Express contract terms that permit change 


If the employment contract contains a valid written contract term that allows the employer to impose unilateral contract changes, the employer is allowed to rely on that term to impose contract change, even if the reason for making the change is the transfer (regulation 4(5)(b), TUPE, amended by regulation 6(1) of the 2014 Regulations). 


In particular, following changes to TUPE in the 2014 Regulations, employers can rely on express contractual mobility or relocation terms to enforce a post-transfer change in location (regulation 4(5A), TUPE). A dismissal that results from a change in work location due to a transfer will no longer be “automatically unfair” (see Chapter 3 for the law on mobility terms). 


If this kind of term has been added to the written contract terms to make it easier to impose change under a future transfer, both the term and the changes are likely to be void as a breach of TUPE (See BIS TUPE Guidance, 2014).