4th April 2007, 05:48 PM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by ShadowJack As for staff benefits, pensions, sick etc, we have been informed that should CAM ARC be externalised - agreement would be sought with both staff and UNISON under The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE) to preserve employees' terms and conditions.
Can I give some advice re TUPE arrangements. Be afraid. Be very very afraid....
In the first instance, TUPE would not apply if a transfer was made of CAM ARC to another local authority body. The government issues guidelines for how such tranfers should take place, but these are outside of the scope of TUPE.
Secondly, TUPE does not protect pension rights. Sure your Cambs CC pension can be frozen at the point where yous cease to be an employee, but all your new employer has to offer is a 6% contribution to a stakeholder scheme.
Thirdly, say an employee of CAM ARC does not want to work for Borset Archaeology Ltd after a take over is agreed. Can they take redundancy under TUPE? No!! Failure to transfer across will be counted as a resignation at which point an employee does not even retain their rights to redundancy payments.
Fourth, will TUPE automatically apply to this transfer? Only if the takeover body decides to retain the CAM ARC employees pretty much as a discrete economic entity. It is debatable that TUPE would apply to a transfer if the takeover body assimilated the employees of CAM ARC into their general workforce and did not have a specfic contracting division working solely in Cambridgeshire.
Fifth, what happens to union recognition after a transfer? If the new employer retains CAM ARC as a separate economic entity then they have to maintain existing union recogniton and negotiated rights. If however, the new employer assimilates the employee of CAM ARC into their general workforce and and does not have a specfic contracting division working solely in Cambridgeshire, then they do not have to recognise or maintain previous union agreements.
So a whole lot of pitfalls to be aware of.
That said of course there are plenty of models out there which show how public sector bodies can be given a degree of independence and allow their staff to retain the vital link to Local Authority terms and conditions (and I believe one of the counties bordering Cambs has gone though this exercise in the past year).