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Employment and Pensions - Case Studies

Housing maintenance and public services provider

We work with a major outsourcing housing maintenance and public services provider; regularly advising on the drafting and negotiation of contracts with Local Authorities, on employment and pensions aspects and including the Code of Practice on Workforce Matters in Local Authority Service Contracts and in relation to the mobilisation and demobilisation of staff following a re-tendering process.

We were asked to advise on the demobilisation of staff after the client had lost a contract in relation to highways services. The successful incoming contractor appeared to be attempting to change the terms and conditions of these staff. It also appeared to be making changes to the way transferred staff would work post-transfer but not identifying these as measures in order to allow our client properly to consult. This put them in a situation where is could have incurred liability for constructive dismissal from transferring staff and it was necessary to work closely with the various unions to minimise that risk. The contractor was also challenging a number of staff who had properly been included on our client’s TUPE list of staff expected to transfer.

We advised on scoping the staff in the services and identifying which staff were assigned to the transferring services. Through this we were able to support Accord in holding its position on the TUPE list, with the result that all those staff transferred to the new contractor.

We assisted in drafting the correspondence with the incoming contractor and also advised on dealing with the consultation process in circumstances where the incoming contractor was not providing the necessary information. The matter was complicated by the fact that the incoming contractor had not acted quickly enough to put in place pension provision for the transferring staff and there was potential exposure in relation to life cover.

The confusion caused by the incoming contractor’s approach led to a grievance being raised against our client by an employee on the TUPE list who was the subject of challenge by the contractor. We successfully defended our client in tribunal proceedings following the transfer by the employee who had raised the grievance. This was the only employment claim which came out of the demobilisation process.

For further information please contact:
David Widdowson
Tel: 0870 194 7888
david.widdowson@bevanbrittan.com

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