Question re: redundancy and public sector contract tenders

Funky_Gibbon

Hi,

I currently work for a public sector service that Local Authorities are required to provide by law. My local authority contracted this service out to the NHS and my employment contract is with the NHS.

What with the cuts to council funding the value of the tender is being reduced from April and the NHS have said they won't be reapplying for it.

The jobs within the service will still exist after the 1st April even if the council has to deliver them themselves. They can't get around that.

My question is will I be made redundant by the NHS and the council then replace me in the job with someone else (which I thought was illegal under redundancy legislation) or will I be TUPE'd over to the local authority? I've tried researching this but can't find any information.

Sycorax

It sounds very much like a TUPE situation, in which case you can't be made redundant purely because you've been TUPE'd, if the contract transfers you'll go with it.
What can happen though is the local authority can re-structure post the TUPE transfer, in which case you'll go into a pool for selection with those other people doing the same or substantialy similar jobs. At that point redundancy consulation, selection etc will apply.

Funky_Gibbon

Thanks that's kind of what I expected. At the very least it'll give us a little extra time in which to look for other jobs. :beer:

warmhands.coldheart

I'm not so sure? it would depend on a couple of things. If it was a contract awarded to the NHS by the council to provide the service, and you're employed by the NHS and the contract is ending, then technically you could be made redundant..... The council may award it to another provider like any other circumstance when a contract ends.. Obviously this would all have to be done through public tender and if not and they decide to run the service themselves, they would have to employ people to do it and you may have to apply for the job like anyone else. TUPE usually (unless I'm wronghere) applies when a company/business takes over another company/business along with it's staff... in this case they aren't... the contract has run out and your employer (the NHS) has decided not to re-new it.... whether the council are obliged to provide the service or not isn't the point here, it's who your employed by and in this case it's the NHS..

getmore4less

TUPE also applies to contracts moving in a lot of cases.

warmhands.coldheart

getmore4less wrote: »

TUPE also applies to contracts moving in a lot of cases.

Yes but from what I've gathered from the post, in this case the contract is ending with the OP's employer and they have decided not to renew/tender for it again therefore whether or not the service has to be provide by the local authority is by the way I'd think. It's not a case that her employer is being merged or bought out or moved part way through a contract. It could be a case that another provider takes on the new contract or as OP said, the local authority decides to provide it themselves in which case if more staff were required to providethe service, they would have to apply for the role like anyone else....

princessdon

It sounds to me like the end of service agreement in which case TUPE won't apply.

We had a Speech and Language Team (paid for by the council to work in nurserys) contracted via the NHS.

The NHS wouldn't meet the council half way so they didn't re-tender and they now use council staff (trained by the same NHS workers) to detect early speech problems.

They were all either absorbed back into the NHS or made redundant.