You have your usual employee rights to a fair redundancy process in a TUPE transfer.
Before a TUPE transfer
Before the transfer, your current employer cannot make you redundant if your new employer asks them to. This would be considered an unfair dismissal.
If 20 or more employees are at risk, a redundancy consultation can start before the transfer if both your current and new employers agree. But you cannot be made redundant by the new employer before the transfer.
After a TUPE transfer
After you have transferred, your new employer can only make redundancies related to the transfer if there is both:
- a genuine redundancy situation
- a need to make changes to the workforce for economic, technical or organisational (ETO) reasons
For example, an ETO reason could be:
- a change in the location of work
- a reduction in the number of employees
- too many employees transferred in for the same role
If the reason for redundancies is not related to the transfer, your employer can make redundancies following the normal redundancy process and does not need an ETO reason.
If your new employer needs to make redundancies in your role or team, transferred staff must be treated in the same way as staff who’ve worked there longer. Your new employer must follow correct redundancy procedures and apply fair selection criteria.
Find out more about your rights during redundancy.
Redundancy pay
If you’re made redundant after a TUPE transfer, your new employer is responsible for any redundancy pay.
Your redundancy pay must be based on your length of service ('period of continuous employment'). This includes the time you worked for your old employer before you transferred.
If it's in your contract that you carried over, you’ll also get ‘enhanced’ redundancy pay (more than the legal minimum amount).
Find out more about redundancy pay.
Redundancy consultation process
If you're an employee affected by redundancy, by law your employer must consult you. This is even if you're not at risk of redundancy yourself.
Your employer must also consult with a recognised trade union or employee representatives ('collective consultation') on ways to avoid or reduce redundancies if all of the following apply:
- they’re planning 20 or more redundancies
- the redundancies are in 1 establishment – not necessarily in your organisation as a whole, which may be much larger
- they plan to make the redundancies within 90 days
If both your current and new employers agree, they can start collective consultation before the transfer. It must start at least 30 days before anyone is made redundant.
If they’re making fewer than 20 redundancies, there is no fixed time period to consult you individually.
No employees can be made redundant until after the transfer.
Find out more about:
- how your employer must consult you
- how to appeal a redundancy decision – if you believe your employer has not consulted you fairly
Redundancy rights if you do not want to transfer
If you do not want to transfer to the new employer, you can refuse, but you would usually have no rights to claim:
- redundancy pay
- unfair dismissal