01 November 2013

The new TUPE Regulations have been published by the government, revealing service provision rules will not be repealed, but several changes will be made that could hinder trade union activity.

The Draft TUPE Regulations were published in response to the Coalition's consultation on the subject, which concluded in April. Read the Institute of Employment Rights' (IER) response to the consultation here.

Last week, Thompsons solicitor and leading TUPE expert Richard Arthur discussed the anticipated contents of the new legislation at the IER's conference TUPE Update: The New Regulations.

His predictions have been borne out by the new regulations, which include:

• In the case of a service provision change, activities before and after the change must be "fundamentally or essentially the same".
• Changes made to collective agreements following transfer will not apply to transferred employees. Only terms as part of agreements that are in place at the time of transfer will be applied to transferred employees (this comes after the European Court of Justice's decision in the case of Alemo-Herron vs. Parkwood Leisure)
• Terms as part of collective agreements may be renegotiated by the new employer after one year following transfer.
• Collective redundancy consultation that occurs prior to transfer will still be applicable following transfer, therefore trade unions will not get a chance to consult with the new employers (who they may never have negotiated with previously).
• Changes in the location of a workforce following transfer will count as an economic, technical or organisational (ETO) reason – which are allowable in law – for making changes to the workforce.
• Micro-businesses (those with fewer than ten employees) will be allowed to directly consult with employees in the instance of transfer where no unions are recognised by the business and no trade union representatives are in place.
• Employee liability information must be provided 28 days prior to transfer – an extension of the 14 days previously permitted.

Each of these changes was critically analysed and commented upon at our TUPE conference by Richard Arthur and other experts, including trade union officials.

Click here to read details of the presentations and discussions that took place and download the papers for free

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