TUPE

New and updated

• Date:

  12 October 2004

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Case round-up

  This week's case law round-up from Eversheds, covering pregnancy-related dismissals and transfers not covered by TUPE Regulations.

• Date:

  7 November 2003

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Transfer of undertakings: Work performed by single employee transferred under TUPE Regulations

  In Dudley Bower Building Services Ltd v Lowe and others, the EAT holds that whether a stable economic entity exists in any given case, for the purposes of a transfer under the TUPE Regulations, is always a question of fact and degree.

• Date:

  19 September 2003

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Transfer of undertakings: Transferee contractually obliged to pay nationally agreed public sector wage rises

  In Glendale Managed Services v Graham and others the Court of Appeal holds that a transferee employer of a local authority undertaking was under a contractual obligation to increase an employee's pay in accordance with nationally agreed rates.

• Date:

  15 August 2003

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Transfer of undertakings: Transferor's liability for failure to inform and consult passes to transferee

  In Alamo Group (Europe) Ltd v (1) Tucker (2) Twose of Tiverton Ltd, the EAT holds that where a transferor fails to comply with its duty to inform and consult upon a relevant transfer, liability for that failure passes to the transferee under reg. 5 of the TUPE Regulations.

• Date:

  10 January 2003

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Equal pay: Transferred workers cannot compare their pay with retained workers

  Article 141 of the EC Treaty of Rome is not limited to situations where men and women work for the same employer, but it does not cover the situation where pay differences between equal pay claimants and their comparators cannot be attributed to a single source, so that there is no single body responsible for the inequality and which can restore equal treatment, the European Court of Justice holds in Lawrence and others v Regent Office Care Ltd and others.

• Date:

  11 November 2002

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Transfer of undertakings: Right to share options may be varied on transfer

  In MITIE Managed Services Ltd v French and others, the EAT holds that a contractual right to participate in an employer's profit-sharing scheme may, following a TUPE transfer, become a right to participate in a scheme of "substantial equivalence" only, if the right to continue participating in the original scheme is absurd, impossible or unjust.

• Date:

  23 September 2002

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Transfer of undertakings: TUPE Regulations may apply without a transfer of employees

  In RCO Support Services and another v Unison and others, the Court of Appeal upholds a decision of an employment tribunal that there were relevant transfers of undertakings within the meaning of the TUPE Regulations in the form of labour-intensive cleaning and catering support activities, respectively, despite the fact that almost none of the workforce was taken on by the transferee.

• Date:

  1 August 2002

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Transfer of undertakings: Early retirement pension paid on redundancy dismissal not excluded by TUPE

  Early retirement and enhanced benefits paid on dismissal for redundancy to employees who have reached a certain age are not "old-age, invalidity or survivors' benefits" within the meaning of article 3(4) of the EC Business Transfers Directive, even if those benefits were calculated by reference to the rules for calculating normal pension benefits, holds the European Court of Justice in Beckmann v Dynamco Whicheloe Macfarlane Ltd.

• Date:

  15 February 2002

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Negligent misrepresentation: Transferor liable for negligently misrepresenting the effect of a transfer on employees' pensions

  In Hagen and others v ICI Chemicals and Polymers Ltd, the High Court holds that on the facts, an employer owed a duty to take reasonable care as to the truth of statements made to its employees in relation to a TUPE transfer.

• Date:

  1 June 2001

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  New European transfer rules

  When does Tupe apply to outsourcing situations? There are few more complex and volatile areas of employment law, and a recent decision by the European Court of Justice may only add to the confusion.