The leaders of several of the sector's umbrella bodies have responded to a call for evidence on Transfer of Undertakings Regulations 2006, recommending greater clarity of all parties' responsibilities in the transfer process.
Leaders of the NCVO, Locality, Charity Finance Directors' Group, Acevo, Birmingham VSC, Voluntary Sector North West, Social Enterprise UK and Navca submitted their responses to the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) based on a joint survey of 24 questions posed to their members.
Transfer of Undertakings (Tupe) Regulations 2006 implement an EU directive to protect staff's terms and conditions in the circumstance when a business is taken over by another employer. The regulations, however, are not clear enough on where responsibilities lie in different circumstances, the joint survey found, with the majority of respondents advising there were "too many grey areas, too open to interpretation" in the regulations.
The leaders had three key recommendations:
- for full disclosure of Tupe information to be published at the first point of the tender process
- for the government to undertake a formal consultation on the Tupe Regulations 2006
- for a similar and simultaneous process addressing the transfer of pensions liabilities to take place
They also advised that respondents "tended to focus their criticisms on the way the process of transfer is managed within the commissioning process, rather than on the Tupe regulations themselves. In particular the responsibilities of the commissioner are unclear".
The sector leaders called upon the government to take greater repsonsibility of the matter and to publish codes of practice for commissioners to be transparent in their implementation of the transfer process. A number of survey respondents suggested implementing a fining structure for misleading, lacking or inaccurate information on liabilities from transferring organisations. Others called for the right to withdraw from a tender if a commissioner fails to provide full information on cost implications.
