TUPE, dropped in it, what can she do ?

[Ramsgate]

I’ll try to make this as short as possible.

so my wife has worked for pharmacy for 12+ years and this was in the last couple of weeks sold to a newly created LTD company, so she and 4 other staff members were TUPEd, the original company picked and chose who to keep.

the original owner did not tell the staff they were selling the business, in fact the only reason the staff found out was because of a legal requirement of NHS to notify nearby pharmacies of a change of ownership, and one of the nearby pharmacies brought the NHS notification letter into the pharmacy and asked what’s going on, 3 weeks later the business changed hands and then all hell broke loose.

So the new owners have no clue how to run a pharmacy, there are specific rules and regulations regarding every aspect of dispensing medication, from the presentation of a prescription to a pharmacy to the medication actually being handed to the patient there are multiple procedures that have to be gone through, and every one requires a qualified person,

so the new owner is allowing non qualified newly recruited staff to carry out tasks that must only be done by qualified persons, he is also demanding that existing staff do the same, in addition to carry out any dispensing task you need to have an NHS ID card that confirms your qualified to carry out specific tasks, the new owner is also demanding that the qualified staff members leave their Cards on site so that dispensing can carry on when they are not.

The business changed hands less than 3 weeks ago, the second any of the existing staff members raise a concern they are accused of being disrespectful or unsupportive.

She does not feel it’s safe to carry on working there, she also has grave concerns for for the patients as so many rules are being broken most of whyI can’t discuss here.

Who is actually responsible for my wife’s employment contract? I did have a look and my understanding is that 3 weeks notice is not legally enough time for TUPE to be applied, the 5 staff involved were not given any advice or offered any form of representation, they were bulldozed into it.

If anyone can help that would be great

[Ramsgate]

I tried to edit but it was not possible

the NHS ID cards I referred to must be inserted into the PC systems to allow dispensing to proceed, these cards are personally issued and hold details of all qualifications related to NHS, the card is the personal access key and staff are being told they must leave their card in the machine for other unqualified people to use.

[des8]

Whilst awaiting ULA to advise re employment situation this link might be of interest https://www.pharmacyregulation.org/reporting-concerns

[jaguarsuk]

My understanding is that there is no legal amount of time that an Employer must consult with staff under the TUPE regulations.

Depending on the number of employees will determine how the consultation happens (via a representative or not), but it sounds like a business with less than 10 employees from your description which requires them to consult them employees directly, which although only a three week period they did.

Regards the behaviours being imposed upon the staff I would say that the regulatory body perhaps needs an anonymous tip off.

[ULA]

The obligations to is to inform and consult before a TUPE transfer, however there is no minimum period of time that consultation has to last and there is no requirement that collective consultation has to begin a minimum number of days before the date of the transfer. If there are fewer than 10 employees then consultation can be done individually.

There is a potential to make a claim for failure to inform and and consult and the employment tribunal can award compensation but it cannot exceed 13 weeks' gross pay for an affected employee. Although there is a defence to the transferor for failure to inform and consult if it can show that there were special circumstances which meant that it was not reasonably practicable for information to be given or consultation to take place.

Your wife's contract of employment is now with the new employer. Has she moved across on the same terms and conditions as previously employed?

In terms of the use of NHS ID cards by non qualified staff, your wife may want to consider raising this with her new employer or alternatively there is the link set out in post #3 by des8 for her to report her concerns.