Reduction of notice period

YBR

Marcon said:

secla said:

I have coming up to 20 years continuous service.

My job is relatively unskilled and im sure someone would be put in my position from current staff so cant see how they would claim for any losses the company could try to claim from me if i chose to leave and not give full notice. Most people that leave give 1-2 weeks notice, some just leave same day

In that case what your employer is trying to do makes no sense - unless they are so incompetent they don't understand basic employment law. Reducing the notice period to 4 weeks would give you the benefit of a much shorter notice if you do want to resign, without impacting on the (statutory) notice period your employer has to give you. Beware if they try to issue a new contract with some sort of 'break in continuous employment' to try and get round the issue.

It may make no sense for OP, but if they're doing this across the board it gives benefits to the employer with respect to those on shorter continuous service.

It may just be that the longer notice period is out-of-step with what is normal for those roles in that industry. I've been through several TUPEs and it seems not uncommon for the new employer to request changes, or to invite an employee to take a new contract with a subsequent promotion, simply because HR dislike administering a wide variety of different T&Cs. It's not necessarily sinister.

Ditzy_Mitzy

Marcon said:

secla said:

I have coming up to 20 years continuous service.

My job is relatively unskilled and im sure someone would be put in my position from current staff so cant see how they would claim for any losses the company could try to claim from me if i chose to leave and not give full notice. Most people that leave give 1-2 weeks notice, some just leave same day

In that case what your employer is trying to do makes no sense - unless they are so incompetent they don't understand basic employment law. Reducing the notice period to 4 weeks would give you the benefit of a much shorter notice if you do want to resign, without impacting on the (statutory) notice period your employer has to give you. Beware if they try to issue a new contract with some sort of 'break in continuous employment' to try and get round the issue.

I think it makes a sort of sense, given that there are probably disadvantages associated with extended notice periods.  It may, however, be something as simple as the new owners wishing to align administrative processes.  I've never been TUPE'd myself, but know others who have and their contracts underwent minor tinkering as a result.  

secla

Having looked a bit more into it it seems to affect people who have worked here for under 12 years more than me as the statutory redundancy period covers me. It is unusual in my line of work to have such a long notice period but its an old contract that only a limited number of people have now. Maybe they are just trying to bring everyone's t&cs in line

General_Grant

secla said:

Having looked a bit more into it it seems to affect people who have worked here for under 12 years more than me as the statutory redundancy period covers me. It is unusual in my line of work to have such a long notice period but its an old contract that only a limited number of people have now. Maybe they are just trying to bring everyone's t&cs in line

If tthe 13 weeks is also what is required from an employee then reducing to  4  weeks could be beneficial because of being available for a new employer relatively quickly.  However that would still not reduce the statutory notice  required to be given by the employer.

While statutory notice required from an employer increases over time up to the 12 weeks, statutory notice from an employee never increases beyond 1 week (but can be increased by the contract).

TheSpiddalKid

What the new employer is proposing to do is harmonisation, which is in breach of TUPE regs with the OP saying that there is an ETO reason not connected to the transfer. This creates something with which you can bargain for a payout in order to agree to the new terms other than just the loss of notice period. If you're willing to accept the change I would be minded to say to your employer exactly this and ask them to propose a sum equitable to you agreeing the new terms and forgoing any rights to claim beach of TUPE.