just been told my job no longer exisits - but I can apply for a new one with a £5k salary cut!

[pippylongstockings]

I work in Banking, the company I work for got taken over last year and we were all tuped across - however they have now decided to change the branch structure and my role as Assistant Branch Manager no longer exisits - I have been told the equivalent role in the new company would be a Personal Banking Adviser.
This is a direct sales role to the public so not what I currently do atall.

The next blow is I need to apply and by applying and if I am successful I will be transferred onto new employment terms and conditions, therefor losing benefits like Private medical insurance that I currently have plus the Personal Banking Advisor role has a different salary banding so I will have to take a £5k drop in salary!

I am at a loss as to what to do ?

Can they really do this?

Sorry to hear you are being messed about. ACAS have a helpline which gives advice on this sort of thing. My sister used them last week and found them good. There's also quite a bit of advice on their website.

Is it a redundancy situation, as in people in your role are being made redundant, and given the opportunity to instead apply for different jobs in the new structure? What alternative are you being given, what are they saying will happen if you either choose not to apply or are not successful?

There's not really enough information to say whether they can do what they are doing, but potentially they can, depending on the situation and how they are handling it.

Have a look here all about your employment rights during a TUPE situation. You will see that your terms and conditions are protected at least to an extent.

I would agree that maybe giving ACAS a ring might be a good idea, so that you can go into the situation in more detail with someone and get proper advice.

Yes, what Flowery said!

TUPE does not protect you from a redundancy situation, and those can arise if roles within an organisation are restructured. However, it does have to be a genuine restructuring and not simply a way of changing the terms that would otherwise have been TUPE protected.

If it is a redundancy and you don't want to take any of the available roles then I am afraid the alternative is redundancy.

As Flowery and Wigeon said, a good idea to chat it through in detail with ACAS.

Thanks for the website and info will follow it up.

They are not offering us redundancy.

It was presented to us last week as : This is the new branch structure, as an Assistant Branch Manager yoiur new role equiv. will be Personal Banking Adviser. Then today they have said we all have to apply for the jobs and if our salary is higher than the top band for the role we apply for then we will be paid at the top of that band.

I can't afford to have a drop in salary of that size it is really worrying.

Sounds a bit rubbish (I have no expertise in employment rights though) - must be pretty stressful for you. Hope ACAS can give you a bit more clarity. Good luck.

That does sound as though it might be a bit dodgy then I agree.

Talk through all the finer details with ACAS, exactly what the situation is and what you've been told, and see what they say.

If your current role no longer exists - this is a redundancy situation and you should be having a proper consultation.

Unfortunately if your role is redundant your company doesn't have any obligation to match your current salary if you accept a completely new role. However, they do have to make quite a big effort to find you another role and that includes taking on board any suggestions you have and looking at all suitable roles not just the one with a 5k pay cut!

Note that you are obliged to accept the new role if it is deemed "suitable alternative employment" and if you unreasonably reject the offer of the new role your company may be able to withhold your redundancy payment. It seems to me though that if you can't afford the pay cut this may help to show that it is not suitable alternative employment.

I think you have three choices - 1) grit teeth and accept new role but try to negotiate the terms 2) come up with brainwave of how they can avoid redundancy or suggest other new role you can do 3) say new role is not suitable and ask for your redundancy money.
sounds absolutely rubbish - good luck! (disclaimer - i really don't know all the facts so contact ACAS as suggested!)