I found out today the company I work for has been bought out by Co-op. It's always been a cosy little family company but now we've been swallowed up, which is what I moved to this company to get away from Long term happiness and ambitions aside, I need the odd bit of help with employment law before I tell the staff the wrong thing as I have that little knowledge, dangerous thing as it were.

So, does the new company leagally have to take on the current staff and tupe them all? In the past, I know it has been acceptable practice for the company taking over to make old staff reapply for their jobs with the new company and re-interview them etc then give them new T&C. Is that still acceptable? Urgent answers required please, the new bosses are coming round tomorrow and I don't want to stick my foot in it with regard to emplyment law

the re-interview thing seems common these days

You could try the citizens advice website http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/

dave said:

the re-interview thing seems common these days

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Yeah when the leisure centre I work for went private made staff redundant and made them apply for their old jobs back with less pay

it stank, but at least we kept out jobs, it has since gone back under council control but had to go through the whole process again, it was a rite pain in the ................

Helz, unfortunately when this happens you have few rights as an employee. They are perfectly within their rights to ask you to apply for your job. tupe will only apply if they if was agreed as part of the sale, which is unlikely with a large company like the Co-Op.

When the Cinema I work for sold their UK sites we all had to sign new contracts.

I was told that the new company didn't have to re-hire us but because there was no need to make us redundant they kept us.

I think once the take over is complete the contracts that all the staff are bound to become worthless and void so untill they sign new ones they wont have a contract to work under.

can you get redundancy money and keep your job, or it not work like that?

No if you take redundancy, thats it, the company I work for won't let you re-apply for 6 months, and I'd pressume it would be the same in most other companies. With it being a company getting bought out, theres very little employees can do. Even though it would be the same job role, you can't even put in for unfair dismissal as it's a different employer

Well I checked it out, it seems the Tupe rules have been adjusted this week so that was interesting timing. If the transfer includes all assets, it becomes a relevant transfer and is classed under Tupe. If they make you reapply for your job and you don't get it or are given unfavourable conditions you can claim for unfair dismissal unless it is for significant economic, technical or operational reasons. As with other employment issues you can challenge these reasons at a tribunal if necessary. As for redundancy - the old company is now gone and had they wanted to pull that stunt they would have had to pull it when it still existed - as things stand the new company cannot make me redundant and rehire me in the same role and apparently as the sale has gone through and agreed, I am now officially working for the new company and have been Tuped.

This has come from a pupil of one of the UKs experts on employment law who kindly says they will take any issues up for me at mates rates if need be

Hope all turns out well, good luck chuck.

hope all works out well. horrible not knowing for sure

you might end up better off, new people might pay more and/or give better benefits

dave said:

you might end up better off, new people might pay more and/or give better benefits

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:yeahthat: and good luck with your new employer

Thanks guys I meet the new bosses tomorrow so will find out more the but at least I'm prepared if they don't play ball.

well maybe your new boss will just adopt all the previous practices as this is a lot easier then retraining everyone when there was a system in place that worked

In 2002 the office where I worked was sold off to a competitor, and use TUPE. For use they had to abide by our existing contracts and everythign had to stay the same except for pensions. At the time I had just started (2 weeks in) a 6 month placement in Oslo, so I was effectivly contracted back to my old employers for the remainder of that! And then a few years later they tried offering me the choice between working 2 hours away (half way round the M25, for only 10p per extra mile, basically costing me thousands a year), or the voluntary redundancy which I took.

I guess the TUPE rules have changed, or perhaps it falls under a different section as nobody had to re-apply for thier job, or got less salary. Nobody would accept the new contract (increased hours, worse conditions for all of a 3% pay rise!).

I met some of the new people today and said goodbye to my old boss (who was the one who has had faith in me and given me two massive chances ). The new people are very nice and we have been Tuped acrosss, but Co-op will offer people the option to stay on their current contracts or move onto the new one depending on which is better for them. I have yet to find out my own details but I hope it's as good as what I have now, I get quite good benefits!

Helz said:

I met some of the new people today and said goodbye to my old boss (who was the one who has had faith in me and given me two massive chances ). The new people are very nice and we have been Tuped acrosss, but Co-op will offer people the option to stay on their current contracts or move onto the new one depending on which is better for them. I have yet to find out my own details but I hope it's as good as what I have now, I get quite good benefits!

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Glad it went ok for you