TUPE - Large company to small

[Kermit power]

Hi all,

Please consider a situation where someone works for a very large company, and is being TUPEd over to a much, much smaller one.

Under TUPE, there are of course some contractual rights which are protected, but what happens to non-contractual stuff? If the very large employer has things like employee discount schemes, subsidised canteen and a number of other benefits which are the norm with most large companies but which it's not realistic for the smaller company to set up, can they just say "sorry, it's not contractual, so we're not going to do anything", or is there any protection for the employees at all?

Needless to say, whether it's contractual or not, it could make quite a significant difference to the overall value of the employees' compensation packages.

[parabolica]

Kermit power said:

... can they just say "sorry, it's not contractual, so we're not going to do anything",

Short answer is pretty much yes, they are within their right to say this. If they are feeling generous and keen to retain the talent then maybe they would consider some kind of compensation to cover the loss of benefit, but legally they don't have to honour anything that isn't a contractual benefit.

[Kermit power]

parabolica said:

Short answer is pretty much yes, they are within their right to say this. If they are feeling generous and keen to retain the talent then maybe they would consider some kind of compensation to cover the loss of benefit, but legally they don't have to honour anything that isn't a contractual benefit.

That was rather what I thought, although I had heard someone suggest that some of those benefits can be considered contractual if they've been habitually available for an extended period of time.