Company buyout - Employee rights change?

BoonMonkey · 21 Jun 2012 at 08:34

Hey guys,

Recently the company I work for bought out another company to expand and move into another sector. However, up until now I believed we had the same employee rights as them... This is not the case. They are entitled to sick pay and more holiday, whereas we get no sick pay and 20 days of holiday.

Is it right that they keep what they had before? Should they not have the same rights as us?

Where would be the best place to get information on this?

Thanks

MeatLoaf · 21 Jun 2012 at 08:38

Have a look on acas or something. Sorry cant be of more help

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 21 Jun 2012 at 08:52

Its hard to change employee rights directly on a takeover. Its almost certain your employer will be doing the process they need to make the change but its not an immediate process.

Google TUPE that will give you a better idea.

[Damien] · 21 Jun 2012 at 08:54

Look into 'TUPE'. Basically unless the new employees have signed a new contract and agreed new terms and conditions, their old ones still apply.

I'm in this position after the company I work for got bought out by a larger firm. There's no financial/benefit incentive for me to agree to the new company terms so I'm sticking on my old contract. This means I get to make use of my old holiday entitlement (20 days plus a day for every year of service up to 25) instead of the new company's policy (a flat 20 days).

www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1655

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfer_of_Undertakings_(Protection_of_Employment)_Regulations_2006

rG-tom · 21 Jun 2012 at 08:56

BoonMonkey said:
Hey guys,

Recently the company I work for brought out another company....

Where did they bring them out from?

DanielMMS · 21 Jun 2012 at 09:06

It is fairly likely that, as part of the buyout agreement, the purchasers would have agreed to protect the rights of existing employees, ie not make any changes to their terms and conditions for at least a set period.

Besides, why should they have their rights removed? Rather a selfish position to take.

BoonMonkey · 21 Jun 2012 at 09:11

rG-tom said:
Where did they bring them out from?

Fixing!

DanielMMS said:
It is fairly likely that, as part of the buyout agreement, the purchasers would have agreed to protect the rights of existing employees, ie not make any changes to their terms and conditions for at least a set period.

Besides, why should they have their rights removed? Rather a selfish position to take.

It was more of a question rather than me demanding they have the same rights as us. I just was interested if I could read into detail a bit more about it, I was unsure of if this is the usual protocol for buyouts.

Thanks for the information so far guys.

Rotty · 21 Jun 2012 at 09:37

I went through similar, we were given the option of keeping our T+Cs or taking theirs, this is normal procedure afaik, what you cannot do is take parts of each