Employment law SOS: Employees' rights under TUPE

This approach sounds very much like "harmonisation of terms and conditions" – which is not permitted under TUPE regulations. Of course, if these terms and conditions are more favourable to employees than the ones they operated under before being transferred over, the staff affected may well agree to the change. Under TUPE, a transferee employer cannot agree changes to a transferring employee's contracts of employment if the reason for the change is either: - the transfer itself, or - something connected to the transfer which is not an economic, technical or organisational reason involving changes in the workforce. Even if an employee initially agrees to such a change, they can subsequently insist on the reinstatement of their previous terms. However, a change to employees' terms and conditions following a TUPE transfer which is neither because of the transfer itself nor connected to it will be considered valid. Similarly, an employee who is dismissed (either before or after a TUPE transfer) will be considered to be automatically unfairly dismissed if the reason, or principle reason, for the dismissal is: - the transfer itself; or - something connected to the transfer which is not an economic, technical or organisational reason entailing changes in the workforce. It is also worth noting that a dismissal which is neither because of the transfer itself nor connected to it will be potentially fair, but the employer must still follow a fair procedure. So, in effect, you will have to be able to demonstrate clearly an economic, technical or organisational reason that entails a change in the workforce that is not simply brought about to harmonise the 'TUPEd' employees' terms and conditions with the rest of the workforce. Unless you are able to show this, the transferred rights remain – there is no time limit.