Changes to terms and conditions

[ch 1: page 10]

Since January 2014, the legal rules on changing contract terms in connection with a TUPE transfer in England, Wales and Scotland (not Northern Ireland) are different depending on whether or not the contract term has been incorporated from a collective agreement.

• individual terms and conditions (terms not incorporated from a collective agreement) can only be changed if:

• the employee has agreed to the change; and

◊ the change is unrelated to the transfer (see page 65); or

◊ there is a valid economic technical or organisational reason for the change entailing changes to the workforce (see page 60); or

◊ the employment contract contains a valid written contract term that already permits the change (see page 62);

• terms incorporated from a collective agreement can be changed a year after the transfer date, as long as the renegotiated terms are no less favourable “when considered together” than those they replace. Any change must be by agreement (see page 62);

• negotiations under a national or sector-level collective agreement (such as annual pay increases) after a transfer date will no longer benefit the transferred workforce unless the new employer agrees to be bound by the collective negotiation.

These rules are examined in Chapter 6 (pages 59-65).