shenanigans ahead?

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cirian75

Original Poster:

4,355 posts

240 months

Monday 14th December 2015
quotequote all
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.






Eric Mc

122,855 posts

272 months

Monday 14th December 2015
quotequote all
It's obviously NOT just a name change. It looks like company A will cease to exist and company B will undergo a name change.

You work for company A at the moment. When the change occurs, you will cease being an employee of Company A and will become a new employee of the renamed Company B.

Based on what you have described above, there is no company C, just a renamed company B.

Edited by Eric Mc on Monday 14th December 08:15

cirian75

Original Poster:

4,355 posts

240 months

Monday 14th December 2015
quotequote all
yeah, I'd better keep my T&C's intact along with my service length (7 years march next year)

cirian75

Original Poster:

4,355 posts

240 months

Monday 14th December 2015
quotequote all
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 frown

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 frown


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

19,470 posts

273 months

Tuesday 15th December 2015
quotequote all
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.

cirian75

Original Poster:

4,355 posts

240 months

Tuesday 15th December 2015
quotequote all
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

1,560 posts

241 months

Tuesday 15th December 2015
quotequote all
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.

cirian75

Original Poster:

4,355 posts

240 months

Tuesday 15th December 2015
quotequote all
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.

dave123456

2,822 posts

154 months

Tuesday 15th December 2015
quotequote all
don't really understand people's sentiment in all of this. I very much take the attitude that I am self employed despite being PAYE.

cirian75

Original Poster:

4,355 posts

240 months

Tuesday 2nd February 2016
quotequote all
Confirmed shenanigans ahead, can't say what they are right now.

but this looks like very very good shenanigans smile

Du1point8

21,678 posts

199 months

Tuesday 2nd February 2016
quotequote all
Do explain more, I like shenanigans.

cirian75

Original Poster:

4,355 posts

240 months

Tuesday 2nd February 2016
quotequote all
I won't be a 3rd party contractor any more wink

cirian75

Original Poster:

4,355 posts

240 months

Monday 29th February 2016
quotequote all
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 smile


Du1point8

21,678 posts

199 months

Monday 29th February 2016
quotequote all
Sounds a bit like the solicitors/ambulance chasers stuff.

Ambulance chasers (Company A) sign up people for XXX amount and recommend company B (the solicitors), in actual fact you get no choice as Company B are owned by Company A, but unofficially and have a seperate person as MD not associated with Company A, but in actual fact they don't or are not allowed to do anything without the unofficial say of Company A board.

So what happens is all the money goes to Company A who then bank roll company B so they can pay their staff, who get the pay outs and pay them to company A minus fees and commission.

If it looks like the market is dying down, Company A become later and later with their bank rolling of Company B, Company B and more importantly the MD get into the st as they should not be so reckless... Company B has to fold with massive debts... Company A walk away with the cash as they don't need to pay anymore as Company B went under.

Rinse and repeat... who is on the hook for all this, the MD of company B.

cirian75

Original Poster:

4,355 posts

240 months

Tuesday 1st March 2016
quotequote all
CEO of company A and C is the same guy.

Owner of Company B is the big cheese, who by default owns A, and I would think C, but I bet he does not.


anything goes pear shaped, MD of A and C will be on the hook.


any ways once my last pay day gets paid I don't care, moving on.

Du1point8

21,678 posts

199 months

Tuesday 1st March 2016
quotequote all
cirian75 said:
CEO of company A and C is the same guy.

Owner of Company B is the big cheese, who by default owns A, and I would think C, but I bet he does not.


anything goes pear shaped, MD of A and C will be on the hook.


any ways once my last pay day gets paid I don't care, moving on.
Pretty much what happens in my example

cirian75

Original Poster:

4,355 posts

240 months

Thursday 3rd March 2016
quotequote all
found a lot more out, it makes a lot of sense now, will post it once my final wages are paid.

Pothole

34,367 posts

289 months

Thursday 3rd March 2016
quotequote all
Best learn to play the bugle

cirian75

Original Poster:

4,355 posts

240 months

Thursday 3rd March 2016
quotequote all
Pothole said:
Best learn to play the bugle
I'd laugh if I did not suspect final wages have a 50/50 chance of being/not being paid.

cirian75

Original Poster:

4,355 posts

240 months

Tuesday 3rd May 2016
quotequote all
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.