The courts have clarified when regulations, which operate to preserve the employment contracts and rights of employees and transfer them over to a new employer, will apply. Generally, these regulations (known as “TUPE”) apply when: a) their employer’s assets are bought by another entity; or b) the services/activities that they and their employer provide are contracted to be provided by a new entity. To transfer to the new employer, the activities carried out by the employee must be ‘fundamentally the same’ both before and after the transfer. The courts have considered this and decided that ‘fundamentally the same’ does not mean that all of the old employer’s activities have to be carried out by the new employer: the regulations transferring employees will still apply even if only part of the old employer’s activities are carried out by the new employer.
United Kingdom