headed 'after the transfer'.

sangie595

Streamside wrote: »

I work for a local government organization and was transferred two years ago from another government Dept . TUPE applied and this was confirmed to us in writing. Policies are now being reviewed by hr and I'm being told that I'll lose an on call payment which I've been in receipt of for 20 years. I've advised the employer that I don't wish the new policy to apply, I wish for my previous conditions to be upheld through tupe. There's a bit of a stand off at present with my line manager telling me tupe doesn't apply, hr tell me that pay roll will have to advise me and pay roll won't respond.Meanwhile the line manager tells me every day that tupe doesn't apply so I will lose the payment and have the same conditions as the others I work with, all of whom are new employees who didn't transfer.Any thoughts?

You've called your union?

Two years on from the transfer, and given the circumstances of local government, I suspect the chances of you winning this are slim. The only possibility may lie with the union being willing to fight on your behalf, because it's exceedingly unlikely the law would fall on your side.

Streamside

My employer's not put anything in writing yet, so far it's been a chain of line managers telling me I'll lose the payment but not putting anything in writing.I've run it by the union who are now awaiting something more concrete to go on. Almost 1000 people transferred through TUPE so the unions have been pretty busy with similar cases. I'm not sure why the 2 years would matter, they're attempting to change my terms and conditions and TUPE was meant to protect these.

JCS1

But the can change after TUPE, have you read the link in post 2?

foolofbeans

JCS1 wrote: »

But the can change after TUPE, have you read the link in post 2?

The link suggests the employee has to agree to the change and OP definitely doesn't agree.

Streamside

There's also been no change such as that defined in the link and I'm certainly not going to agree to it. Hope to get an update next week. What I'm hearing informally is that a small number of staff are entitled to this payment, this right transferred with TUPE and a senior manager is determined to take it from us.

Gavin83

Do you actually do on call support?

sangie595

It's very simple and often misunderstood. TUPE protects terms at the point of transfer. Not afterwards. The minute the transfer has taken place terms can be changed - for economic, technical or organisational reasons. It's an exceedingly stupid employer who can't work out one of those. Then successive cases have found that there is a "grey area" - that it is not reasonable to consider terms sacrosanct for ever, because that unreasonably ties the employer. As a result it is broadly considered that once two years have passed, it becomes unlikely that a tribunal would support a claim on TUPE. Of course, very few people will be testing that theory out because taking your employer to a tribunal tends to not be considered career enhancing.

Streamside

In a case where there are a large number of transferred employees I also believe it would be a foolish employer who would tie themselves into grievances and tribunals for years. I'm watching this situation with interest and will feedback.

Streamside

Gavin, Yes I do and under the terms of my legacy employer ie the old policy I would continue to be eligible for an on call payment