Told to relocate offices no redundancy option

nyermen

Shouldn't it depend on travel time rather than distance?  If it was trains, and suddenly there was a change due to lines not connecting, it could be quite a change.  And impact to "reasonable change of conditions" would surely depend on that?

furby-2003

ok, thanks. im just gutted everyone else in the company will get redundancy because they are a different part of the business they don't want. i've been holding out in the vain hope i'd get a pay out otherwise i'd have left years ago. From my point of view im not prepared to do this regardless as there are too many factors at play. its just a shame ill have to just leave after so many years. i just can't afford parking charges potential congestion charges if i have to come off the motorway and potentially not getting to school on time. Its just not worth the stress. 

furby-2003

nyermen said:

Shouldn't it depend on travel time rather than distance?  If it was trains, and suddenly there was a change due to lines not connecting, it could be quite a change.  And impact to "reasonable change of conditions" would surely depend on that?

i really dont know. if it was travel time it takes me about 15 minutes to get from home to work i park on the work car park so have no walking time. 
the new office is 45-1 hour away depending on traffic as its the m5 m42 or through the middle of birmingham but next year my car will have the congestion charge applied. the car park is about 5-10 minutes away from the office and ill be there at around 10am so it would very much depend on spaces im assuming. but i wouldn't think the would be taken into account. 

furby-2003

We dont have a local rail station so the travel time is higher due to this. and i think its 2 changes

getmore4less

nyermen said:

Shouldn't it depend on travel time rather than distance?  If it was trains, and suddenly there was a change due to lines not connecting, it could be quite a change.  And impact to "reasonable change of conditions" would surely depend on that?

It can but you need to get to ~90mins extra this can be done at an individual level.

The OP drives and driving time would be the measure for them at 26.1 miles is likely to be ~1hr.

Where a blanket it's suitable for everyone is used  Individuals can still put a case that the alternative is not suitable for them and see what arguments the company comes back with that it is suitable or if they will make adjustments to make it more suitable for the employee.

There is  a chance that they want to get the office merger sorted then reorg and the OP could get that redundancy.

avawat20

As others have said, it doesn't seem unreasonable in what they are asking (although it may to you because it affects you personally!), usually you will have 'reasonable travel time' dictated in some kind of organisational change/relocation policy and everywhere I have worked this is deemed as an hour or certain mileage (each way) and 30 miles is likely to fit in with the hour or reasonable mileage.

Technically childcare itself is not a protected characteristic so there is not much chance of discrimination here. You may want to consult citizens advice or ACAS though. If they can't advise further then you can explore your options around flexible working (can you change the hours / days you work to make it work better? If you really can't then you may need to consider a change of employer when the time is right.

teflontinker

Does it state your place of work on your contract of employment? If it does then this is a change in your contract and you can refuse it and they have 12 weeks to reply. I would say it's unreasonable amount of travel time for a part time position.

TBagpuss

I'm not sure whether a change which adds up to a hour to your commute *would* be considered suitable, if you have no mobility clause in the contract - my understanding is that suitability does include (up to a point) looking at your personals circumstances and this might include your child care responsibilities and the fact that you are part time (so the extra time compared to the amount of time you are in work, and the extra cost if they don't pay for it longer term, are proportionally bigger) .
If you will quit rather than accept the alternative then it seems to me that you don't have a lot to lose by responding to tell them that you don't accept that the new job is a suitable alternative for you, given the extra commute and the impacts on you in your personal circumstances,  (this article  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/redundancy-when-alternative-employment-suitable-daniel-barnett doesn't specify the cases he is referencing but does give an example "Rejection of a job that would require an hour’s tube ride each way in place of a 15-minute car journey has been held to be reasonable"  and your personal situation and child a care responsibilities are also relevant as the suitability is looked at on an individual basis. 

I think the process would be to explicitly reject the job on the basis that it is not a suitable alternative, giving the significantly longer commute, it's impact on your caring responsibilities and the need to asses suitability on an individual basis, then if they don't agree raise a formal grievance requesting your redundancy pay, and get advice to ensure that you seek conciliation (throug ACAS) or  tribunal claim within the time limits. 

If you can, try out the commute so you can be accurate about the extra time it takes - e.g. if you would have to do it a peak times, try it out at that time, don't rely on what google maps or the AA say it might take at non-peak times! 

avawat20

teflontinker said:

Does it state your place of work on your contract of employment? If it does then this is a change in your contract and you can refuse it and they have 12 weeks to reply. I would say it's unreasonable amount of travel time for a part time position.

The organisation can give contractual notice to change your place of location. If a business is shutting down an office and the building is being knocked down you can't just have people say "no, I'm not moving"!

The fact that someone is part time isn't really relevant, they most likely chose to be part-time.