TUPE Holiday Entitlement

taper

Hi,

we are currently in the middle of a TUPE consultation. Under my previous contact we were entitled to 28 days holiday plus eight paid bank holiday. The proposed contract states 36 days holiday (including bank holidays) where the only compulsory days are Christmas, Boxing Day and NYD.

On the face of it this looks ok, and gives flexibility on when to take holiday.
However the flip side is we could be forced to work a bank holiday.
They have said any requests for leave on a non compulsory bank holiday need to be approved by your manager, so could be refused.
This doesn’t sit well with anyone in my team, as we all have families and want bank holidays off.

Are they able to change our contracts in this way under TUPE?

Most other changes are fair and we have been told if we don’t sign the new contract we are effectively resigning from our position!

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

p00hsticks

I'm not sure that TUPE is necessarily that relevant here.

Having been through the TUPE process a couple of times myself in the past, and also been an employee of a company that was taken over,  my understanding is that at the point of transfer your contract remains the same as it is for your existing employer, although the new employer may give transferring employees the option of moving over ('harmonising')  to the same T&Cs as existing staff.

But any employer, whether current or one taking over employees via TUPE, is allowed to propose a change to employees contracts for 'Economic, Technical or Organisational' (ETO) reasons and I think requiring some staff to be present on bank holidays could qualify as such a change.

ACAS says this about the situation - it may be worth you (or whoever is representing the employees during the consultation process) calling ACAS to discuss this with them. 
Changing an employment contract after a TUPE transfer: employer responsibilities - Acas

DullGreyGuy

So you had 36 days total and you still have 36 days total. 

Does the company actually operate on the bank holidays? Have to say personally having freedom as to when to choose to take time off and not be forced to take them off on bank holidays when prices spike etc sounds like a positive thing to me. 

superbigal

You will probably find your current employer can actually dictate when you take holidays anyway.

General_Grant

superbigal said:

You will probably find your current employer can actually dictate when you take holidays anyway.

But the OP knows they couldn't prevent the OP taking all the BHs if their entitlement was still expressed in the same way.

taper

DullGreyGuy said:

So you had 36 days total and you still have 36 days total. 

Does the company actually operate on the bank holidays? Have to say personally having freedom as to when to choose to take time off and not be forced to take them off on bank holidays when prices spike etc sounds like a positive thing to me. 

Yes we will have the same days in total but it’s really important to staff that they can have bank holidays to spend with their families, as their families are off then as well. 
We work in finance and as the bank holidays generally fall around month-end time the fear is any request for time off will be declined.

Previously a bank holiday has never been classed as a working day for us.

DullGreyGuy

taper said:

DullGreyGuy said:

So you had 36 days total and you still have 36 days total. 

Does the company actually operate on the bank holidays? Have to say personally having freedom as to when to choose to take time off and not be forced to take them off on bank holidays when prices spike etc sounds like a positive thing to me. 

Yes we will have the same days in total but it’s really important to staff that they can have bank holidays to spend with their families, as their families are off then as well. 
We work in finance and as the bank holidays generally fall around month-end time the fear is any request for time off will be declined.

Previously a bank holiday has never been classed as a working day for us.

Have you actually checked that they operate on those days? Finance's peak times vary depending if you are ops or more technical accounting but rarely do either formally work on bank holidays, at least in my world. Informally (paid or not) matters may be a bit different and especially at quarter end which thankfully neither May or August typically are.

taper

Yes they do work on bank holidays. As Easter Monday was on April 1 this year it was treated as working day 1 in the 5 day close.
Other teams that are busy in the build up to month end, eg booking accruals were expected to work on Good Friday. That is against the religious beliefs of a couple in my team.
We don’t feel we should have to ask to take a bank holiday off, as we have never before. It should be by choice if you choose to work it and flex your holiday leave.

WYSPECIAL

If there is a need to work on bank holidays now who covers it?
Will new working practices mean more people are needed?
Do they pay an extra premium for working bank holidays?

You’re probably worrying over nothing and nothing will actually change. If you check your current contract that probably allows the company to allocate your holidays anyway.

General_Grant

WYSPECIAL said:

If there is a need to work on bank holidays now who covers it?
Will new working practices mean more people are needed?
Do they pay an extra premium for working bank holidays?

You’re probably worrying over nothing and nothing will actually change. If you check your current contract that probably allows the company to allocate your holidays anyway.

The OP's point was that the Bank Holidays were already automatically allocated by the company to be taken.  The OP didn't have the choice but very much wants to retain them as of right.

Hoenir

taper said:

Yes they do work on bank holidays. As Easter Monday was on April 1 this year it was treated as working day 1 in the 5 day close.
Other teams that are busy in the build up to month end, eg booking accruals were expected to work on Good Friday. That is against the religious beliefs of a couple in my team.
We don’t feel we should have to ask to take a bank holiday off, as we have never before. It should be by choice if you choose to work it and flex your holiday leave.

Your new employer has established working practices. Unfortunately these aren't going to be changed to accomodate individual personal wishes. As I've experienced many times over the years from both sides of the fence. During takeovers / mergers there's often a considerable shake out of staff from the company that's coming in. For a whole variety of reasons. No one is indispensable in the world of finance.