A large tour operator with a chain of travel agencies (I can't say which but they wouldn't be my first choice ) has just made ca. 40 staff redundant -offering them four weeks per year service (far better than Budgets two weeks).
To all remaining staff in the twenty-odd shops that they are keeping open they are putting staff on three day weeks "till late January"
Some of the staff are friends. I told them to tell their bosses:-
1) that they need not accept the three day week as this is a change in their working conditions/terms of employment etc
2)-and that they should also ask for the same redundancy terms as their colleagues who were sacked.
(unless, of course, they are happy to do a three day week. A few have many yrs service and prefer redundancy at 4weeks-per-year)
My friends just told me that they asked their bosses but were told:-
1) Unless the working hours are reduced by 50% they can't refuse a three day week if business conditions are so bad it is felt necessary.
(I believe this to be complete tosh -but the staff say "the bosses had got legal advice")
2) And even if they were entitled to redundancy there was no obligation of the company to give them more than the statutory two-weeks per year, even though they had just given 40 of their colleagues four-weeks.
(On this point I'm not sure. It seems unfair though I'm not sure legally whether a company can offer some staff four weeks and others only statutory).
I've told them to get on to Citizens Advice and other depts.
I worry that I may have given my friends wrong advice about not being obliged to accept three days if they don't want it.
To all remaining staff in the twenty-odd shops that they are keeping open they are putting staff on three day weeks "till late January"
Some of the staff are friends. I told them to tell their bosses:-
1) that they need not accept the three day week as this is a change in their working conditions/terms of employment etc
2)-and that they should also ask for the same redundancy terms as their colleagues who were sacked.
(unless, of course, they are happy to do a three day week. A few have many yrs service and prefer redundancy at 4weeks-per-year)
My friends just told me that they asked their bosses but were told:-
1) Unless the working hours are reduced by 50% they can't refuse a three day week if business conditions are so bad it is felt necessary.
(I believe this to be complete tosh -but the staff say "the bosses had got legal advice")
2) And even if they were entitled to redundancy there was no obligation of the company to give them more than the statutory two-weeks per year, even though they had just given 40 of their colleagues four-weeks.
(On this point I'm not sure. It seems unfair though I'm not sure legally whether a company can offer some staff four weeks and others only statutory).
I've told them to get on to Citizens Advice and other depts.
I worry that I may have given my friends wrong advice about not being obliged to accept three days if they don't want it.