Monday, January 13, 2014

CRATUPEAR!

CRATUPEAR is the acronym of the "The Collective Redundancies and Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (Amendment) Regulations 2014" which comes in force on 31st January 2014. 

Hat tip to Daniel Barnett Employment law bulletin  for this information and the summary of the changes below. The Tories have tried to water down employment protection for workers but it seems to me they are making TUPE even more complex, confusing and potentially litigious than ever.

"The summary below of what the government is not changing is probably as important as what it is changing. The main changes which the government is proceeding with are amending the TUPE Regulations to:-

allow renegotiation of terms agreed from collective agreements one year after transfer, provided any changes are no less favourable to employees,

the location of a workforce can be within the scope of an economic, technical or organisational reason entailing changes in the workforce, thus preventing genuine place of work redundancies from being automatically unfair.

clarify that for there to be a TUPE service provision change, the service provision must be "fundamentally or essentially the same" as before the transfer

allowing microbusinesses to inform and consult directly with employees (in some circumstances) allowing TUPE consultation to satisfy collective redundancy consultation rules.

Importantly, the government is not:- removing 'service provision change' from what amounts to a TUPE transfer removing the transferor's obligation to provide employee liability information; rather, the time for providing such information is increased to 28 days.

 Also mentioned is the extension of the right to request flexible working to all employees with 26 weeks' service, which will come into force on 6th April 2014".

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