TUPE rules

4nshel

For the last 3 years my company had a contract with the local council tp provide a service and it provided work for 10 people.

After submitting a tender for the renewal of the contract my company has been offered 43% of the work,i.e that means only 4 out of 10 of us will have work, the rest of the contact has been split up into smaller chunks and given to 3 other companies.

The Council have told us that TUPE does not apply because we have been given part of the contract. Surely TUPE would apply to around 6 staff that will lose their jobs ?

Question is who is right
Legal helpline stated TUPE does apply irrespective if we have been given a
small or large amount of contract

Council claimed that because they have given us a small piece of the
contract TUPE does not apply.

Our Council by the way are prone to errors and it is possible that the Government are ready to send in a team to run it.

Any ideas appreciated

Debt_Free_Chick

TUPE is horrendously complex and still developing as a new bit of the law is clarified whenever a case goes to Court!

My understanding is that TUPE would almost certainly apply if the two parts of the original contract being transferred can be attributed to a group of specific employees. So, if the original contract was, say, for catering and cleaning and there were two groups of staff - catering staff and cleaning staff - if the cleaning is transferred to another service provider, that would be a TUPE transfer. But if there were just one group of employees who did some cleaning and some catering, that is probably not a TUPE transfer. one of the key features in this situation is whether there is an identifiable group of staff doing the work that is being transferred.

So .... is there?