Can the purchaser of a business do anything to stop employees from cherry picking terms?
A The protection given by the TUPE regulations prevents any change in terms and conditions because of a reason connected to the transfer. If the purchaser is able to wait long enough, it may be possible to persuade a tribunal that the reason for any change was not transfer-related but for some other reason. However, there have been cases where changes have been found to be transfer-related even where variations have been made as long as two years after the transfer. A practical solution is to stipulate that the benefit of any new terms is expressly conditional upon rights under the old contract being surrendered. Should the employee later change their mind, the original terms will again apply but they will have to repay the value of the new benefits. This is in contrast to the situation where there is no provision stating the benefits are conditional, in which case the employee will be able to reject some new terms and keep others. Q What if the employee rejects the new terms? A If the
