Chapter 11 Key facts checklists

Continuity of employment and TUPE

An employee's period of continuous employment begins on the day on which the employee starts work.
Any week during the whole or part of which an employee's relations with his employer are governed by a contract of employment counts towards continuity of employment.
The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) (SI 2006/246) took effect in 2006 and were amended in 2014. They implemented the Acquired Rights Directive (2001/23/EC) in the UK. The original Directive dates from 1977 and it was implemented in the UK by Regulations originally dating from 1981.
A relevant transfer takes place, first, where there is a transfer of an economic entity that retains its identity, and, secondly, where there is a service provision change.
Regulation 4(1) TUPE provides that, except where an objection is made, a relevant transfer shall not operate to terminate any contract of employment of any person employed by the transferor for a reason connected to the transfer.
The Regulations ensure that an individual's contract of employment will transfer from the transferor employer to the transferee employer when a relevant transfer takes place.