It’s within the same multinational, a very (very) big one one, different company, and I don’t suspect any shenanigans going on.
Law/regulation around company moving offices?
- Thread starter Scam
- Start date
Because they used to class this as 'disguised employment'. i.e. tax evasion.
As long as they have applied IR35 correctly, it really isn’t. There is nothing untoward about this.
Almost everyone’s assumes IR35 applies and taxes the contractor as an employee almost regardless these days.
It's not at all complicated.
I don't think I've ever seen a contract that doesn't name a place of work/normal place of work - but this is not important in the grander scheme of things.
This is what will happen:
Employees notified of decision to change location.
Employees consulted. Discussions are discussed, employees complain, employer points out change is not major and that it's going to happen.
Employees accept and travel to new place of work, or don't and are made redundant.
There's some room for movement here and there depending on the organisation (you may be able to wangle some recompense or conditions such as not having to travel in every day - definitely not guaranteed though) but that's the basics of the situation.
I don't know why you think it's any more complex than this.
Did I not cover this in the paragraph before?
If a person was paid an enhanced package the same company could ask for it back… heck they could ask for the statutory pay back as part of the hiring conditions. But if I company did that to me, I would certainly make sure that the time I wasn’t working, I was “paid for” and that my length of service continued from previously like if I never left.
So basically the employer would deem it “reasonable “ and nobody will have a leg the stand on?
What if an employer decided to move from London to Birmingham or something?
But they aren't though are they?
We moved across the city (not London) probably a few left or retired a bit early. For most they just accepted a change and perhaps changed their commute from car to bus or such.
In fairness across a bigger city like London is a bigger deal.
I thought most places wouldn't be offering any compensation, unless retention was an important issue for them. They've probably decided it isn't, before deciding to move.
If they've officially announced the move did they not mention anything about it.
If it is going to double her commute time, that's unreasonable obviously but that's not the only factor.
Consider someone that commutes into the same location from Portsmouth. Already takes them say 1.5 hours door to door. New location completely changes their commute and adds say another 15 minutes due to different tube route.
Now on paper that doesn't seem that bad because as a percentage increase it's only 17% longer. However, that person might be at the peak of what they are able to cope with daily and that tips them over the edge in time.
Ops partner may have her commute time double from 15 minutes to 30, which a lot of people will say that's still nothing in terms of TOTAL commute time in London and that they should just accept it. But if you have built a life around a location and your commute time being what it is, it can be very disruptive to have it double still.
Each case is different. The company could have done an impact assessment as they will know addresses of all employees. They probably did and came to a decision based on a huge number of factors for a company that size. Frankly, anywhere in London that offered good lease terms and size and accessibility was probably on the cards. I can't tell you hell much complexity there is in arranging an office move, not that I sympathise with big corporate animals when they do it. But there is a lot.
Could she not ask for more work from home days? Depends how much she wants to keep working there. You could get her to try the commute out a couple of times and see how much she hates it!
What tube lines would it be @Scam?
Otherwise push for redundancy. If she gets better than statutory that would be my plan.
Consider someone that commutes into the same location from Portsmouth. Already takes them say 1.5 hours door to door. New location completely changes their commute and adds say another 15 minutes due to different tube route.
Now on paper that doesn't seem that bad because as a percentage increase it's only 17% longer. However, that person might be at the peak of what they are able to cope with daily and that tips them over the edge in time.
Ops partner may have her commute time double from 15 minutes to 30, which a lot of people will say that's still nothing in terms of TOTAL commute time in London and that they should just accept it. But if you have built a life around a location and your commute time being what it is, it can be very disruptive to have it double still.
Each case is different. The company could have done an impact assessment as they will know addresses of all employees. They probably did and came to a decision based on a huge number of factors for a company that size. Frankly, anywhere in London that offered good lease terms and size and accessibility was probably on the cards. I can't tell you hell much complexity there is in arranging an office move, not that I sympathise with big corporate animals when they do it. But there is a lot.
Could she not ask for more work from home days? Depends how much she wants to keep working there. You could get her to try the commute out a couple of times and see how much she hates it!
What tube lines would it be @Scam?Otherwise push for redundancy. If she gets better than statutory that would be my plan.
I’d be hesitant to suggest pushing for redundancy when you don’t know the OPs circumstances or even what sector they work in or their specific role.
It may not be that easy to get another job and could go wrong in so many ways…
you could be out of a job for 9 months and be in a worse position than if you just moved
You could end up with the commute anyway to go to another firm.
You could end up on a lower salary and most of the commute anyway.
Etc etc.
It may not be that easy to get another job and could go wrong in so many ways…
you could be out of a job for 9 months and be in a worse position than if you just moved
You could end up with the commute anyway to go to another firm.
You could end up on a lower salary and most of the commute anyway.
Etc etc.
If they are a big company it will 100% be spelt out what the conditions are in her contract of employment. Normally this allows for the company to move you reasonable distances without having to expense your travel (ours is 45 mins I think)
My experience of this is sort of indirect:
- I know some people who had worked at a large firm which relocated from a big city to a business park a perhaps 8 miles away with poor public transport. They offered some sort of package to the people moving and also provided a shuttle bus from the train station to the office.
- A previous employer planned to downsize its London office and expand in one of it's other offices up North. It was planned to move hundreds of jobs out of London and you would be made redundant if you wouldn't travel there. It never actually came to fruition because Covid came along and reduced the amount of desk space needed. I don't think a relocation package would've been offered, their attitude seemed to be that if you are on a London Salary (higher than the location up North) then you didn't need anything on top of that.
- Another place I worked at was doing something similar to what Scam described, moving from an office around Marylebone to the City. I left before the move took place but there was no package on offer, you just sucked it up. To be fair they were fairly open about the analysis they did around finding a location that would optimise travel time, some would gain some would lose out. TBH, the requirement to be in the office was so low I doubt it bothered many people. If anything it would have made my commute easier.
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