Parent-unfriendly companies

[Greengage]

Sorry, this is a pure rant:

DD is now 3 months old, so we're just settling down to our new life together. Or would be if DH's new manager wasn't forcing all his staff to relocate from the West Country to London (where new manager happens to live). Apparently UK law does allow companies to simply uproot their staff like this - the alternative being redundancy. Just what we need right now!

And how nice of him (the boss) to consider MY career (for a start how much maternity benefit would I have to repay if I moved and couldn't go back to my job?!)

For a financially successful company (can't name it for fear of being sued) this attitude is deplorable. It's not even as if they are offering enough money for us to cover the cost of moving - DH would have to live away during the week.

Neither of us can face that prospect so DH will be taking his redundancy payment, registering with the job agencies and - hopefully for just a short while - being a full time Dad.

Anyone else had similar experiences? And can you name and shame? It would be good to know if any big brands should be boycotted!

Greengage that is shocking! I have only worked in the public sector so relocating was never an issue, but that seems quite incredible. Especially a move to London, which is so expensive. I'm in London and love it but would certainly not like to try and move here and find a house etc now. There is another thread on redundancy; maybe you and your dh will be able to derive some benefits from it in terms of time together and applying for new jobs? I hope so. Good luck.

Greengage that is shocking! I have only worked in the public sector so relocating was never an issue, but that seems quite incredible. Especially a move to London, which is so expensive. I'm in London and love it but would certainly not like to try and move here and find a house etc now. There is another thread on redundancy; maybe you and your dh will be able to derive some benefits from it in terms of time together and applying for new jobs? I hope so. Good luck.

Sorry that came up twice. Also, what I meant about the public sector was that I worked in local government so could only be relocated within the borough, 2 or 3 miles max! I guess other public organisations do sometimes relocate staff.

How awful! Can't you give us a hint of what they do/make so we can figure it out and boycott them??

The same happened to us - dh's team were moved about 200 miles away due to company reorganisation - though this was before we had ds. Anyway most of the team moved but several didn't want to and took the redundancy option, including dh, and it was actually a really good thing - he hated working there, but needed to be 'forced' to move on. he found a new job he could go to straight away so we did quite well out of it, with quite a reasonable redundancy package.

how much notice does dh have? I agree that relocation is pretty brutal - not just to people who have kids, but arguably worst of all to those with kids of school age. Its not uncommon though, and neither is redundancy. I hope that this turn of events does turn out to have some positives for you, although appreciate that it might not seem like that now!

I have to agree that it is not at all uncommon for firms to relocate; my company was relocated & becuase the distance was only 50 miles there was no question of redundancy - but again the move was to central London so travelling times for most people changed from 20 minutes (10 minutes for me!!) to at least an hour & a half (I do know that lots of people have to travel these distances anyway) - so a huge increase in time & cost. Needless to say I only stuck it out for a few months.

Lindy, that's an interesting point - do you know how far the relocation has to be before you become entitled to redundancy?

Or they can move you more than the 50 miles, but not for 5 days a week. So your official location doesn't change, although you spend hours more on 4 days a week travelling. Officially it's not a relocation, so no compensation, and no option of redundancy if you decide not to stick with it.

elliott - I think the law on this is quite fuzzy - it's where the extra distance/time is "reasonable" (whatever that means!).

Basically, where your place of employment is changed, your post can be considered redundant if the distance to travel is too far, and there is no mobility clause (something which says you'll work wherever they tell you too) in your contract. If you couldn't reach agreement on what was reasonable (i.e. you said it was too far, and your company disagreed), an employment tribunal would ultimately have to decide whether or not you could be reasonably expected to travel that distance, and thereby decide whether or not a redundancy payment is due.

Greengage, its not a clothing company by any chance is it?

Sorry I can't offer anything but sympathy. My dp is in the Navy so its a way of life for us. Pain in the a**e though.

Elliot - yes I think GillW is right (sorry can't be more specific, it was a few years ago) - the argument centres on the 'reasonableness' of the travelling & where we lived was actually an established commuter area for London so a lot of people did travel to London - of course that didn't make it any easier for me losing my cosy 10 minute drive to work!!