Government attacks on TUPE

The government is hostile to TUPE, which it views as standing in the way of its plans to privatise public services as a “barrier to reducing the size of the workforce or the transferred workers’ pay levels”. Consultation on proposed changes to TUPE closed in April 2013 and the most important proposals for change are highlighted in this chapter alongside the relevant regulation.

The published timescale for changes to TUPE is October 2013, except for the most significant proposed change, the abolition of the service provision change regulations, where a lead in time is proposed. Change will be introduced through the medium of the Growth and Infrastructure Bill.

The consultation document published in January 2013 was preceded by a Call for Evidence. Even so, many of the proposals contained in the consultation document are not supported by the evidence. For example, the government’s key claim that the TUPE regulations are a deterrent to potential purchasers and a barrier to growth is undermined by the conclusion of its own Impact Assessment that “as there are so many TUPE transfers and a comparatively low number of tribunal cases, TUPE legislation should be viewed as an area where there is good compliance.”