TUPE

The Court of Appeal has held, on unusual facts, that TUPE does not confer additional rights so as to improve an employee's situation.

Mrs Jackson was employed by CI in 1999. CI's business transferred to Computershare in 2004, and it made Mrs Jackson redundant in 2005. The employment tribunal found that, due to the 2004 TUPE transfer, she was entitled to enhanced severance pay - something which Computershare only made available to employees who had joined it pre-2002. The EAT overturned that decision, and Mrs Jackson appealed.

The Court of Appeal dismissed her appeal. TUPE Reg 5(1) does not give a transferred employee access to benefits other than those to which the employee was entitled before the transfer of the undertaking. It safeguards existing rights. So for the question of enhanced severance pay TUPE could not be used to "miraculously transform" Mrs Jackson into someone who joined Computershare pre-2002 when, as a fact, she joined Computershare in 2004. The original tribunal was wrong and she was not entitled to the enhanced payment.

Jackson v Computershare Investor Services

[Thanks to Patrick Green, Counsel for the Claimant, for telling me about this decision, and to www.emplaw.co.uk for permission to use their summary of the case]