TUPE - how long is the guarantee

caveman38

My wife who works for the local council has been told that they are to be transferred to a new employer. They are outsourcing part of Social Services (Home Care) to an agency, that they are already using for other elderly care.
She has been told by her employer and TU that her T&C and salary will be protected under TUPE regulations.
Although that is somewhat reassuring what is in doubt is for how long would the new employer have to honour that agreement.
On a few occasions in the past the council have introduced changes to contracts that carried an either sign it or resign ultimatum and staff are worried that the new employer might do the same after a short period.
The problem is that the staff who currently work for the agency earn far less and have poorer T&C.
The question is then: How long after the sign over day would the new company be obliged to honour the salary and T&C under TUPE law that the employees benefitted from their previous employer.

mrs_pickle_2

call ACAS - free on 08457 474747.

getmore4less

AIUI there is no protection after the transfer.
(except for service)

Some transfer deals seem to add extra protections into the T&Cs like redundancy terms fo N years but even these can probably be changed wth consultations etc.

These days there seems to be less(no) interest in protecting public sector T&Cs on transfers to the private sector.

Andy_L

The new company is obliged to honour the contract for the same length of time as the original employer ie effectively for the duration of your employment.

However any contract can be varied via negotiation/imposition - if they unilaterally change it then you may be in a position to persue a constructive dismissial claim

SarEl

Broadly speaking, the protections are worth very little if the employer chooses to make changes. In some circumstances where the employer can argue a strong enough economic, technical or organisational case, changes can be introduced almost immediately, and provided they go through a consultation process properly, can be enforced. Whether this would consitutute an unfair dismissal would depend on the circumstances - but make no mistake that even fairly substantial changes can be deemed fair in law, and there are no guarantees that employees would win such a case. Thereafter, "harmonisation" with the existing workforce conditions can be justified under the same grounds, and contracts are "fair game" between 12 and 24 months - after 24 months then if the employer chooses to play it that way then the protections are pretty worthless. It does all depend on the exact terms of the TUPE agreement (although the ability of these to put in binding clauses which prevent the employer from making changes to public sector conditions has been severely curtailed by the current government), and what the employer wants to do. Some employers choose to leave well enough alone, at least for several years - others do not.

Bobl

Employees are transferred with their current T&C's protected at that point in time, however if the business decides at some later point that they need to change them due to Business reasons they can do so. Salary is not normally enshrined in T&C's so there is usually no obligation for pay rises in the future.

See here:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/BusinessTransfersandtakeovers/DG_176391

Savvy_Sue

And as a side note, if you are not already a member of a union, now is the time to join ...