New company owners.

[RaginaPhalange]

Looking for some info in regards to where I stand with the hours I work.

The company I work for have sold up for the owner to retire and a new company (they are a chain) have bought over. I'm under the impression they want everyone who works there to change to a 40 hour week. I'm currently on a 24 hour contract and work a set 3 days. Can they change this and do I have anything to stand on if they force a 40 hour week?

Tia

Have they mentioned you are being TUPEd over? If so, you don’t need to accept new contractual terms (including an increase of standard hours).

@Newjobformoremoney sorry I don't even know what that means 😅

@RaginaPhalange contact ACAS this definitely sounds like TUPE - Transfer of Undertakings and Protection of Employment. https://www.acas.org.uk/tupe

ok so how do you know they want you to go to 40 hours? How has this been communicated ?
Obviously I don’t know all the details, but I would be incredibly surprised you were covered by TUPE.

Thank you.

It was said at a meeting that they would want all staff to be either on 37.5 hrs or 40 hrs. I was unable to make this as it was on a day I don't work and I didn't have childcare to go.

How do I go about asking if we are covered by TUPE?

Speak to ACAS - it will advise you.

https://www.gov.uk/transfers-takeovers

To add, I ran a small business with 60 P/T employees that I ended up having to pass across to a new employer (basically the premises owner decided that they wanted the business, which pretty much comprised all our staff and customers).

ACAS were really helpful and all employees were passed across on my Ts & Cs (most beneficially our rates of pay, which were significantly higher than the other company).

If you are still employed by the same company but it has new owners, this is not a TUPE situation. If you are employed by a different company, it is a TUPE situation. However, it makes little difference. In either case, they cannot simply change your contract without your consent. If you refuse to consent, they could dismiss you but that may well be an unfair dismissal. They may offer you a payout to leave if they really want to force this - they might call this redundancy, although legally it isn't.

We will be eventually called the new company name but as it is just now we are still under old company. Thanks everyone.

Update: my manger seems to think we aren't covered by TUPE, does anyone know what this would mean?

It means the new company has bought the company you work for, so you still work for the same company. In terms of your position, it doesn't really make any difference. They need your consent to change your contract.

@RaginaPhalange have you contacted ACAS?

@prh47bridge thank you, you have been very helpful. Sorry for all the questions but would it matter if they then changed where I work to their own company a few months down the line?

@Nochoiceleft not as of yet, but it is on my to do list for today.

If they changed your established location, hours etc it would potentially be a redundancy situation, However it :may depend if the new role was deemed a close match to current one.

In simple terms you look at the business as a whole

At the moment
You and other employees work for Joe's Shop
You turn up do the individual roles and get a payslip from Joe's Shop not Joe

Joe sells to Jill

You and other employees work still for Joe's Shop
You turn up and still do the individual roles and get a payslip from Joe's Shop
So it is the same business, your role remains the same and the only difference is who has authority to pay money from the bank accounts

So if Jill want a 40 hour employee she is making your 24 role redundant and creating a new role. She can do this but has to follow the same process that Joe would have had to follow because your employer is Joe's Shop (after being TUPEed your lenght of service covers both jobs)

Jill can move where you work either by you agreeing to change the specific work location in your contract or by a generic need of the business. Forcing you to change location can be constructive dismissal but if the rest of the business reason is vaild it is usually based around a reasonable geographical location between the two work locations not simply your home to work travel arrangements or your caring obligations.

In a TUPE situation Jill will buy all of the business except for the business name (legal framework).
You and other employees dont work for Joe's Shop any more, you work for Jill's Shop
However you still turn up and still do the individual roles only now you get a payslip from Jill's Shop
So it is the same business your role remains the same.
your role is still there so you cant be paid redundancy if you leave you are chosing to leave your 24h job.
One of the business assets Jill bought is your contract of employment as it provides an employee to do your role.
Your new employer has bought the employer rights (you provide your time/skill) and obligations (Jill provides pay and benefits except for pensions) listed your employment contract plus policy plus the unwritten /verbal agreements which developed through work pratice.

the trickey bit will be the unwritten bits so you need to go through what is written into your contract and what is only company policy or work pratice.
If you and the other employees are on better pay and conditions a new owner (Jill) could engage in sharp pratice to slowly change the policy which is an indirect change to your contract before transferring you to Jill's Shop.

If you and the other employees are worried (and can pool the fee) it you could hire an employment specialist to go over the contracts to see what could be added to ensure the policy benefits move with you as a contract obligation

If they change it to their own company at some point, that would be a TUPE situation. However, in terms of changing your hours, nothing would have changed. They will still need your consent.

Note that, if they decide they need a full time employee, that is not a redundancy situation. It is often treated as if it is, but legally it isn't.

Side bar😀

Not saying your wrong as my HR on P/T redundacy weak
but why not if a basic of the contract has changed so much
(If I work full time and my employer decided that X% of my role and pay is gone etc and no alternative is offered, the role is gone)

In law, redundancy happens when there is a reduced demand for a particular kind of work. If, say, you employ a bottle washer for 25 hours a week and decide that you need one for 40 hours a week, that is an increased demand for bottle washers, not a reduced demand. Some employers have tried to argue that being part time is a "kind of work", but the courts disagree. The Court of Appeal held in Johnson v Nottinghamshire Combined Police Authority in 1974 that "kind of work" does not refer to the number of hours worked, and the courts have followed this judgement ever since.

Thank you !!

(So "someone" would have to challange the precident on the sex discrimination basis as the number of hours is a key element of any role for a lot of females working parttime.)

I think you misunderstand the effect of the precedent.

Some employers have tried to force part time employees into full time roles then, when the employee refuses, have dismissed them with no compensation on the basis that they were being made redundant and have rejected a suitable alternative. Ruling that this is not a redundancy situation stops employers behaving like that. If they insist on getting rid of an employee who doesn't want to go full time, they must pay adequate compensation (essentially, enough to stop the employee taking them to tribunal for unfair dismissal).

Thanks

So either way they can't make me go full time? And if they dismissed me then I could take them to court for unfair dismissal? Sorry its a lot to try get my head around

Correct.

It is unlikely they will dismiss you without any compensation. Most employers offer enough to mean it isn't worth taking them to tribunal for unfair dismissal in this situation. But, if they don't, you can sue for unfair dismissal.