Companies merge and changes to conditions

[lemonpinklady]

My company has merged with another and the other company's employees have been Tupe'd over to ours but now the management are trying to change some of the working conditions i.e. they start at 8.30 and us at 9 a.m. and we get 3 days at Christmas whereas the other company has to take those days out of their annual leave allowance. Can they change our conditions giving us less favourable terms based on a merger?

 

Many thanks for any advice.

[Emmzzi]

you aren't the ones TUPEd over so you have less protection. Do you have a union? Seems like collective discussion is the way to go.

[lemonpinklady]

Thanks for reply. No we don't have a union.

 

Also, this may be more complicated but if they are paid more how does this stand with sex discrimination i.e. men doing the same job as a woman but being paid more. Does that not stand if its TUPE? (maybe I should have started new thread).

[Emmzzi]

I'm not aware of a speciic case on that but if it's a clear gender split I'd think Equality act would be required to be complied with. But again - you need some way of organising yourself as a group, strength in numbers and all that! A collective query holds more weight than a solo one.

[lemonpinklady]

Thanks for the help Emmzzi, have to rally the troops!

[becky2585]

I actually seem to recall that TUPE trumps the Equality Act for equal pay if the transfer is the only reason, but if its like work, it doesn't seem right. Similarly though, I suppose there shouldn't be a burden on an employer to change the terms of their whole workforce to something more favourable if they're entering into a TUPE transfer.

[Emmzzi]

This article may help?

 

http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/20/07/2011/57802/weekly-dilemma-equal-pay-and-tupe.htm

[becky2585]

This article may help?

 

http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/20/07/2011/57802/weekly-dilemma-equal-pay-and-tupe.htm

 

Spot on.

 

The key argument being that the difference in pay is due to the "material factor" of the transfer - ie a non discriminatory reason.

[lemonpinklady]

This article may help?

 

http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/20/07/2011/57802/weekly-dilemma-equal-pay-and-tupe.htm

 

Thanks for the link, its made it clear.