Will TUPE be fashionable this May?

Today is an important day for thousands of union activists across Great Britain.

The unfashionable, complex but incredibly important TUPE regulations for staff being transferred between organisations are changed today but you would be forgiven for not knowing it.

TUPE, or Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment), is always the employment law subject with the most hits on any union website, the most well attended training courses, and one of the most difficult jobs volunteer union activists have to master to protect the terms and conditions of themselves and their colleagues.

When a workforce is proposed for a move, these unsung heroes have to quickly consult and negotiate and help collate large contractual grids in Excel (it’s not uncommon for a group of eight staff to have three of four completely different sets of conditions if they have been outsourced before) and within a few days find themselves quoting European case law to secure for example maternity leave, ante-natal appointment, breaks, mileage rates, carers and bereavement leave as employers try to take advantage.

Hemmed in by European law (TUPE is based on the Acquired Rights Directive) but bewitched by lobby groups that there is “gold-plating” going on, the Coalition have spent two years trying to weaken these fundamental protections.  UNISON warned and campaigned against and only an unholy alliance with the big private companies stopped them creating a lawyers feast with the 2006 service provision changes made by the last Labour Government.

UNISON members long for the day when there is sensible political debate on employment law and Europe.  Labour euro-election candidates will do themselves a big favour this May if they are fluent in TUPE and know the bread and butter benefits it gives any voter they meet who had ever had their job transferred. A UNISON rep might even hug them if they know Transferee from their Transferor!

Sampson Low is Head of Policy at UNISON