TUPE: what happens to your job when your employer changes

Your employer is being sold, or the contract you work under is moving to a new company. Nobody has really explained what that means for you. You are not powerless here. The law gives you real protection when this happens, and it starts the moment the deal is agreed, not after.

What TUPE actually is

TUPE stands for the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006. It exists for one reason: to stop you losing your job, your pay, or your terms just because your employer has changed.

Two situations trigger it. The first is a straightforward business transfer, where a business or part of it moves from one employer to another. The second is a service provision changeOne of the two situations that triggers TUPE. It's when work moves from one contractor to another, or between a contractor and doing the work in-house, rather than a whole business being bought or sol..., where work you do gets outsourced to a contractor, brought back in-house, or moved from one contractor to the next. Cleaning contracts, catering, security, IT support: these change hands constantly, and TUPEStands for Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment). If the business or work you are part of is sold or transferred to a new employer, TUPE means your existing terms and conditions transfer... follows the work.

What happens to your contract

Your employment moves with the work. You keep your job, your pay, your holiday entitlement and your continuity of service. Only the name on your payslip changes. Your new employer takes over your contract exactly as it stood the day before the transfer.

Can you be dismissed because of the transfer?

Not lawfully, in almost every case. If the transfer itself is the reason, or the main reason, you’re dismissed, that dismissal is automatically unfair. Your length of service makes no difference to this protection. The usual two-year qualifying periodThe length of continuous employment you need before you can bring certain claims, most importantly unfair dismissal. The qualifying period for unfair dismissal is currently two years, though some righ... for unfair dismissal claims does not apply here.

There is one narrow exception. An employer can dismiss for an economic, technical or organisational reason, an ETO reasonA specific business reason, economic, technical, or organisational, that lets an employer make changes to the workforce around a TUPE transfer without it counting as an unfair dismissal. It has to be ..., that involves genuine changes to the workforce, for example a real redundancy situation caused by the transfer, not just a wish to reshuffle staff after taking over. The burden is on the employer to show this. If your employer can’t point to a specific ETO reason, the dismissal is unfair regardless of how it’s dressed up.

Being consulted before it happens

Your employer has to inform affected staff, or their representatives, about the transfer before it happens: who’s transferring, when, and why. Where the transfer brings measures that will affect you, like changes to shift patterns or working location, they have to consult on those too.

For smaller transfers, the rules changed on 1 July 2024. If fewer than 10 employees are transferring, or your employer has fewer than 50 staff overall, and there’s no existing employee representative in place, your employer can consult with you directly instead of needing to arrange an election first. That doesn’t lower the bar on the consultationA process your employer is required to carry out before making significant decisions that affect you, most commonly redundancy. It must be genuine, meaning your employer must listen and consider what ... itself, it just changes who it happens with.

If your employer skips this altogether, an employment tribunalAn independent court that hears disputes between employees and employers. It is free to bring a claim as a claimant, and most hearings take place in public. can award compensation of up to 13 weeks’ gross pay per affected employee. That’s uncapped by the usual unfair dismissal limits.

If your terms get changed anyway

Your employer can’t use the transfer as cover to make your terms worse, lower pay, longer hours, less favourable holiday, unless there’s a genuine ETO reason behind it, and even then the bar is high. A “we just want to standardise everyone’s contract” reason on its own does not meet it.

If your terms change and you didn’t agree freely, or the change was because of the transfer, you may be able to treat it as a breach of contractWhen one party to an employment contract fails to comply with one of its terms without a lawful reason. Your employer breaching a significant term of your contract can entitle you to resign and claim ... or a dismissal, depending on what happened. This is fact-specific enough that it’s worth getting advice on your particular situation.

What to do if something feels wrong

Ask your current employer, or the new one, in writing, what’s actually changing and why. Keep anything you’re told, especially anything about redundancy, ETO reasons, or contract changes.

If you think you’ve been dismissed because of the transfer, or your terms have been changed unlawfully, get advice quickly. Employment tribunal claims for unfair dismissal have a strict time limitThe deadline by which you must submit a claim to an employment tribunal. For most claims the limit is three months less one day from the act you are complaining about, and it is strictly enforced. Mis...: normally three monthsThe standard time limit for bringing most employment tribunal claims, running from the date of the act complained of. Because the limit is three months less one day, you should not wait until what fee... minus one day from your dismissal date, and starting ACASThe Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. A public body that provides free, impartial guidance on workplace rights and disputes, and runs the mandatory early conciliation process before any ... early conciliationA free process run by ACAS that you must go through before you can submit a claim to an employment tribunal. ACAS contacts your employer to see if a settlement can be reached, and the process pauses y... stops that clock in the meantime.