Forced Relocation - do the company have to pay travel expenses?

[spacemonkey]

My employer is proposing to relocate our office but has said that there will be no corresponding pay increase to help cover the increased travelling expenses. Does anyone know if there is any legal obligation on their part to pay travelling expenses for a period of time following the relocation? I'm sure I heard someone talking about this once, but maybe I was dreaming ...

TIA for any help

[LadyMuck]

It usually depends on what is in your contract. Some contracts stipulate that you can be relocated and that you must be able to work at any nominated site - costs etc are down to you. If they don't have such a clause then you may have some sort of tribunal case depending on how far the office has moved ie effectively you are being made redunandt as you cannot be expected to work in the new location. If it were just a few miles, then you may be out of luck, esp as presumably some employees may "win" out of the move.

[CODalmighty]

this is not in your role as tech2 I hope?!

[spacemonkey]

lol coddy no

thanks ladymuck, i'll check out my contract (durrr why didn't i think of that!)

[meanmum]

Check out the Acas website too (www.acas.co.uk). I haven't done relocations for ages so can't remember what the law says here if at all. Also check out DTI website and Inland Revenue as both are quite good.

[Clayhead]

Most of the contracts I wrote whilst working contained a clause saying that whilst X was the usual place of work, the company could ask you to move to another place at any time. That company did have a relocation policy but I don't think there was any legal obligation. You can scroll down to relocation on the ACAS website but it doesn't say too much. There may be other stuff on there though, it's a good website.