Monday, 13 January 2014

New legislation leaves TUPE hanging by a thread

Legislation amending the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE 2006) was laid before Parliament on Friday. As expected the proposed changes, which will take effect on 31 Januury 2014, will weaken employment protection when services are outsourced.

Whilst the concept of Service Provision Change (SPC) will be amended rather than abolished as initially feared, this will mean that TUPE will only apply in this context where the new activities being carried out are "fundamentally the same as the activities carried out previously". Mark Hammerton of law firm DWF looks at implications for employers and states that: 'With these words now enshrined in the legislation itself, rather than left to judicial interpretation, it will be more open for incoming contractors to argue cogently that TUPE is not applicable. We have already seen a greater propensity for new providers (e.g. on a change of outsourcing) to argue that their approach to service delivery will be so radically different that TUPE does not apply'
http://www.dwf.co.uk/news/legal-updates/tupe-reforms-codification-and-clarification-rather-than-commercial-liberation?utm_source=e_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=e_alert_hr_10_jan_2014&utm_content=main_story