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Hello everyone,
I am writing this on behalf of someone else who works in a tenancy-ran public house in England, and has worked there for almost 20 years as the Manager / Team Lead & Key Holder. In case it matters, the actual pub owner is Everards. If any questions come in, I will ask her and get them back as soon as possible, but hopefully I have enough information here.
She has, over the years, worked for multiple landlords and in every instance, when a new landlord takes over, they also take on the contracts within the transfer/takeover (TUPE).
Back in 2014, the landlord and landlady (LL1) at the time gave her a contract that stipulated time served to include past years and put her on a 52 hours per week contract.
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Now comes the complication. In 2015, since they were temporarily running it as a second pub, they gave up their lease and a new landlord took over (LL2). He didn't ask to have staff removed, so the contracts for staff were passed to the new landlord. Everards HR confirmed that this falls under TUPE guidelines and the contracts remain in place.
LL2 tried a few times to lower her pay by attempting to drop her contracted hours. She refused and told him that any change to contract would be rejected if it reduced pay or position, and she would opt for redundancy - something he couldn't do because his friend was the chef at the public house, and he wanted him to be the manager, which can't be done if he makes her redundant, so he simply never gave her a renewed contract, just kept her as manager and slowly reduced her workload and removed a lot of management duties.
LL2 was the landlord for 5 years, until 2019, and during that time no contracts were agreed to, or enforced, and pay would only be altered in-line with National Minimum Wage, since because she had the 52 hour contract, she never received a raise etc, just allowed to hit minimum wage, then rise with each year. To be both a manager, and key holder, on the same pay as a waitress, is bad - but quite possibly not illegal?
Fast forward those 5 years, to 2019, and the landlord decided to take another pub and give up the current one, which then means there is another take over and a new landlord (LL3). Once more, Everards HR state that this happened within TUPE guidelines and the contract once more is extended to the new landlord.
2020 happens, and covid happen - she's furloughed, but the new landlord hasn't issues a new contract. She has not been issues a pay slip since covid happened, and on asking for it, the new landlord took the stance of "As far as I'm concerned, you don't have a contract with me", even though Everards area manager told him (LL3), in front of her, that her contract stands.
Now, over the last 6+ years, she has misplaced her contract (We are searching old files for it still), and the landlord (LL3) is saying that he never received it from LL2, so we have this huge grey area.
Worth noting;
1. The landlord and landlady (LL1) are friends now, and we still have contact. They have said they will happily, if needed, state exactly what her contract entailed, even though they don't have the exact copy.
2. The previous landlord (LL2) used to put hourly rate on the pay slip, with 52 as the multiplier to represent hours, which she has kept for reference.
3. The new landlord changed the payslip to say "Salary" with a multiplier of 1.
Kind of at a loss on how to help her here, but it feels like he's trying to push this in a way to not be accountable for his obligations as an employer, potentially disregarding TUPE, previous contracts, and the fact her pay slips do prove her pay over a long period, etc, which only changed with minimum wage.
Apologies for the essay!
Does anybody have anything they can offer for guidance, information or at least some indication of avenues to take? I want to try and get as much stuff together, printed as I can, and hand it to her so she can hand it off to him.
I am writing this on behalf of someone else who works in a tenancy-ran public house in England, and has worked there for almost 20 years as the Manager / Team Lead & Key Holder. In case it matters, the actual pub owner is Everards. If any questions come in, I will ask her and get them back as soon as possible, but hopefully I have enough information here.
She has, over the years, worked for multiple landlords and in every instance, when a new landlord takes over, they also take on the contracts within the transfer/takeover (TUPE).
Back in 2014, the landlord and landlady (LL1) at the time gave her a contract that stipulated time served to include past years and put her on a 52 hours per week contract.
----
Now comes the complication. In 2015, since they were temporarily running it as a second pub, they gave up their lease and a new landlord took over (LL2). He didn't ask to have staff removed, so the contracts for staff were passed to the new landlord. Everards HR confirmed that this falls under TUPE guidelines and the contracts remain in place.
LL2 tried a few times to lower her pay by attempting to drop her contracted hours. She refused and told him that any change to contract would be rejected if it reduced pay or position, and she would opt for redundancy - something he couldn't do because his friend was the chef at the public house, and he wanted him to be the manager, which can't be done if he makes her redundant, so he simply never gave her a renewed contract, just kept her as manager and slowly reduced her workload and removed a lot of management duties.
LL2 was the landlord for 5 years, until 2019, and during that time no contracts were agreed to, or enforced, and pay would only be altered in-line with National Minimum Wage, since because she had the 52 hour contract, she never received a raise etc, just allowed to hit minimum wage, then rise with each year. To be both a manager, and key holder, on the same pay as a waitress, is bad - but quite possibly not illegal?
Fast forward those 5 years, to 2019, and the landlord decided to take another pub and give up the current one, which then means there is another take over and a new landlord (LL3). Once more, Everards HR state that this happened within TUPE guidelines and the contract once more is extended to the new landlord.
2020 happens, and covid happen - she's furloughed, but the new landlord hasn't issues a new contract. She has not been issues a pay slip since covid happened, and on asking for it, the new landlord took the stance of "As far as I'm concerned, you don't have a contract with me", even though Everards area manager told him (LL3), in front of her, that her contract stands.
Now, over the last 6+ years, she has misplaced her contract (We are searching old files for it still), and the landlord (LL3) is saying that he never received it from LL2, so we have this huge grey area.
Worth noting;
1. The landlord and landlady (LL1) are friends now, and we still have contact. They have said they will happily, if needed, state exactly what her contract entailed, even though they don't have the exact copy.
2. The previous landlord (LL2) used to put hourly rate on the pay slip, with 52 as the multiplier to represent hours, which she has kept for reference.
3. The new landlord changed the payslip to say "Salary" with a multiplier of 1.
Kind of at a loss on how to help her here, but it feels like he's trying to push this in a way to not be accountable for his obligations as an employer, potentially disregarding TUPE, previous contracts, and the fact her pay slips do prove her pay over a long period, etc, which only changed with minimum wage.
Apologies for the essay!
Does anybody have anything they can offer for guidance, information or at least some indication of avenues to take? I want to try and get as much stuff together, printed as I can, and hand it to her so she can hand it off to him.
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