Extra hours will be forced upon staff

[Sweetpea59]

We will be contacting Acas about this, but in the meantime can anyone impart their knowledge on this problem please?
A family member works for a private company who care for disabled people. They have been a good company to work for, in terms of hours, although wages are not great. The part time hours are just weekday hours & allows them to look after their elderly mothe too.
A new company is taking over in July. They get to keep their jobs but with new hours. They will end up working more hours, bank holidays and weekends. They also receive a generous annual leave allowance. This is being reduced to the statutory minimum.
This seems very unfair. Staff have their family commitments to fit in with the hours they work, and it does not sound right to me. She has been employed with this company for over 5 years.
Can a new company sweep in & impose these new hours & holiday allowance? This sounds like a new employment contract. If she can't accept it shouldn't they be making her redundant? It's not her fault if she has to leave 😡

Would it be covered by Tupe regulations. It says if you want to leave due to changes of working conditions it would be a resignation not entitled to redundancy but you could claim unfair dismissal. www.gov.uk/transfers-takeovers/transfers-of-employment-contracts

I think there is something called TUPE that covers this sort of thing? ACAS should definitely know about if it applies in this situation or not.

It sounds like it might be classed as a TUPE transfer, so a call to Acas to check would be a good start, and then potentially they could support a claim or a lawyer?

if they are not part of a union, but do have a mortgage, then some providers include legal advice so might be worth checking that too?

www.acas.org.uk/tupe/advice-for-employers-and-employees/if-employees-do-not-want-to-transfer

I truly hate the modern workplace and modern working practices. I'm so glad i'm coming to the end of my time in the workplace run another learned just go in into it.

Thank you, will look into this TUPE. She has no mortgage or rent to pay and has just rejoined the union.

TUPE regulations apply at the date of transfer.
Employment terms can be changed, therefore good advice on the specifics is required

In principle a change to lesser terms is not permitted, but can be permitted if the new employer can justify economic needs (that the existing terms are too expensive)

www.acas.org.uk/tupe/advice-for-employers-and-employees/changing-your-employment-contract-after-a-tupe-transfer

This. I thought under TUPE they can’t impose less favourable terms , except they can take away your defined benefit pension and replace with dc as I found out to my cost.

I belived for a TUPE they also have to start a formal consultation period with employees. Union or not. That includes formal appointing a % of employee reps to go into discussions, which may or may not be union members - the unions are usually there if applicable, but non union members must also be represented by a perosnal they vote for. Whilst in practice there may be little scope to negotiate, these reps must inform themselves of TUPE law, and that would include where the new company is trying to act illegally about these contract changes.

@Limehawkmoth
In theory lesser terms cannot be provided, in that improved terms can be (subject to opinion on what an improvement is / the personal value of x going down and y going up)

Existing contract terms may permit some changes

The get out clause is ‘economic & technical’
A good organisation capable of running different terms could take staff on with the same terms and offer a benefit to take on a change of contract.
This can usually only be tested in an employment tribunal which means bad companies can just try their luck