New TUPE rules come into force

Changes to the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE), which protect the employment terms and conditions of employees who are transferred from one organisation to another, came into force at the end of January this year.

The Government says the regulations have been improved to make sure both employers and staff are treated fairly when a transfer takes place.

Under the new regulations:

• businesses will now be able to renegotiate terms and conditions in collective agreements one year after a transfer has taken place, provided that the overall change is no less favourable
• micro businesses will be able to inform and consult employees directly when there are no existing appropriate representatives. Under existing TUPE regulations businesses usually have to inform, and sometimes also consult, employee representatives such as trade unions representatives; for micro businesses with ten or fewer employees, there are often no representatives which means that they have to be specifically elected for this purpose; this change will make this process much less bureaucratic
• the new employer will be able to engage in pre-redundancy consultation with employees, with the consent of the old employer
• contractual changes will be permitted for economic, technical or organisational reasons with the agreement of the employee and or where a contractual right of variation exists

Employment Relations Minister Jenny Willott said:

“When a business is transferred from one company to another we want to make sure that TUPE continues to provide appropriate levels of employee protection, whilst making the process as smooth as possible for the businesses involved.

“Making these changes will give businesses more clarity about conducting transfers and provide them with the tools to create new opportunities in the UK labour market, whilst protecting fairness for all.”

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