TUPE advice

earl7265

Hello all, First time poster here.

I am taking over a pub from a pub co under a new tenancy agreement.

The pub is open and is obviously being run by someone else.

When he leaves and closes the building for the last time I will be taking over after 24 hours of closure.

His business has nothing to do with me. I’m just renting the building from the pub co that he was renting previously.

The pub has failed and I think it is partly to do with some of the staff he has employed. He has a manager who’s running the pub as a convenience for himself. Some front of house staff are very good, some are very bad.

I do not want to TUPE anyone staff over at all but I am willing to interview all the staff with a view to employing them in my new business. 

I’ve been told by ACAS that I am on very dodgy ground and could be done for unfair or constructed dismissal. They also said if the outgoing guy refuses to finish his staff and pay them off I could end up having to pay them redundancy should I not take them on. 

Could anyone on here clarify things for me. Irony is that if I don’t take the pub it will close and they all lose their jobs. 

Thanks in advance

YBR

I'd listen to ACAS, generally. It may be that you are not buying the "business" which is the TUPE I've experienced but it seems from what you say that it is not so clear-cut.

I guess that as the pub is re-opening then the front-of-house roles are still needed and not redundant ( making staff redundant is about their ROLE no longer being needed). If you re-hire existing staff, particularly if their contracts are identical, it may blur the lines.

I am no expert, you may need to pay an expert to get reliable clarification.

sgthammer

This doesn't go into great detail, but does suggest there's different treatment if you're not buying a company as such:

https://www.gov.uk/transfers-takeovers/insolvent-businesses

On the other hand, arbitrary changes under new management are exactly what TUPE was introduced to address. What does it say in your tenancy agreement? Are the staff ultimately employed by the licensee or the pubco? Are you inheriting any fully-paid stock etc that might imply continuity of business?