The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/246) known colloquially as TUPE and pronounced , are the United Kingdom's implementation of the European Union Transfer of Undertakings Directive. It is an important part of UK labour law, protecting employees whose business is being transferred to another business. The 2006 regulations replace the old 1981 regulations (SI 1981/1794) which implemented the original Directive. The law has been amended in 2014 and 2018, and various provisions within the 2006 Regulations have altered.
Purpose
The regulations' main aims are to ensure that, in connection with the transfer, employment is protected (i.e. substantially continued).
employees are not dismissed
employees' most important terms and conditions of contracts are not worsened
affected employees are informed and consulted through representatives prior to the transfer
These obligations of protection are placed on the transferring companies both before, during and after the transfer. The obligations are relieved if there is an "economic, technical or organisational" reason for the cessation of employment (Regulation 7(1)(b)), or alteration to employees terms and conditions (Regulation 4(4)(b)).
This does not apply to transfers which go merely through the sale of a company's shares (a "share sale"). When that happens, because the employer (i.e. the original company) remains the same legal entity, all contractual obligations stay the same. The directive and regulations apply to other forms of transfer, through the sale of physical assets and leases. The regulations also apply in some cases for work transferred to contractors. This protected contract terms for workers include hours of work, pay, length of service and so on, but pension entitlement is excluded.
Contents
1. Citation, commencement and extent
2. Interpretation
3. A relevant transfer
this takes on the Spijkers language of whether an entity retains its identity, r.3(1)(a) the definition of economic entity as an 'organised grouping of resources' comes from Suzen too, r.3(2). it also now applies explicitly to a 'service provision change', i.e. contracting out services. An example of this case is RCO Support Services, r.3(1)(b) the regulations make clear that a service which is merely performing a 'single specified task' does not fall within TUPE, r.3(3)(a)(ii) the definition of an undertaking, to which the regulations apply as something engaged in economic activities, whether public or private, comes from an EC competition law case called Höfner and Elser v Macrotron GmbH [1991] ECR I-1979 r.3(4)(a) a new exception is that an 'administrative reorganisation of public administrative authorities' will fall outside TUPE's scope is still unknown in its effect, r.3(5)