TUPE and place of work

[cptcuddles]

Hope someone could advise

I currently work for a local district authority who provide a service for the county council. We are possibly going to be TUPE'd across to the county council next year as they wish to take the the task back in house to reduce costs and improve efficienes.

Currently I work only in my local district boundries but the county council would like that to change to working anywhere in the county. My statement of particulars state my place of work as being the local district office and my job description states working anywhere in the local authority area. However also in my statement of particulars there is the line " Must be prepared to travel anywhere in the UK". My current HR are saying that this line will give the County Council the ability under to bring in the new working area without having to change existing T&C's any thoughts ?

[Tools]

Re: TUPE and place of work

Hi and welcome to Beagles.

Where there is to be a transfer of an undertaking the employer has an obligation to inform and consult with its workforce this could be either a Trade Union or workforce representatives. And let them know the transfer is happening and why, and how it will affect them.

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1655

Are you a member of a Union and has a consultation already taken place? You could always ask a representative to clarify you concerns with the County Council.

They should also give you reasonable notice of any material changes beforehand.

[cptcuddles]

Re: TUPE and place of work

The transfer is not likely to take place till April next year and the Union have not entered into formal consultation yet as there is no final decision on the transfer yet. We had a meeting with our HR today and this is what prompted the post.

[Tools]

Re: TUPE and place of work

Thanks for clearing that up. All I can suggest at this point then is to make sure you keep yourself up to date with any consultations that are taking place in the future and raise your concerns with your Union Rep and HR.

My thoughts on the line in your contract, " Must be prepared to travel anywhere in the UK", this is pretty standard in a lot of contracts, and is valid if they do decide to require you to work outside your current area. You can of course raise objections if the additional travel/workload is unreasonable when/if the time comes.

Keep us posted of any developments and we can try help you further and stick around to have a read on the forum in case you need advice( or indeed can help others) on other matters.