Employees who have been transferred under TUPE have, like all other employees, the right not to be unfairly (i.e. illegally) dismissed. In the context of a TUPE transfer, this means that employees cannot be dismissed legally, simply because they have been transferred.

However, this does not mean that transferred employees can never be dismissed. The law acknowledges that there may be circumstances when it is fair to dismiss a transferred employee. These circumstances may be economic, technical, or organisational. In employment law jargon - "ETO".

Subject to the actual circumstances prevailing at the time,  this may mean that it is fair to dismiss a transferred employee if, e.g.:

• there is not enough work and therefore redundancies are required (economic)

• the introduction of new technology means some jobs are redundant (technical)

• two departments are merged together and there are less jobs as a result (organisational)

However, it will always be more difficult to convince an Employment Law Tribunal (which is where you will end up if you get it wrong) that a dismissal was un-connected with the transfer if it occurs near the time of the transfer. The converse is also true. The longer after the transfer the employee is dismissed the less likely it will be held to be as a consequence of the transfer.

If you would like to find out more about TUPE  click here.

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Our track record

1995 - Transfer of Electrical Retailing Business under TUPE

1999 - Qualified out the potential transfer-in of an IT Services operation due to excessive risks associated with pension costs

2000 - Transfer-in of IT SAP Consulting business.

2003 - Integration of Consulting teams and remuneration schemes following merger of IT companies

2004 - Transfer-in of IT Services Operation supporting a major Insurance company

2006 - Transfer-in of sales force to newly created French subsidiary of a UK manufacturing business

2007 - Managed the TUPE transfer-in of Chauffeuring team following the re-assignment of a contract of service by a major international Media and Information company

2008 - Advised a major Property Services Company on the development of their strategy for Outsourcing IT Services and managing the TUPE issues within a context of multiple previous acquisitions and transfers

2009 - Advised a top University on the development of their strategy for in-sourcing previously out-sourced IT Services and for managing the TUPE implications