Who is covered by TUPE
[ch 12: page 449]It has been established law for many years that only employees are protected by TUPE. However, in a surprise decision , summarised below, an employment tribunal has ruled that TUPE also protects “workers”, because the Acquired Rights Directive protects anyone in an “employment relationship”:
This case was brought by a group of cycle couriers with worker status, supported by the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) union. In earlier tribunal proceedings, the couriers had been awarded £35,000 of holiday pay arrears against CitySprint. CitySprint’s service contract was then transferred to a new provider, eCourier, part of Royal Mail.
The tribunal ruled that CitySprint’s holiday pay liabilities transferred to eCourier, even though the couriers were workers, not employees.
Dewhurst v Revisecatch Limited t/a Ecourier Case No. 2201910/1/2018, 26 November 2019
First instance tribunal rulings do not bind other courts, but even so, this ruling is useful and may be persuasive. However, it is important to note that even if the tribunal’s interpretation of TUPE is correct, workers are not protected from TUPE-related automatically unfair dismissal (see page 482). This is because regulation 7 of TUPE (unfair dismissal) only applies to employees, not workers.