Is this right, re job transferring to another company?

[InTheNightBakery]

Trying to stay anonymous so using changed details but the essential points are the same;

I work for company A making baked goods as part of a team of 10. All 10 of us have the job description of 'baker' and are expected to bake whatever the company want us to (with adequate training). At the moment the company only makes sausage rolls and apple pies, the recipes of which are trademarked by company B but allow our company A to produce them.

We have all at some time had to work making both sausage rolls and apple pies as the company has needed but for ease we are currently on two teams of 5 either solely making one or the other but our job description is just still 'baker', we could be asked to make either or switched to the other team without it changing our job role.

Company B has decided we are not going to be allowed to make apple pies for them anymore, only sausage rolls, and are going to allow Company C to make the apple pies, so 5 of us won't be needed any more but can transfer to Company C.

We've been told the 5 of us currently making apple pies will be the ones transferred - is this fair and legal? We all have the same job role and are capable of making either so surely 5 should somehow be picked from the 10? Sorry for the long winded details but not sure where I stand (I'm one of the ones being told I'll be transferred).

TUPE is not like redundancy, there's no selection process. Either a job transfers or it doesn't, and if it does, the person doing that job/those jobs are the ones to go.

TUPE applies when a business or a definable part of a business transfers to a new company. In this case the part of your employer's business which makes apple pies is transferring, while the part which makes sausage rolls isn't.

It frequently happens that people employed as an organised unit performing one function could equally perform a different but similar function, but that doesn't mean they can in any way opt out of a transfer if the unit they are working in transfers to a different employer.

In this instance, the apple pie making function is transferring, therefore employees who are completely or mostly engaged in making apple pies transfer as part of that function.

TUPE can be a bit of a minefield, but it's designed to protect the workers, in theory. So your company has lost the apple pie contract and company C now has won that contract. To prevent those working on apples pies being made redundant, company C must take them on. Those mainly working on apple pies are transferred. It doesn't matter if other staff could do the apple pies, what matters is the fact that they don't. If you don't want to be transferred to company C, then you have to resign.You can object if you think the criteria isn't correct. Are you in a union?