WHSmiths Placements

Post by **bigjames** » 06 Sep 2007, 14:52

My team have begun to get letters detailing their VR offers or placements if they have chosen to stay.

Some of them have been placed in offices that were not on their prefernce list. Have any of the other Smiths 70 had the same?

Also what do people make of the need to get VR offers witnessed by a solicitor?

Post by **POSTMAN** » 06 Sep 2007, 15:19

Any chance you could let us now how different the T&C's are for your guys when they move.

Post by **bigjames** » 06 Sep 2007, 21:06

I have no knowledge of how things are on the Royal Mail side. With POL the staff at the 'Smiths 70' have been given a preference form to complete, choosing either to stay or go. Those who have chosen to go have pretty much been guaranteed a VR package, and indeed my team have received their offers this week. They have 14 days to send back the paperwork, with a disclaimer witnessed by a lawyer that prevents anyone who takes the package from claiming against POL for TUPE and stuff like that.
Those who are staying had to put a list of their preferred offices, and any relevant circumstances that might need to be taken into account, such as family friendly duties or EHS issues. Again, members of my team have started to receive notification of their placements. At least 2 have been placed at offices that weren't on their preferred list. 1 has got her first choice and the rest I don't know about yet. As far as I know they just transfer to their new offices as soon as ours shuts and their terms and conditions are identical. Any annual leave that has been pre-booked should be honoured, which is good. Anyone incurring any extra travelling expenses can claim their fares for 3 years as it is a compulsory move. If their journey takes any more time they be entitled to some compensation for that, but they can't claim for both as I recall. Any differences in opening hours, like long or short or no Saturdays just has to be swallowed, although at the moment Saturday Premium is pay protected so any reduction would compensated. Obviously that would change if the proposed pay deal ever gets in with the removal of the Premium payment.

Post by **sammyboy32** » 08 Sep 2007, 20:06

we have had our vr offers in our office .....i did think the whole solicitor/independent advisor thing was a bit of a performance...seems to me a former employee has made a claim against pol in the past and pol want to prevent any more of these post leaving claims

Post by **bigjames** » 08 Sep 2007, 23:07

sammyboy32 wrote:we have had our vr offers in our office .....i did think the whole solicitor/independent advisor thing was a bit of a performance...seems to me a former employee has made a claim against pol in the past and pol want to prevent any more of these post leaving claims

I think it was to do with someone who decided to leave and join a franchisee, but they weren't offered VR by the business, they were offered another job instead, which didn't suit them. I did also hear that the franchisee had verbally guaranteed all staff members who wanted to move across that they would get VR, which did not turn out to be either true nor within their power. The employee was effectively dismissed for not taking up the job offered, and then took POL to a tribunal, where the Tribunal chairman decreed that the conversion should have been handled under TUPE which had a lot of people worried for a while, until it was settled out of court.