Consultation and collective rights

Representatives of affected employees have a right to be informed about a proposed transfer. They must also be consulted about any measures (i.e. actions or steps) the original or future employer envisages taking concerning those employees.

Regulation 13 specifies the employer’s duties to inform and consult. Regulation 14 sets out requirements for election of employee representatives where there is no recognised union, and Regulation 15 explains what action representatives and/or individual employees can take if their employer has failed to inform or consult them.

For transfers taking place on or after 31 January 2014, the 2014 Regulations introduce a new right — but not a duty — on the transferee to consult before the transfer with the transferor’s workforce on post-transfer redundancies in certain circumstances. This change is explained on pages 44-47.

A union recognition agreement transfers as long as the group of employees it relates to retains a distinct identity after the transfer (Regulation 6).

The out-going employer must provide specified information about the transferring workforce to the in-coming employer before the transfer (Regulation 11). There is no obligation to share this information with unions. This duty is explained in Chapter 4.