Plant sale & transfer rights

[J.P.]

Hi,

Currently I’m employed by “Company X”, who have four manufacturing plants in Ireland at four separate locations, under the one company name.

The employees at the plant where I work have been informed that the premises / plant has been sold to another company, who will produce the product requirement under contract for “Company X” and that all employees will be automatically transferred to the new owner with the same terms & conditions of employment & years service guaranteed.

The real problem is the company which has purchased the plant has a very poor HR culture with a very large staff turnover.

Personally, given a choice , I would not select to work for the new company, but as I have 30 years service with the current employer , I’m in a bit of a dilemma. Redeployment to another plant of my current employers is not an option for me due to location constraints.

Legally, do I have any rights / entitlements in relation to the tranfer to the new compnay ? Do I have to transfer or do I have a case to request redundancy from my curremnt employer ?

 

[ajapale]

Hi JP,

Im sorry to hear about your dilemma.

Are you a member of a trade union? The TUs are quite good at this type of negotiation.

Have you spoken to the HR people in your old company?

aj

 

[sluice44]

TUPE - TRANSFER OF UNDERTAKINGS (PROTECTION OF EMPLOYMENT) REGULATIONS 1981


sorry, can't seem to edit the font above...

TUPE is your answer.

An AAM query from 2004 may help (or it may not)!

 

[ninsaga]

My understanding of TUPE is that is protects employees in situations as mentioned ie ensures that their jobs remain intact in the even of takeovers.... as opposed to giving the option for redundancy.

I do hope though that you find a satisfactory solution

 

[ajapale]

see also TUPE in the keyposts section at the top of the forum.

aj

 

[J.P.]

Thank you all for your replies. Some answers from my side :

Do I have a union ? No

Speak with HR ? Yes have done so, my current employer claims everything is covered by TUPE and all terms & conditions are guaranteed by the new employer (pension issue has still to be clarified - I'am monitoring this carefully).

So what's the problem ? The new employer is ruthless and after the honeymoon period expires, we expect that some people will leave voluntarily after a period rather than suffer the new culture, there is still thankfully "more to life" !

Final question : If an employee does no wish to join the new employer, even if "on paper" the new employer can show that all current terms & conditions of the employee will be maintained, does the employee have any entitlement to claim redundancy from the current employer ?