TUPE: what happens to my contract in a business transfer?

The cleaning contract changes hands on Friday. Do you turn up for the new firm on Monday, and does your pay stay the same? If you are an employee assigned to that service, TUPE usually moves your contract and years of service with you. A change of owner is not, by itself, a fresh start.

Does TUPE apply to you?

First ask whether your legal employer changes. TUPE protects two kinds of transfer, not every sale or reorganisation.

1. A business transfer. A business or part moves to another employer and keeps its identity. A sold care home may qualify; buying equipment alone need not. The whole picture matters, including staff, assets and customers.

2. A service provision change. A client outsources its cleaning, gives the job to another contractor, or brings it back in-house. The activities must remain fundamentally the same. An organised grouping of employees must have serving that client as its principal purpose. One dedicated caretaker can be a grouping; an ad hoc rota of cleaners may not be.

The service-change rules exclude contracts wholly or mainly for supplying goods, and a single specific event or short-term task. Supplying a school with sandwiches differs from running its canteen. If a contract is split between several incoming providers, TUPE coverage needs individual assessment. The split does not automatically remove or guarantee protection.

Who moves?

Not everyone on the payroll. Employees assigned to the part of the business or service that moves normally transfer. If you divide your week between two contracts and only one changes provider, assignment depends on the facts. Your rosters, duties and the way the team was organised matter. Hours spent on a contract are evidence, not a stand-alone legal test.

On a zero-hours contract? Your employment status determines your protection. A zero-hours employee assigned to the contract transfers on the same zero-hours terms. Coverage for a limb-(b) worker on identical shifts is uncertain. Get advice early, and check our guide on whether you are an employee, worker or self-employed.

Can you refuse to transfer?

Yes. Tell either employer you object, and your employment ends automatically on the transfer date. The new employer never becomes your employer.

A substantial change to your working conditions that materially harms you is different from an ordinary objection. A 40-mile relocation might qualify. In those circumstances, regulation 4(9) lets you treat the contract as ended and treats that ending as a dismissal. Whether it is unfair depends on the facts and normally requires two years’ service in Great Britain as at 1 October 2026. The government plans six months for dismissals from 1 January 2027. Do not assume every unwanted transfer or relocation qualifies.

What transfers?

Regulation 4 moves your employment contract to the new employer as if you had signed it with them in the first place.

That includes contractual pay, hours, holiday, sick pay, bonuses and notice. Your original start date counts. Someone employed continuously since 1 January 2018 has nine full years’ service on 1 January 2027, including for statutory notice and redundancy. Liabilities connected to the employment can move too, including unpaid wages and claims over the old employer’s conduct. Terms incorporated from a collective agreement generally transfer, but new agreements later negotiated solely with the old employer do not automatically bind the buyer.

See our guide to whether collective agreements change your contract.

Can the new employer cut your pay or hours?

A transfer is not permission to put you on the buyer’s pay scale. Regulation 4 makes a contractual variation void if its sole or principal reason is the transfer, subject to specified exceptions. Your signature alone does not make a prohibited change valid. A permitted contractual variation clause may matter; a genuinely unrelated change can be agreed under ordinary contract rules.

One exception is an agreed change for an economic, technical or organisational (ETO) reason entailing changes in the workforce. This can mean changes in numbers, functions or where people work. Closing a duplicate depot and removing roles may qualify. Calling a pay cut “harmonisation” does not create an ETO reason.

There is no fixed expiry date. A change years later may still be transfer-related. For a term incorporated from a collective agreement, a separate exception permits a variation more than one year after transfer if the contract, taken as a whole, is no less favourable afterwards. The reason need not be unconnected with the transfer, but the variation must still be effective under ordinary contract law.

Can you be made redundant around a transfer?

Dismissal solely or principally because of the transfer is automatically unfair under TUPE, unless an ETO reason entailing workforce changes applies. “Automatically” concerns the reason. It does not remove the service requirement. A regulation 7 unfair-dismissal claim normally still needs two years’ continuous service in Great Britain on 1 October 2026, or one year in Northern Ireland. A separate claim for dismissal for asserting a statutory right may not need that service. The GB qualifying period is scheduled to fall to six months for dismissals from 1 January 2027.

A genuine ETO redundancy can be fair if the employer also follows a fair selection and consultation process. Where a buyer proposes 20 or more redundancies at one establishment within 90 days, it may begin collective consultation before the transfer if the seller agrees in writing. The required minimum is 30 days before the first dismissal for 20-99 proposals, or 45 days for 100 or more. That is a separate duty from TUPE consultation. See collective redundancy consultation and statutory redundancy pay.

What must employers tell and ask you?

Both employers must inform affected employees through their representatives, or directly where permitted, sufficiently long before transfer. This includes people transferring, colleagues staying behind whose work changes, and employees of the incoming firm affected by arrivals. If either employer plans “measures” affecting staff, it must consult with a view to agreement. TUPE sets no fixed number of consultation days.

The information must cover the proposed transfer date and reason; its legal, economic and social implications; measures planned by either employer, or the fact that there are none; and the number of agency workers employed, where they work and what work they do. Ask for the information in writing and save it.

1. Identify the representatives. If a union is recognised for the affected employees, inform and consult its representatives. Otherwise use authorised existing employee representatives or elect new ones where required.
2. Check the small-transfer exception. For GB transfers from 1 July 2024, direct consultation is an option if there are no recognised union or existing employee representatives and the employer has fewer than 50 employees overall or fewer than 10 are transferring.
3. Get the buyer’s measures. The incoming employer must tell the outgoing employer what it plans early enough for that information to be passed on.
4. Discuss real proposals. Relocation, new shifts or redundancies require consultation with a view to agreement. An announcement alone is not consultation.

The outgoing employer has a separate duty to give the buyer employee liability information at least 28 days before a GB transfer, subject to the statutory special-circumstances exception. This includes names, ages, employment particulars, disciplinary and grievance information from the previous two years, recent or expected claims and applicable collective agreements. If it fails, the buyer can claim compensation of at least £500 per affected employee. That claim belongs to the buyer, not the employees. See when employers must consult.

What if the old employer has gone bust?

The type of insolvency matters. In proceedings aimed at winding up rather than rescuing the business, TUPE’s automatic-transfer and transfer-dismissal rules do not apply. Staff may have claims against the insolvent employer and, subject to eligibility and limits, the National Insurance Fund. Administration, including some pre-packs, does not automatically switch TUPE off. In a rescue, contracts can transfer. The Fund may meet certain pre-transfer debts, and agreed changes may be possible to safeguard employment. The label “administration” alone does not settle every case. Read Acas on insolvent employers and TUPE.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland follows the same TUPE rules as England and Wales. The GB tribunal-limit extension takes effect on 1 October 2026 for TUPE claims. Scotland’s separate breach-of-employment-contract claims move to six months on 9 November 2026, according to the government timetable.

Northern Ireland has the 2006 TUPE rules for business transfers and a separate service provision change instrument. For a service change there, employee liability information is normally due at least 14 days before transfer, not the GB 28 days; special circumstances can qualify the deadline. The GB direct-consultation reform of July 2024 does not simply carry across. The ordinary unfair-dismissal service requirement is one year; the NI statutory redundancy weekly-pay cap is £783 from 6 April 2026. Ask the Labour Relations Agency for NI-specific advice; see Northern Ireland employment rights.

What is changing?

1. 1 Jul 2024In force: GB direct consultation

   Where there are no recognised or existing reps, direct consultation is allowed below 50 employees overall or below 10 transferring.

2. 6 Apr 2026In force: separate pay limits

   The GB redundancy weekly-pay cap is £751. The maximum collective-redundancy protective award rose to 180 days’ pay; the separate TUPE consultation award remains 13 weeks.

3. 1 Oct 2026In force: longer GB tribunal limit

   The standard time limit increased from three to six months, including TUPE information-and-consultation and employee-liability-information claims. Transitional cases need individual checking.

4. 1 Jan 2027Scheduled: six-month unfair-dismissal qualification

   For GB dismissals from this date, the qualifying period is planned to fall to six months and the compensatory award cap to be removed; fire-and-rehire protections are also planned for January. Future dates remain subject to implementation.