Q. I am buying a business and the seller has told me that as part of the deal I must take over responsibility for all of his staff because of TUPE. What on earth is TUPE?
A. TUPE stands for the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations and was introduced to protect employees when a business is sold. Before TUPE, a buyer of a business was free to cherry pick which employees he wanted to keep, who he could then agree new terms of employment with. The others would be made redundant.
TUPE changed this by introducing the automatic transfer principle. This now means that all employees' contracts of employment are automatically transferred to the buyer. Nothing changes so far as the employees are concerned and they continue to work for the business on the same terms and conditions as was previously the case.
TUPE also states that employees must be notified and consulted about the transfer and if any employee is dismissed at the time of the transfer, it is automatically assumed to be an unfair dismissal. Breaches of TUPE entitle employees to claim damages from both the seller and buyer of a business and therefore it is vital that both do all that they can to ensure that the rights of their employees are not adversely affected by the business transfer.
For specialist advice contact Keith Swan of Patterson, Glenton & Stracey Solicitors by email at ks@pgslaw.co.uk or by telephone on 0808 231 7043. Patterson, Glenton & Stracey Solicitors have provided legal advice to the people of South Tyneside for over 125 years. For details of their full range of services and to view previous Gazette articles please log on to www.pgslaw.co.uk. Patterson, Glenton & Stracey Solicitors: the Logical answer .
