My wife works part time in a National chain of shoe retailers.
She has worked for them for about 16 years.
About two years the nation wide company sold the company to an individual as a franchise operation.
The franchise operation can only sell the one brand of shoes.
When the shop moved over to a franchise all the previous terms and conditions were transferred over, so no adverse working conditions for the existing employees.
My wife has now received , this morning, a new contract, with the obvious erosion of key previous work conditions.
Mainly around redundancy payments and holiday entitlement.
I have told her to refuse to sign it, as part of the transfer to the franchise was a guarantee of keeping her existing work entitlements.
Over to some advice please?
Not my area of expertise but as far as I'm aware you've got two options with contract changes:
1) Agree.
2) Disagree and leave.
That would amount to being able to fire someone without any liability or reason, I doubt it.
depends, if this is related to current situation almost anything is 'fair game'
I mean technically you're right, they can't unilaterally change details like this, it's up to her to agree and she can refuse. But at the same time they could very easily argue right now that a lot of jobs need to be made redundant unless contracts change (pay, hours, holiday / sick pay, etc.) eg: Last recession our work force was asked to either take a pay cut or the equivalent in redundancies.
This sounds a bit sinister though - the bits they want to change - would give her less I assume if they did make her redundant? On the other hands if she's difficult about it does she risk being more likely to be redundant (although they should have a proper procedure for deciding who, that can be manipulated!)
Don't suppose she's a member of a union?
I have told her to refuse to sign it, as part of the transfer to the franchise was a guarantee of keeping her existing work entitlements.
TUPE? After two years you can kiss that guarantee goodbye.
Obviously don't sign it immediately. See how this pans out over the next week. As it's a shop selling non essentials, sadly I'd think redundancy is an option anyway. Given the timing, I would read between the lines as "I think I might need to make you redundant, and I want it to be cheaper".
So sorry for your wife and you, hoping the new government measures announced today will give you some support.
There's always searching the internet
Tupe is complex and an area where you really need proper advice. Once again - what does the union say?
You cannot be forced to change your terms and conditions and you cannot be dismissed or selected for redundancy because you refuse to change in theory
In practice - it can be a choice of take the new conditions or find a new job
In this situation I would be telling them - I need to get proper advice and it may take some time. Things are moving so fast that this could easily change circumstances. It does look like an attempt to get redundancy on the cheap
https://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-guidance/transfer-undertakings-tupe
https://worksmart.org.uk/work-rights/pay-and-contracts/takeovers-and-transfers
Thanks for the replies.
It does look like the owner of the franchise is looking to close the shop and try and mitigate any existing redundancy payments.
There are 4 people employed in the shop.
My wife - 16 years part time
Shop manager - 20 years full time employment
Shop assistant 1 - 30 years
Shop assistant 2 - 8 years
Probably just going to stick to a refusal to accept the new contract.
He will meet a lot of resistance from the other 3 employees in the shop also.
No union representation.
Forgot to say, that he also wants to alter the existing pension agreements.
My wife had a bit of trouble and hassle with him when he first took over the franchise.
My wife was making the maximum employee contribution, and he wasn’t honouring the existing employer contribution.
In the end it was resolved satisfactorily, but it did amount to about £900 being underpaid by the employer , now resolved.
A few years ago I worked for the local authority. They re issued 8000 new contracts which eroded the redundancy payments amungst other things. Unions were involved but ultimately they couldn't do anything.
They asked us to sign the new contract by the 4th of April. Those who refused to sign were told if they turn up to work on the 4th of April then that affectively meant that they had agreed to accept the contract.
In my experience you have 2 choices, accept it and move on or leave.
Her employer sounds a bit of a prick anyway. Good luck.
Things may change with the government announcement to support paid furloughing rather than getting rid of staff. So hold tight and see what happens over the next week or so.
IANAL but I thought TUPE only gave protection of previous terms and conditions for two years.
It's one of the reasons posties (CWU) want to strike, because the Parcel Force section of Royal Mail want to franchise out the delivery routes, which means the longstanding T&Cs can be chucked in the bin after two years... And if they do it with Parcel Force, nothing stops them from doing the same to Royal Mail posties.
