Contractual change notice period?

[shep1001]

How much notice is a company required to give to enforce revised terms & conditions on its employees? I have a colleague that is part of a business unit about to be transferd under Tupe within the month, the whole companies grade & bonus structure t&c’s will be revised (down) this month.

He believes by refusing to sign the new contract, he will transfer on his ‘existing’ t&c’s which were agreed by the new company last year because they are required to give notice equal to his notice period, before the new conditions become contractual, which will go beyond the end of the month when the transfer occurs.

For the sake of what I estimate is 2%, based on what will change with my higher grade, I think he is being a cock as he is lined up for a decent position in the new set up.

Edited by shep1001 on Monday 14th January 22:08

[anonymous-user]

Your “friend’s” belief about a notice period is misplaced, but this does not matter because his existing contractual terms are protected by TUPE. Note however that terms as to bonus may not be contractual.

If the new employer changes contractual terms a transferring employee can insist on the extant terms. A dismissal connected with a transfer of undertaking is unfair unless it occurs for an economic, technical organisational reason entailing a change in the workforce. In practice there is often some push and shove as people prefer keeping a job to taking a stand on their strict entitlements.

[anonymous-user]

I add that there is no prescribed notice period for changing a contractual term. Your friend may be thinking of statutory consultation periods that arise in some contexts such as TUPE and group redundancies.