Employer Relocating - Advice?

stripeyfox

My employer has merged with another company it seems likely (certain in fact, though no official announcement) that we shall be moving to new premises in the area. This is good news for me as it's closer to my house but the new location is not served by public transport and some employees cannot drive.
If they cannot get to work, is it just tough? Or would the company have to make them redundant?
Any help gratefully received?

elona

How about contacting your union rep and seeing if a minibus could pick people up for example?

Debt_Free_Chick

But exactly how far away from the nearest public transport is it? Very few people are delivered directly to their place of work - or picked up from home, by public transport.

Just how far would they have to walk?

jobbingmusician

AFAIK this is a grey area. There have been some tribunals where relocations have been found reasonable, and others where it's been felt that the employer should have offered the employees redundancy. In practice I think most employers are likely to offer redundancy to any workers who don't want to move, to save the costs of going to tribunal (and the risk of losing!) Hope this is good news!

stripeyfox

Nearest bus stop is probably 15 minutes walk away so not a huge distance I suppose when you put it like that.
I think that in practical terms, there won't be a problem as its a fairly small company in a small town and I'm sure that colleagues will get those who do not drive to work; I was just pondering the legal position.

As for me, well it's a short hop from my house, so no more car or bus fare; and it's not in the town centre anymore so no more being tempted to buy stuff whilst on my lunchbreak!

Debt_Free_Chick

stripeyfox wrote:

Nearest bus stop is probably 15 minutes walk away so not a huge distance I suppose when you put it like that.
I think that in practical terms, there won't be a problem as its a fairly small company in a small town and I'm sure that colleagues will get those who do not drive to work; I was just pondering the legal position.

As for me, well it's a short hop from my house, so no more car or bus fare; and it's not in the town centre anymore so no more being tempted to buy stuff whilst on my lunchbreak!

I think it would boil down to whether or not this was likely to be a reasonable "journey" i.e. a 15 min walk from the bus stop to the place of work.

My own view is that it's certainly "not unreasonable". This might make the likelihood of redundancy, as an alternative, unlikely. Difficult to predict. Much depends on how generous the employer is likely to be and whether they are likely to tough it out at Tribunal.

There are no hard & fast rules here, but given that the journey is do-able by public transport and is in the same town, I wouldn't be confident about fighting my case in Tribunal.

Savvy_Sue

Should get everyone else fit with a 15 minute walk!

I used to work on a campus which was about 15 minutes walk from town centre, buses and railway station. When another employer relocated there from the centre of another town, they laid on a bus to pick people up from station and drive them up. The bus also ran in and out of town at lunch time. Lots of us had been quite happily walking to and from town but were able, for a small fare, to take advantage of the bus!

I suppose it might be seen as 'unreasonable' for anyone who has a disability which makes walking difficult and who doesn't drive, but who can use public transport, and was previously OK for getting to work.

However, I read recently that if you can't drive following brain surgery but are otherwise fit to return to work, your local JobCentre are supposed to be able to offer help with getting to and from work.

I don't know if this only applies to 'unable to drive following brain surgery' ...

scheming_gypsy

we moved last year to an out of the way local, from next door to the bus station. As part of an 'apology' staff who used the bus were issued with monthly bus passes for free.
There's also a car share option. Usually ways around it, or if it's near / on a bus route it's possible to ask if a bus stop can be erected nearer.