Mon, 1 Aug 2011

TUPE case may signal loosening of restrictions

Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE) could be loosened depending on the outcome of a current employment case, according to a senior lawyer.

Professor Dominic Regan, visiting professor of civil litigation at London’s City University, said the case of Parkwood Leisure Ltd v Alemo-Herron had reversed earlier law and ‘sensibly’ not upheld TUPE.

Speaking at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s Employment Law conference last month, Regan described how workers employed in a local authority leisure department were transferred to a private company, and transferred again two years later to Parkwood Leisure. Under the employees’ local authority contracts they were entitled to pay increases, which Parkwood Leisure refused to uphold.

The workers challenged Parkwood, but the Supreme Court held that TUPE only preserved those terms applied at the date of the transfer, so later developments were not binding. The decision has been referred to the European Court of Justice.