Retaining mobile number when leaving employer ?

borischelski

I worked for the same company for 30 years and they allowed personal calls on the company mobile phone. Effectively this became my personal phone and number. Upon leaving they allowed me to take my mobile telephone number with me when I left.

My new employer is also very flexible and allows full personal use on the company phones, and most employees take advantage of this benefit and only operate with the company mobile. When I joined the company said I could use my personal number on the company phone.


Until recently I have chosen to operate two separate phones ie one for business and another for personal use. However it has become complicated operating two separate phones with separate diaries etc.

The company are now upgrading their phones and I am now planning to take advantage of their kind offer and from feburary I am planning to get rid of my personal phone and instead adopt my personal number on my company phone.

However I am still concerned that notwithstanding the companies offer to maintain my personal number on my company phone, this could change if I left the company, either through my choice or their decision.

Somebody told me that there has been some recent employment case law, recognising that in todays digital world that an employees personal number is effectively part of their DNA. As a result I am told that the law allows employees to retain their company when leaving their employer.

Is this correct ?

I am wondering if anyone may know of a simple set of words I could build into a letter to my employer ie along the lines of:

“I hereby agree with immediate effect to adopt my personal mobile number 12345678910 for business use onto my company mobile phone.

In the event I leave the company, whether at the companys decision or through my choice, it is agreed that the above mobile number remains my property and that this number with me if/when I leave.”

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Comms69

As far as I’m aware no such law exists.

Ozzuk

I've never heard of that. I manage our mobile contract, I warn new users that we no longer allow people to take their number with them. This is because I have to then end their contract (EE said it is the only way to free up the number), so if they are being replaced it means a new contract, which throws my overall contract dates out of sync.

KatrinaWaves

There is no law that your mobile number is 'part of your DNA'

There is some discussion over it with regards to 'Bring Your Own devices' aka how can a company ASk you to use your own phone or laptop, and then retain rights over it after, but this is not the case, they are providing the device.

They have been pretty okay with you so far, letting you port your personal number onto their company phone, so they might be fine, but there are many reasons of confidentiality and competition which could mean that by asking them to put your personal number on company tech that its not yours anymore.

TELLIT01

The only way to be certain that you will be able to take your phone number with you is to have it written into your contract of employment along with the number being referred to.
Personally, I'd rather have my own phone purely for my personal use, and a separate phone for work. Then it's simple to compartmentalise the two parts of life. I never wanted work to contact me when I wasn't at work or on call, so I could simply leave the work phone behind at weekends or when on holiday.

getmore4less

Get a dual sim phone and use them both on the same phone

sparkermarketing

it should be easy enough to sync up contacts/calendars/emails/messages etc across the 2 devices whilst retaining both independently.

I would never let my personal number become company property - and I have seen such situations get messy in the past. It is a faff having 2 phones sometimes but on balance probably worth it.

JCS1

From a companies point of view, if you worked in Sales (for example) then they would not want you to take a number with you if you left.

pmduk

Alternatively, transfer your number to a PAYG SIM and end ensure you use it once every once in a while (checking the T&Cs for the precise period required to keep the SIM and number active.)