The HR director at William Hill has criticised the Transport & General Workers’ Union (T&G), after an employment tribunal decided to throw out the union’s complaint about staff terms following the bookmaker’s acquisition of Stanley Racing.
In June, the T&G applied to the Employment Tribunal to establish the existence of a Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE) responsibility following the 505m deal.
The union threatened to push for compensation of up to 4m from William Hill if it was proved that the acquisition was a full buyout rather than a share deal.
However, the tribunal found in favour of William Hill, deciding that TUPE did not apply, and ordered the T&G union to pay £10,000 costs.
Speaking to Personnel Today after last week’s decision, David Russell, group HR director at William Hill, said: “We are pleased the tribunal found in our favour, but we would have preferred to resolve the matter sooner.
“We take these accusations seriously as we always try to treat our employees fairly and communicate effectively with them,” he said.
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“One of the most disappointing things about the case is that union members had their hopes raised for no good reason. They were given the false impression that William Hill had behaved inappropriately and that there was a pot of money to compensate them,” Russell added.
Andrew Hodge, employment partner at Wragge & Co, the law firm which represented William Hill, said that the T&G’s claim “was totally without merit”.
