A company restructure doesn’t give your employer the right to cut your notice pay.

The situation

The claimant joined a swim school. Shortly afterwards, the business restructured and renamed itself into a new corporate entity, still run by the same director. As part of that change, she signed a fresh written contract entitling her to 4 weeks' notice once she had worked between 1 month and 2 years' service. When she later resigned, her employer unilaterally tried to cut her notice period down to 1 week. She was paid only 1 week's notice pay instead of the 4 weeks her contract set out.

What the tribunal found

The Liverpool Employment Tribunal, hearing the case remotely, upheld the claimant's breach of contract claim as well-founded. It found that "the respondent is in breach of its contractual obligation to pay this amount," and awarded her £1,215.00 in unpaid notice pay. The tribunal noted that TUPEStands for Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment). If the business or work you are part of is sold or transferred to a new employer, TUPE means your existing terms and conditions transfer... Regulations 2006 could potentially have applied to the corporate restructuring, but the claimant did not pursue that route, so the case turned solely on the express terms of her written contract. The respondent did not attend the hearing. The claimant represented herself and gave evidence under oath. Her claim succeeded regardless.

A written contract does not lose its force just because the company you work for changes its name or restructures. If you signed a contract setting out your notice period, that is what you are owed, whatever your employer decides to offer you later. This case shows that principle holding up in practice, even though a bigger question like TUPE was in the background and never had to be answered.

Check your contract for the exact notice period it promises you. What matters is whether you were paid less notice than your contract promised. That holds whether you resigned or your employer ended things. Either way, a shortfall is a breach of contract. The contract sets the standard here, not a sense of fairness. What decides this kind of claim is what the contract said and what you were actually paid.

Restructures and renamed employers can also raise TUPE questions. Did your employment actually transfer to a new legal entity? What would that mean for your terms and continuity of service? That is a genuinely complicated area of law, so if your notice pay has been cut around the time of a company change, get advice before you accept whatever you are offered.