TUPE Consultation: Changing contract terms

The government is proposing significant changes to make it easier for employers to change terms and conditions after a transfer. The proposals under consideration are as follows:

• Allowing employers to change terms derived from a collective agreement one year after transfer;

• Changing regulation 4 of TUPE to “copy out” the wording of the Directive, maximising the scope for employers to change contract terms after a transfer;

• Widening the definition of changes to the workforce, to cover changes in the numbers, functions and location of the workforce. This is in response to the cases of Tapere and Abellio. This change (likely to become law in October 2013) will mean that employees dismissed as a result of a change of location following a transfer will be entitled to a redundancy payment and to ordinary protection from unfair dismissal under ERA 96, but the dismissal will no longer be automatically unfair.