TUPE changes

The Collective Redundancies and Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 (SI 2014/16), in force from 31 January 2014, make a number of changes to the law on TUPE. One of the most significant is the inclusion of a change of location in the definition of an economic, technical or organisational reason "entailing changes in the workforce", which means that, where staff who do not want to work in a new location after a TUPE transfer are made redundant, the employer will be able to argue that the dismissals were fair.

An amendment to the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 means that, where the transferee is likely to make redundancies after the transfer, pre-transfer consultation by the transferee with representatives of transferring employees can count for the purposes of complying with the collective redundancy rules, provided that the transferor and transferee are in agreement and the transferee has carried out meaningful consultation.

For transfers that take place on 31 July 2014 or later, a further amendment enables micro-businesses to inform and consult directly with affected employees but only if there is neither a recognised independent union in respect of the affected employees, nor any existing employee representatives and the employer has not invited the affected employees to elect representatives.

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