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Survey on TUPE: evidence from the voluntary and community sector

Involve Yorkshire & Humber are working with NCVO, ACEVO, Social Enterprise UK, NAVCA, LVSC, BVSC and others to circulate a major survey on the experience of TUPE (The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations) in the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE) to:

• share experiences and analysis of TUPE across the VCSE

• present collectively to the current government 'call for evidence' on the effectiveness of TUPE Regulations.

The Government call for evidence has been launched by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) as part of the ongoing Employment Law Review. All evidence submitted in this VCSE survey will be submitted to the wider BIS call for evidence. Please note this call for evidence does not cover pensions.

Please do the survey, which is open until 20 January 2012.
 
Evidence in the survey will be analysed and:

• shared with all those who have participated or request it

• submitted as a part of the BIS consultation

• form the basis for ongoing discussion between the sector and government about TUPE, led by ACEVO on behalf of the Strategic Partners of the Office for Civil Society (Cabinet Office).

 The BIS full survey consultation, which contains slightly more questions, closes on 31st January 2012.

TUPE was originally introduced in 1981 in order to implement the 1977 EC Acquired Rights Directive. They are designed to safeguard employees’ rights where a business, part of a business or a service provision in which they are engaged changes hands. They also benefit employers by smoothing the process of necessary business restructuring and public sector modernisation by clarifying transfer terms.
They were further revised in 2006 with the aim of providing greater certainty over whether or not the Regulations applied in certain situations. The Government believes it is now timely to reflect on how well they have achieved this goal. Therefore, as part of the Employment Law Review the Government announced a review of the regulations to see if there is scope to improve their implementation of the Directive and reduce burdens on business, whilst continuing to provide appropriate levels of protection for employees.
The call for evidence is a precursor to the review. It is being taken forward to ensure that the review encompasses all relevant issues of concern and is also an opportunity to feed in potential solutions.
The issue of the protection of occupational pension rights on a TUPE transfer is dealt with under separate legislation – the Pensions Act 2004 - and is not within scope of this review. Similarly public sector transfers involving an administrative re-organisation of public administration authorities or the transfer of administrative functions are excluded as they do not form part of the Regulations and the Directive (although transfers from the public to the private and voluntary sectors are clearly in scope).

Do the survey.