Letters regarding what? TUPE consultations and transfers of information are required to take place through (workforce elected) "Representatives"; any other communications, e.g. initially to inform a business is to be transferred so TUPE being involved, or to deal with individual issues not appropriate to "consultations" will usually be unique to each transfer.
It could be you're confusing TUPE procedures and Redundancy; they're not the same, so please come back and clarify what you're looking for.
Hello Peter, thank you for your reply. To clarify, yes, it is the TUPE process I am preparing for at present, not redundancy. I have all of the details around the process and plan, so I was just wondering if there were any letter templates which I can use when corresponding with employees at each stage of the process, which will confirm what is happening, what will happen, and what has been discussed etc. Does that make it clearer? Thanks again for your input.
Sorry, I should add that we will be engaging and including representatives at the appropriate time too, although these don't currently exist, so we will need to go through an election process first.
No, Caroline; I'm afraid you've misread me. In TUPE all consultations must go through the representatives, not directly with the employees, so at the point of decision on their being a transfer (e.g. by the SMT) the very next thing that happens is that the "organised grouping of employees" as a whole are told there is to be a TUPE transfer of (their) employment and to elect representatives. From that point forward the discussions regarding the transfer are with those rep's, not directly with the employees, so there are no template letters: Discussions are unique to each situation and are with the rep's, and it is the rep's that then communicate with the employees in the "organised grouping".
Section 13 (2) of the regulations reads:
(2) Long enough before a relevant transfer to enable the employer of any affected employees to consult the appropriate representatives of any affected employees, the employer shall inform those representatives of—
[Note: "...consult the representatives..." and, "...inform those represenatives..." . In neither case: "...the employees..."]
(a)the fact that the transfer is to take place, the date or proposed date of the transfer and the reasons for it;
(b)the legal, economic and social implications of the transfer for any affected employees;
(c)the measures which he envisages he will, in connection with the transfer, take in relation to any affected employees or, if he envisages that no measures will be so taken, that fact; and
(d)if the employer is the transferor, the measures, in connection with the transfer, which he envisages the transferee will take in relation to any affected employees who will become employees of the transferee after the transfer by virtue of regulation 4 or, if he envisages that no measures will be so taken, that fact.
(3) For the purposes of this regulation the appropriate representatives of any affected employees are—
(a)if the employees are of a description in respect of which an independent trade union is recognised by their employer, representatives of the trade union; or
(b)in any other case, whichever of the following employee representatives the employer chooses—
(i)employee representatives appointed or elected by the affected employees otherwise than for the purposes of this regulation, who (having regard to the purposes for, and the method by which they were appointed or elected) have authority from those employees to receive information and to be consulted about the transfer on their behalf;
(ii)employee representatives elected by any affected employees, for the purposes of this regulation, in an election satisfying the requirements of regulation 14(1).
Note also the requirement is to give sufficient time BEFORE the transfer for election of representatives (or appointment of union representatives), facilitating discussion by the employer WITH THEM.
That is where the difference between redundancies and TUPE lies: In redundancy it is the individual employee who is selected "in or out" (so discussions are individualised, but of common issues of selection, so template letters can be used) in TUPE all are "in" so only one "point of contact" for information is needed: The representatives.
The only exceptions are where individual variations of contract for "Economic", "Technical" or "Organisational" (ETO) reasons are necessitated by the transfer, or variations are required for some reason NOT connected with the transfer, but again, these would be exceptional and unique, so no template-letter would "suit the case".
