TUPE question.

sho_me_da_money

To cut a long story short, we are currently undergoing a TUPE process. The reason for this is due to losing a major contract.

Bosses will determine who goes on the TUPE list based upon whether they believe if an individuals role was created to primarily service the lost contract.

I am going to play out a fictitious scenario:

There are 100 employees in my company. Me and 2 others manage and run the HR department. Of the 100, 50 were placed on the TUPE list, 35 are kept on and 15 were made redundant as their roles ceased to exist.

All three members of the HR dept. are on the TUPE list.

Although I can appreciate that one of our roles may have existed to support staff that were brought on as a result of the contract we lost, there were other members of staff in the organisation supporting a number of different contracts who also needed our services too.

So if the company has decided that all three of us belong on a TUPE list, are they basically saying, that our jobs only existed to primarily support the contract we lost? I strongly feel that my role as a HR admin should exist with the remaining pool of 35 people. We supported them with fully irrespective of the lost contract.

So the bottom line is - The company believes we all qualify for TUPE. I do not.

Can anything be done about that or do I go with what they say?

Thanks,

Andy_L

Qualifiying for TUPE is not the same as will you transfer to the new employer.

The people are not on a "TUPE list" they are on a "transfer list" it is then a matter of law whether or not TUPE regulations applie to those who transfer, thus protecting their current T&Cs of employment.

Who is on the transfer list is, AIUI, the decision of the new & old employers - you have no real say in the matter unless you contract has some caveats about what work you can & can't be expected to do

Jarndyce

The answer to your question is yes, you can apply to an Employment Tribunal for it to determine whether or not you were entitled to a redundancy payment and should not have been transferred.

If half the company's staff are transferring, it will be down to the facts of the situation, ie how the HR function was structured and how it related to the transferring work, whether or not it was integral to it and should have transferred with it. However if you had an overarching HR role covering the whole company, you may have a case. You will need to get your union lawyers or an employment lawyer to look at the facts.