Good Day

The company that i am working for is going through a Section 197 transition at moment.
I just need to get some clarity on the rules.

Our new employer has much more benefits and most of us are happy with the conditions.
There are acknowledging our annual leave as they are taking "buying over" 10 days to those who qualify.
Currently our old employer are forcing employees to take annual leave. So for example if i have 18 days annual leave.
They would force me to take the 8 days annual leave.Its quiet obvious that they don't want to payout employees.

My question is are they allowed to do this?

My second question is. We have been negotiating pay increases for quite some time. There are employees that have been waiting for almost 3 years now.I have been working for this company for about 2 years.I was suppose to get an annual increase last year as it was confirmed by our HR.
Nothing happened and later during the year " November to be precises" an email was sent out to all of us that we will not be receiving any increases. No reason given why. Now that we are a month away before we receive our new contracts from our new employer. Certain people are given increases and are told to keep quiet about it. We have raised the matter with our old employer but we getting no answers.

Is this right?


Regards

Taswell