The engineering company where I work is being acquired by another company. I also used to work for the company taking over my current employer.
I had a very unhappy time in that place as did many others because there is a very bad working culture in the acquiring company.
We are being told that there will be no redundancies – voluntary or compulsory.
I have no option but to hand in my notice. Would I be entitled to constructive dismissal in these circumstances?
Your work questions answered: I was humiliated and verbally abused by my manager, what rights do I have?
Your work questions answered: My employee has changed hours without permission, what can I do?
My company is clamping down on working from home. Can I reject this change?
Your work questions answered: ‘I have ADHD and so work from home a lot. When I go to the office, nobody speaks to me’
The reader’s case, as described, is an “unusual and unlucky” situation for an employee to find themselves in, according to experts in employment law and human resources, though they advise not to make any hasty decisions and to use processes available to them.
Anne O’Connell, principal of employment law firm AOC Solicitors, believes the reader might be “jumping the gun” in this case, saying the acquiring company could be under new management, and the takeover might not necessarily mean both are merging.
“They might just work alongside each other and there might be no changes in the personnel, so I think they should see it out and see what happens,” she says, advising not to “assume anything”.
The reader in this case cannot claim constructive dismissal based on their previous experience with the acquiring company, she says, as it was a separate employment and period.
“Unless the new owner actually does something to them in the present, and doesn’t remedy it, and they go through the internal procedures first, there’s no constructive dismissal,” she says.
“They haven’t had dealings with this company in this current role; they can’t say their current role is made impossible because something has happened in a different employment, in a different role, in a different location before,” she says.
O’Connell advises staying put and seeing how the transfer transpires, and if the employee finds themselves in the same scenario as they did prior, they could lodge a grievance.
After the internal grievance process has been exhausted, and if the problem remains unrectified, there could be an avenue for constructive dismissal.
“Only at that point, if the conduct is serious enough, should they look at constructive dismissal, but only if they can objectively say: ‘I can’t continue in this job,’” she says.
Should someone choose to pursue this route, the internal grievance process must be used first, and the employer must be given an opportunity to mend the problem.
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Constructive dismissal is a “very hard case to bring home for an employee,” she says, in which the employee must prove they had no choice but to resign due to the actions of their employer.
“It’s a very last resort, it’s a very hard case to win,” O’Connell says.
Michelle Halloran, independent HR consultant and workplace investigator, of Halloran HR Resolutions, agrees that circumstances may have improved within the reader’s former company.
“Maybe the management has changed – often, people have problems with a particular line manager, there’s always a possibility a few years on that it might be a better environment,” she says.
However, a period of consultation with employees prior to transfer, which is required, might provide an opportunity for the reader to raise concerns with their current employer, ahead of the acquisition.
This would be an chance to raise prior experience in working under the acquiring company, outlining the fact that they do not want to work for them and why.
However, documentation such as previous written complaints or grievances made while working under the acquiring company are vital.
Should the reader have such documentation, their current employer might approach the acquiring company on their behalf, and both might work towards a solution.
While the incoming employer will be the one to make the decision, they may opt to allow for a redundancy package in this case, particularly if there are records to back up the claim.
“If they never raised anything and they just quit, and they’re very unlucky and go to work for someone else and they end up being transferred back to the original employer, if there’s no record, they don’t really have a leg to stand on,” she says.
