Revised TUPE regulations come into force

The new Collective Redundancies & Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2014, (known as TUPE 2014), will come into force tomorrow, 31 January.

The reforms, which follow a consultation last year, are aimed at reducing bureaucracy and increasing flexibility around the regulations, which protect employee rights when the business or undertaking that employs them is transferred to a new employer.

Changes to the regulations which might benefit employers include:

• The Service Provision Change (SPC) originally introduced in 2006 will continue but only where the new activities being carried out are “fundamentally the same as the activities carried out previously”
• Employers are now able to count pre–transfer consultation towards collective redundancy timelines
• Current employers have an extra 14 days to provide employee liability information
• The new employers will be bound by the terms of a collective agreement as it is ‘frozen’ at the point of transfer
• The dismissal of an employee under Regulation 7 of TUPE 2006 will now only be automatically unfair if the reason for the dismissal is the transfer itself
• A change in the place of employment will now be a justifiable reason for dismissal, even where TUPE has led to the dismissal
• Employers with fewer than ten employees will be allowed to consult directly with employees in relation to a relevant transfer where there is no recognised union.

For information on any element of employment law please contact Vaishali Thakerar at Lawson-West Commercial on 0116 212 1000.

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