The job follows the work
TUPE is the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulations, and behind the name is a straightforward idea: when the thing you work on moves to a different employer, you move with it.
Your terms and conditions transfer and your continuity of employment is maintained. You are not a new starter on day one, and your service does not reset, which matters enormously because so many rights are earned by length of service.
It applies to UK operations whatever the size of the business and wherever its head office is, so a handful of staff is as covered as a workforce of thousands.
The half nobody knows about
Ask about TUPE and people describe a company being bought. That is one route in. The other is a service provision change, and it is far more common.
Three directions count: work done in-house being awarded to a contractor, a contract ending and moving to a new contractor, and work being brought back in-house.
Cleaning, catering, security and maintenance contracts turn over constantly, and the people working on them are routinely the last to hear that anything is happening. No business is being sold, nobody thinks of it as a transfer, and the regulations apply anyway.
Where it does not reach
gov.uk sets out two exclusions worth knowing. A contract only for the supply of goods for the company's use is outside it. So is one for a single event or a short-term task.
That is a meaningful line on a site: a one-off job or a pure materials arrangement does not bring the regulations in, while a long-running service contract covering the same premises can. Insolvency is handled under different rules again, and redundancy remains possible where there is a genuine reason for it that is not the transfer itself.
Changing terms afterwards
Changes made because of the transfer are heavily restricted, and they have to be. A protection that moved your contract across intact and then allowed it to be rewritten the following week would be worth nothing.
That does not freeze your terms forever. It does mean a change proposed around a transfer deserves a much harder look than an ordinary one, and the general position on varying a contract still sits underneath it.
What to keep hold of
There are real duties to inform and consult before a transfer, so what you were told and when is worth writing down at the time rather than reconstructing later.
Keep your contract, recent payslips and anything evidencing your start date. Continuity of service is one of the things being preserved, and being able to show when it started is what makes it useful. Acas is free and is the place for the specifics, or the Labour Relations Agency in Northern Ireland.
What the preserved service is actually worth
The point of continuity is the rights hanging off it, and the continuous service checker works out what has been accrued and which thresholds have been crossed, which is the number that matters if a redundancy follows later.
If it does, redundancy pay is reckoned off that same service, and what you are owed on leaving covers the four separate entitlements that get settled together. And underneath all of it, employee, worker or self-employed decides which of these protections you had in the first place.
Common questions
What does TUPE stand for?
The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulations. The name is unhelpful and the idea is simple: when the thing you work on moves to a different employer, you move with it rather than losing your job. It applies to UK-based operations regardless of the size of the business or where its head office happens to be, so a very small employer is as much in scope as a large one.
Does TUPE only apply when a company is sold?
No. As well as a business changing owner, it covers a service provision change: work done in-house being awarded to a contractor, a contract ending and moving to a new contractor, or work being brought back in-house, which is the part most people miss. Cleaning, catering, security and maintenance contracts change hands constantly, and the staff on them are frequently the last to know that the regulations are in play.
What happens to my terms and conditions?
They transfer. Employment terms and conditions move across to the new employer, and continuity of employment is maintained, which matters because so many rights depend on length of service. You do not start again as a new employee on day one, and your service does not reset. The new employer inherits the contract as it stands rather than getting the chance to write a fresh one.
Can the new employer change my contract afterwards?
Changes made because of the transfer are heavily restricted, which is the whole point of the protection: it would be worthless if terms could simply be rewritten the following week. That does not mean terms can never change again for the rest of time, and it does mean a change proposed around a transfer deserves a much closer look than an ordinary one. Where a change is being pressed, the general position on varying a contract still applies underneath.
Are there situations where it does not apply?
Yes. gov.uk excludes a contract that is only for the supply of goods for the company’s use, and one for a single event or a short-term task. So a one-off job or a pure supply arrangement does not bring the regulations into play, even though a long-running service contract on the same site would. Insolvency is handled differently again, and redundancy remains possible where there is a genuine reason for it.
What should I do if I think a transfer is happening?
Write down what you are told and when, because the information and consultation duties are a real part of the regulations and the record of what was said matters later. Keep your contract, recent payslips and anything setting out your start date, since continuity of service is one of the things being preserved. Acas is the free place to go for the specifics, and the Labour Relations Agency in Northern Ireland.