Objecting to a TUPE

[TUPEhat]

I'm currently going through TUPE at work.

My old employer paid for my training fees for my chartership qualification, and has a clawback clause in my contract whereby I would be required to repay the entire amount should I resign within 2 years.

If I were to refuse to transfer to the new employer, would the liability to repay my fees be extinguished? As the old employer will no longer exist once the transfer completes?

I understand that objecting to the transfer my current contract would be automatically terminated. Which is not the same as resigning.
I am cautious about asking the new employer in case they try to proactively take steps(?)to ensure they can recover the fees.

When I went through TUPE, if we did not transfer to new employer or we did not secure a different role with existing employer then we were deemed to have resigned. I’m not sure if that’s any different for you if your existing employer is not going to exist anymore.

I was in exactly the same situation with a course my employer put me on ( IOSH ) , I had to stay for 3 years or pay for it , but the company I work for lost the contract and me and 10 others were TUPE'd over myself and 1 co-worker still had a long time to run on before we could leave without a penalty.
But with the change of contract the pay back was void , my co-worker left about 6 months after the tupe was completed.

As far as I am aware he did not have to pay anything back , however its one of them things that I think may depend on the companies that are involved.

Are you in a union ? It would definitely be worth having a chat with them .

I’d speak to your employer, generally they class it as resignation. However the new Company may be happy for you to leave, assuming you don’t do a critical role and they can back fill. Saves a future redundancy cost if they have to reduce head count in 12-24 months.

so worth the ask.

I'd never been TUPE transferred in my life until I was 62, then twice in two calendar years. Workstream transferred to a sister organisation in MArch 22 and as of this month we've merged and are TUPE'd to the new outfit.

General principle is that if you reject a TUPE you're seen as having resigned.

I suspect that will be the case here too. What does the agreement under which this training was paid for say about what happens if you resign?

If you reject TUPE, your employment will end when the transfer takes place. Your existing employer may well be entitled to require repayment of your training fees.

You say your old employer will no longer exist when the transfer completes. They may close down if they are transferring all of their business, but the TUPE transfer on its own doesn't stop them existing as a legal entity.

Thanks all. And thanks @prh47bridge I used your wording to help to help me ask further questions. which confirmed your advice that my old firm will continue to exist to collect debts and pay creditors at least for a time. So unfortunately for me there will be no escaping repayment!