TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006) is a set of rules that work to protect employees when the business they work for is sold or transferred to a new employer.

New TUPE regulations came into force on 31 January 2014 and ACAS have now published some very helpful guidance to help employers and employees better understand what the changes mean and how they may affect their business. The PDF of the ACAS TUPE guide can be found at:

http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/i/h/Handling-TUPE-Transfers-The-Acas-Guide.pdf

The key points to note about TUPE are:

• When a business is sold or transferred the employees assigned to, or employed by that business will automatically transfer with the business and become employed by the new owner of the business.

• Employees will transfer to their new employer on their existing contracts of employment and with all their years of continuous employment protected. Changing the contracts of transferred employees can be very difficult and legal advice must be taken at the earliest opportunity.

• The outgoing employer must provide information about the transferring employees to the new employer not less than 28 days before the transfer.

• Employer must inform/consult with the transferring employees before the transfer and if there is no trade union this may require the election of employee representatives.  From 31 July 2014, micro businesses (those with fewer than 10 employees overall) are not required to elect representatives to inform and consult where there are no existing recognised trade unions or elected employee representatives. However, they must still inform and consult directly with each individual employee regarding the transfer.

• If an employee is dismissed either before or after a transfer and the sole or principal reason for the dismissal is the transfer, it will be automatically unfair.

TUPE is a complex area of law and anyone thinking about purchasing or taking over a business with employees really needs to take legal advice about the employees they may inherit at the earliest possible stage.

Employees being transferred can find this a very unsettling and worrying time and may also be best taking legal advice about their position if they feel they are not being treated correctly.

Paul Whitfield can be contacted on 0161 2831276 or paulw@foxwhitfild.com

www.foxwhitfield.com

Employment Law Solicitors – Head Office based in Manchester with offices located throughout the United Kingdom.

Between 12 June and 13 July 2014 employers will face a number of issues relating to the World Cup games from requests for annual leave, to suspicious sickness absences and high levels of internet usage during matches.

As this World Cup is being held in Brazil most matches will kick off between 5:00pm and 11:00pm.

ACAS have published some guidance to employers. This urges employers to be as flexible as possible for this period of time to try and maintain a productive and motivated workforce. They suggest that, in advance of the World Cup or other similar events, that the employers make their position clear about issues such as booking time off, watching TV at work, sickness absences and internet usage.

Employers should consider :-

Annual Leave Requests

Employers should have a policy that states how much notice is needed to book annual leave and that requests are always subject to the employer’s agreement. This should prevent too many employees asking for the same time off or doing so at the last minute. ACAS suggests that employers might want to operate this policy with more flexibility during the World Cup as it is for a short period of time. However that is entirely down to the business and its requirements for employees work.

Given the likely kick off times in this World Cup most games will be in the later afternoon and evening so it might be more sensible to offer a more flexible working day if a large number of employees want to take the same days off.

Sickness Absence

Employees taking days off sick to watch a match or the day after a match due to a hangover can cause serious problems for an employer. Employees should be reminded of the company policy on unauthorised absences and absence levels should be carefully monitored during periods like this. Back to work meetings with any employees taking sick leave can be an effective deterrent to this sort of absence.

Alcohol at Work

It is useful to remind your employees what your policy on being under the influence of alcohol at work is and if necessary remind employees that they may be subjected to disciplinary action.

If you plan to show matches in the workplace and prove or permit alcohol to be consumed it is also worth having a clear policy about the expected level of behaviour. Fox Whitfield can provide employers with these sorts of policies.

Internet Usage

Games that take place during working hours are very likely to coincide with a big increase in the use of twitter, facebook and sites streaming matches and commentary. Again it will be worth reminding employees about your policy on the use of the internet during working.

Paul Whitfield can be contacted on 0161 2831276 or paulw@foxwhitfild.com

www.foxwhitfield.com

Employment Law Solicitors – Head Office based in Manchester with offices located throughout the United Kingdom.

Facebook Password: Are You Legally Obliged To Give Yours To Your Employer?

Paul Whitfield comments in the Financial Times on the new trend of employer’s asking employees for their Facebook Password:

Read the whole piece HERE

Q: I was recently asked to hand over my Facebook password at a job interview. I thought this was outrageous but after talking to friends realise it is quite common, especially after Facebook publicised its new privacy settings. What should I so in this situation? Am I legally obliged to hand it over? Obviously I am concerned that they will get more access to my life than I’d like a prospective employer to see.

This relatively new development from the USA is spreading to the UK as an evolution of an already common practice: Recruiters conducting online research into candidates such as viewing their public profiles on social networking sites and carrying out Google searches.

As is often the case, the law is far behind technological advances. Germany already outlaws this sort of conduct. In the USA on the other hand, an attempt to create similar legislation on the issue failed in the House of Representatives on 28 March.

The world’s largest social networking platform, Facebook has now threatened to bring claims against anyone who asks for people’s private passwords.

Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer recently issued a statement which stressed that the practice undermines the privacy expectations and security of users and their friends. The statement went on to highlight how giving your password to a potential employer would be in breach of the site’s terms of use.

You are under no circumstances obliged to hand over any of your personal passwords. However, it isn’t unlawful for a potential employer to ask for it either. In reality, and perhaps unfairly, you are probably unlikely to get the job if you refuse. I would anticipate widespread outrage at this notion but, nonetheless, there is no obvious cause of action since you always have the right to refuse such a request.

If you did hand over your password and then didn’t get the job, you might be able to bring a claim. In this scenario it is the employer who is taking a risk in accessing your account. They might discover that you are pregnant, gay or suffer from a disability: all unlawful reasons not to give you the job and could enable you to bring a claim for discrimination. It would be hard for the employer to prove that information from your personal accounts didn’t influence their decision.

Paul Whitfield is a solicitor at Fox Whitfield.