TUPE

[Tupeytupe]

Anyone who is good with TUPE - if an in-house service is outsourced and the employees TUPEd, can their hours of work be changed from eg early mornings to early evenings?

If your hours of work are contractual then the first answer is no. The second answer is "possibly". TUPE protects terms of employment that exist at the point of transfer, and, in theory, going forward from there into the new employment. BUT there are exceptions, because nothing is ever that simple. A new employer can change them, even immediately afterwards, either by agreement or by being able to show that there is an ETO reason for the necessity - ETO stands for Economic, Technical or Organisational reason. The change would be challengable through the grievance process and to an Employment Tribunal if unsuccessful. So "can they" - yes. "Should they" - it isn't clear. As with many things, if you are in this position the question back would be "what will you do about it if they did?"

There's an explanation here that is pretty easy to read and fairly detailed
https://www.davidsonmorris.com/eto-tupe/

Thanks both of you, that's helpful. I'd have to look at the contract because I can't remember if the timing of the hours are specified.

It was both me 😁 But yes, if the contractual hours aren't specific it could be difficult. You could argue custom and practice if you've had the hours a long time. But it really does depend on the exact details. For example, it's a bit extreme, but you'll get it... your hours are 5am until 11am, and the new employer doesn't work those hours, so they are saying 3pm until 10pm. If they don't work the hours, they don't. They can offer you other hours, and make you redundant if you don't want them.

Where it gets complicated, as that article suggests, is where its less clear cut. So you have fixed hours 5 -11am. But the new employer has rotating shifts. You can't do those. But they can't shift the entire of their other employees hours to accommodate that. Then it's the devil in the detail....

But in the end, in all honesty, it is never really just about the law. Its about what you can or are prepared to do about it. There are no magic law fairies who do it for you. If you are sensible, you have a union. They are the closest you get to a fairy. But they still can't fight if you won't.

Ha - so it was 🤣 Sorry, well thank you for all of your contributions! Genuinely very helpful, and makes perfect sense.

Great advice from Neriah!