shenanigans ahead?
Discussion
I work for company A
Company A is own owned by company B
Company A has has issues with clients not paying bills on time.
We had about 5 months where payday was between 1 day to 5 days late.
last 4 months payday has been on time.
received email saying company A and company B merging and changing names into company C under a new name, very similar name to company A and B initials.
seems legit so far, but alarm bell is slightly twitchy
A little fish has whispered we will be getting TUPE packs to transfer to Company C.
I asked why if its just a name change?
Seems to me company A has gone pop and this is a phoenix'ing by company B
Alarm bells well and truly clanging away now.
Company A is own owned by company B
Company A has has issues with clients not paying bills on time.
We had about 5 months where payday was between 1 day to 5 days late.
last 4 months payday has been on time.
received email saying company A and company B merging and changing names into company C under a new name, very similar name to company A and B initials.
seems legit so far, but alarm bell is slightly twitchy
A little fish has whispered we will be getting TUPE packs to transfer to Company C.
I asked why if its just a name change?
Seems to me company A has gone pop and this is a phoenix'ing by company B
Alarm bells well and truly clanging away now.
I been talking to some people within the company closer to management than me.
Turns out company B, the parent has about 5 UK companies all loosely in the same industry with distinctly different names and specialisations.
Its been a nightmare managing them all and trying getting brand recognition to grown them, some are competing with each other.
So it is going to merge us all under one name which will be the UK division of company B, which means every one has to TUPE to B.
We are being merged into a medium to large sized company that has a lot of diversification.
I can see the payroll/HR sections being heavily cut because of this because of duplication
I'm supplied as part of contract to a client (my job makes the company money), so completely and totally unrelated to payroll/HR, but will be a crap new year for those I mentioned above
It sounds promising, but I'm hurtling towards 40 and have been made redundant twice so far in my life, so I shall remain suspicious and cynical till proven wrong.
Turns out company B, the parent has about 5 UK companies all loosely in the same industry with distinctly different names and specialisations.
Its been a nightmare managing them all and trying getting brand recognition to grown them, some are competing with each other.
So it is going to merge us all under one name which will be the UK division of company B, which means every one has to TUPE to B.
We are being merged into a medium to large sized company that has a lot of diversification.
I can see the payroll/HR sections being heavily cut because of this because of duplication
I'm supplied as part of contract to a client (my job makes the company money), so completely and totally unrelated to payroll/HR, but will be a crap new year for those I mentioned above
It sounds promising, but I'm hurtling towards 40 and have been made redundant twice so far in my life, so I shall remain suspicious and cynical till proven wrong.
bad company said:
I wouldn't be concerned about the take over or the TUPE stuff but if an employer was in the habit of paying my salary late I would be looking for a new job.
last 4 months wages have been bang on time.issue was with a 200 person contract who though it would be great fun not to pay their bill for 7 months.
speedyman said:
Tupe would mean your current terms and conditions are preserved when you move to company B. It could be worse if they made everyone redundant or got you to reapply for your own jobs before the takeover.
well they have a lot of contracts with a lot companies supplying people.If they play silly buggers they would loose a load of them.
company I work at would have zero issues dumping them and getting someone else to take us over on TUPE.
I need to see what the TUPE pack says, I've been told my start date back in March 09 will remain as is, and my holidays will go over as currently entitled to, as in days left and my reset date.
hopefully as the part I work for is by far the biggest bit, our T&C's will form the core of the offered T&C's
But
I need to see what is in the pack.
Update time
no company's names though.
I work for company A
Company A supplies me to the client.
Company A is owned by company B
Company B, something fishy is going on there, I don't know what.
It results in company A messing up near 6 months worth of payday's as they don't have the cash flow, partly because company B is doing something with it, and some clients think its great fun not to pay their bills.
Early this year company A announced their "rebrand" into company C, who has a near identical name to company B.
There is talk of TUPE'ing to company C, this has not yet materialised, and make zero difference to me as you will read on.
All the paperwork and emails start coming from company C to me and the client, but payslips and invoices still come from company A.
Client has had enough, likes the people they have supplied by company A.
Instead of ending the contract and getting someone else in to TUPE us over to another supplier.
They have decided to employ us directly with all the benefits that go with being proper direct employees, proper sick pay, better pensions etc.
switch over happens very soon
no company's names though.
I work for company A
Company A supplies me to the client.
Company A is owned by company B
Company B, something fishy is going on there, I don't know what.
It results in company A messing up near 6 months worth of payday's as they don't have the cash flow, partly because company B is doing something with it, and some clients think its great fun not to pay their bills.
Early this year company A announced their "rebrand" into company C, who has a near identical name to company B.
There is talk of TUPE'ing to company C, this has not yet materialised, and make zero difference to me as you will read on.
All the paperwork and emails start coming from company C to me and the client, but payslips and invoices still come from company A.
Client has had enough, likes the people they have supplied by company A.
Instead of ending the contract and getting someone else in to TUPE us over to another supplier.
They have decided to employ us directly with all the benefits that go with being proper direct employees, proper sick pay, better pensions etc.
switch over happens very soon
Got my last wages off the old company about a week late so I can talk about what I found out 2 days after my last post.
Enough time has passed now to say more.
Still no company names though.
Due to the shenanigans of company B, company A had a big cash flow issue, company B was syphoning off all the anticipated profit before the costs had been paid, which when compounded with a few large contracts not paying for several months, caused the pay issues.
5 months of this resulted in company A’s once good name becoming mud.
Several senior managers offered a buyout of on the northern part of the company and would call it a name very similar to company B, they reckoned they could do better than company A using a variation of company B’s name, thus company C came into existence, deal was, they would get local contracts, that the money made would be theirs, but would also manage the parts of company A’s national contracts in the north, for which C would get paid a fee.
This explains the rebrand
Only! they did not have enough money do this properly, as contracts started to be lost quickly due to the syphoning/non-payments, so they not could fully fund company C, and did not have the cash flow to TUPE people over, also explains why the invoices for extras came from company C, but my wages still came from company A.
The lads working for C who were working for A, EG the managers and support staff, but not on contracts, were TUPE’d over, these are not the buyout managers though, these are the day to day lads n gals who are pretty much screwed when C finally fails and it will soon.
This will also means A and B are totally off the hook if C fails, which I suspect is the real reason, there are quite a few close to 60, with 10 to 20 years of service.
Or so I thought
However
Company B has now dumped Companies A and C to a new owner, company E, and walked away.
Reading what I could, it looks like A and C went bust but company E swooped in a gobbled then up before anyone else could react so must have been prearranged.
Enough time has passed now to say more.
Still no company names though.
Due to the shenanigans of company B, company A had a big cash flow issue, company B was syphoning off all the anticipated profit before the costs had been paid, which when compounded with a few large contracts not paying for several months, caused the pay issues.
5 months of this resulted in company A’s once good name becoming mud.
Several senior managers offered a buyout of on the northern part of the company and would call it a name very similar to company B, they reckoned they could do better than company A using a variation of company B’s name, thus company C came into existence, deal was, they would get local contracts, that the money made would be theirs, but would also manage the parts of company A’s national contracts in the north, for which C would get paid a fee.
This explains the rebrand
Only! they did not have enough money do this properly, as contracts started to be lost quickly due to the syphoning/non-payments, so they not could fully fund company C, and did not have the cash flow to TUPE people over, also explains why the invoices for extras came from company C, but my wages still came from company A.
The lads working for C who were working for A, EG the managers and support staff, but not on contracts, were TUPE’d over, these are not the buyout managers though, these are the day to day lads n gals who are pretty much screwed when C finally fails and it will soon.
This will also means A and B are totally off the hook if C fails, which I suspect is the real reason, there are quite a few close to 60, with 10 to 20 years of service.
Or so I thought
However
Company B has now dumped Companies A and C to a new owner, company E, and walked away.
Reading what I could, it looks like A and C went bust but company E swooped in a gobbled then up before anyone else could react so must have been prearranged.
some more info
the now ex owner was personally withdrawing money before paydays
2 days early, to make sure people got paid, knowing what the owner was doing before payday, the wages boss processed the wages, with more than enough money to pay them.
The owner withdrew a large amount money the so the wages could not be paid in full and filed the next day.
And the new owners, who talks must have already happened, swooped in, bought the company and paid the wages.
there is big legal question going on now about the legality of the now ex-owners withdrawing cash, as a large amount of the money he took on the last day was pre-payment.
the now ex owner was personally withdrawing money before paydays
2 days early, to make sure people got paid, knowing what the owner was doing before payday, the wages boss processed the wages, with more than enough money to pay them.
The owner withdrew a large amount money the so the wages could not be paid in full and filed the next day.
And the new owners, who talks must have already happened, swooped in, bought the company and paid the wages.
there is big legal question going on now about the legality of the now ex-owners withdrawing cash, as a large amount of the money he took on the last day was pre-payment.
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