Dishonesty in the Welfare to Work industry

As we all know the welfare to work industry is going through turmoil as it prepares for the delivery of the new Work Programme. Hundreds of people are now on redundancy notice though hopefully, a good number will find alternative employment with other providers.

Many of these will transfer under TUPE regulations in the hope their jobs will remain and they will continue to earn an income. What remains unclear is how many of these will be subject to redundancy notices once they have been transferred over.

Already we have heard one provider appearing the ‘bend’ the rules by talking about adhering to the ‘spirit’ of TUPE, rather than stating clearly they will follow the guidelines to the letter. We can only hope this was little more than a figure of speech and that staff will be given full rights under employment law.

Yesterday I was shocked to receive news from one of my informants. It appears that one of the unsuccessful providers may be forced to shed its entire staff. Many of these will be subject to TUPE considerations, but it will undoubtedly also result in a large number of redundancies. As the deadline for the transfer of clients from FND to WP looms, staff in the company are being urged to secure as many jobs as possible before the deadline – the cynical part of me wonders whether this has anything to do with profit rather than any other factor. In an explanation of this approach a senior manager explained it was to make the staff look as attractive as possible so that the highest performers would be TUPE’d but those who failed to deliver would almost certainly be out.

This is blatantly illegal and contravenes both the spirit and practice of TUPE. All frontline staff are eligible for TUPE transfer, though the company can limit the numbers based on their own requirements. Thus, if 100 staff are eligible for transfer, but the new company only needs 10 then the transfer will take factors into account like closeness to work etc. Sadly, those not transferred will be made redundant, though in some situations they may be transferred and made redundant by the new provider.

At a time when the sector is going through such pain it is incumbent on senior managers to be honest with their staff. They need to keep them regularly updated of news as it happens and offer clear guidelines about the process that will be adopted. In all of this process there can be no room for immoral profiteering from the fear of staff due to lose their jobs – but since when did bosses ever care about the workers?