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TUPE UPDATE: UK Government publishes its Response to the Consultation
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The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (“TUPE”) is in the spotlight as part of the UK Government’s Employment Law Review. Launched in 2011, the purpose of the review is to reform employment law in order to achieve a fair, effective and flexible labour market in the UK[1]. The Government says that these reforms will support better relationships between workers and employers and are aimed at making evolutionary improvements to the labour market which will retain flexibility and dynamism and benefit individuals, employers and the economy.
TUPE implements the EU Acquired Rights Directive (“ARD”) in the United Kingdom. It protects employees’ terms and conditions of employment when a business is transferred from one owner to another. Where TUPE applies, there is an automatic transfer – for the affected employees it is as if their employment contracts had originally been made with the new employer, with their continuity of service and, subject to a few exceptions, other employment rights all preserved.
In an outsourcing context, TUPE will often apply because of the service provision change (“SPC”) rules. A SPC will usually occur where there is a change of service providers or a contracting in or out of services. TUPE is complex and is viewed by many as overly bureaucratic, leaving little room for new employers to make post-transfer changes to an employee’s contract or to dismiss them fairly. Critics say the SPC provisions, which were introduced in 2006, went beyond the requirements of the ARD- so called “gold plating.” Taken in the round, the impact of TUPE, in its current formulation, may constrain the incoming service provider’s ability to restructure the inherited work practices, thereby impeding innovation and cost reduction. TUPE has also spawned complex indemnity and post-contract verification provisions in outsourcing agreements, reflecting the additional complexity associated with personnel transfers.