BSF Thread, BSF & TUPE in United Kingdom (UK) Specific Forums; I'm sure this is on everyone's minds and has been mentioned in other topics but what exactly do we all ...
I'm sure this is on everyone's minds and has been mentioned in other topics but what exactly do we all face with TUPE and what are our options if any? Many of you may have a while before this is an issue for you but I'll be facing this in the next few months.
Like most of you I have been kept out of the majority of BSF talks because I asked difficult questions and did not just sit there all excited about the whole process. All I've heard is that I will be gaurenteed a job with the new ICT company and thanks to the TUPE process my terms & conditions will be safe for two years. I'm sceptical though and am not simply assuming this will be right for me.
Obviously each school will be different but I'd be grateful if anyone with any knowledge of the process, either in regard to BSF or more generally, could tell me:
Will schools have their budgets pre-determined in such a way as they will not be able to afford their own technicians?
Do we have the option of asking for redundency rather than being TUPEd?
File Attached: tupelaw.pdf - right-click and save-as
Last edited by Deaks; 27th February 2008 at 11:54 AM.
All I've heard is that I will be gaurenteed a job with the new ICT company and thanks to the TUPE process my terms & conditions will be safe for two years
Lucky you. Did you get it in writing?
Will schools have their budgets pre-determined in such a way as they will not be able to afford their own technicians?
The school can still employ people outside of the contract but I doubt many will initially.
Probably redundancy pay will be one week for every year worked.
we were speaking to the woman who is head of all this bsf crap and we gave her a right grilling... for us its late 2009 but we got told that we would be tuped over and work for the managed service going anywhere you were needed, not necessarily staying at your school.
After 2 years if you are good enough they might keep you on. However, I'm looking for new jobs now... so if I were you I'd have a search around too!!
I think what you'll do and where you'll go will to some extent depend on the company who has the contract to run the managed service. One company I spoke to said they would keep all IT technicians in their current schools. Others will go for a "leaner" approach. One company has said that if the school wants to keep us on, that's not a problem, but we wouldn't be able to touch or repair any IT equipment, so we would in fact be teaching assistants, school crossing wardens (ok, they're not employed by schools, but you get my drift) etc.
There's no standard, each company has their own idea of how to run school IT services while maximising their profits. In my area we have 13 secondary schools, if the company winning the contract builds a server farm somewhere, it's not likely to want to employ 13 Network Managers in the schools.
There are a lot of posts on the BSF forum, so I suggest you have a good trawl through those as well.
What I've found is that there doesn't seem to be a wholly unified route to managed services, and there seem to be grey areas which prey on the mind of techies at 03:00am or whenever, myself included.
If they get rid of the local techs, who will deliver the service? These companies aren't sitting there with idle support teams just waiting for your jobs. School already spread their ICT Support teams too thin - this is why (in part) BSF ICT Service charge is so high - because the school has to pay real money for the service it signed up to. I know several people who have been TUPEd (one on several occasions), none of them know people who lost their jobs. They do know people who resigned in protest, but that's a personal choice.
Last edited by psydii; 10th February 2008 at 10:03 AM.
we were speaking to the woman who is head of all this bsf crap and we gave her a right grilling... for us its late 2009 but we got told that we would be tuped over and work for the managed service going anywhere you were needed, not necessarily staying at your school.
After 2 years if you are good enough they might keep you on. However, I'm looking for new jobs now... so if I were you I'd have a search around too!!
this is the best advise so far on this thread. I advocate this approach for anyone who doesn't like the idea or the uncertainty of being tuped by the managed service provider. Every technician who knows the BSF timeline for their school should still take their time and be considered about looking for new work it but i think it's important to be proactive.
I have a meeting with our Head this afternoon to find out about my options and what will happen over the next few months as BSF kicks in for us. Will hopefully post more later today.
Salford are holding a "Consultation" a week monday with all the IT Techs and NMs do discuss BSF..
Wonder how many will hand in their notice after the "Consultation"
My GF worked on an non-BSF project to centralise local revenues and benefits departments. During the consultation, every single member point blank refused to be transferred. If the council were to proceed with the centralisation, they would have been no staff to keep the service running. The project was canceled due to this, and the fact that councilors were able to completely rubbish the 'cost savings' that the consultants projected.
I wonder how this would (theoretically) work for me. Considering I have no car at the moment.
My thoughts too - I can't drive either, and as it isn't in my contract that I need to, they couldn't do much about it.
The thing about TUPE is that there is a legal duty for the current employer to inform and consult with the affected staff (or their representatives) in advance of the transfer. If this does not occur then the staff member has grounds to complain to an employment tribunal.
Another thing I have read is that you can have your conditions changed if the new employer has a 'ETO' reason to - so an economical, technical or organisational reason. I think the whole 'driving' thing may well come under an ETO reason. It would also allow for lay-offs to occur if the company would face financial hardship due to over employment as a result of the TUPE process.
So, as has been said before, the overall outcome of this process is that your job will change.
Darn. I was going to fish for a nice shiny company car. I'm not worried about being layed off. I'm the only one who knows how the *nix boxes work.
They will gut the Nix Boxes and install new window servers or whatever the large managed service company uses... your pride and joy Network will no longer exist and a generic managed service compny oone will be installed and remotely installed...
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Originally Posted by Joanne 
I'm not worried about being layed off. I'm the only one who knows how the *nix boxes work. 
