TUPE: when your employer changes

TUPE (the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006) moves you to a new employer automatically when the organisation or service you work in is transferred. You keep your job, your pay, your terms and conditions and your continuous service, and the new employer cannot lawfully change your terms because of the transfer. In the public sector it applies when a school converts to an academy, when a council or NHS service is outsourced or brought back in-house, and when a contract moves between providers.

When TUPE applies

There are two main kinds of transfer.

A business transfer happens when an organisation, or part of one, moves to a new owner and keeps its identity. A maintained school converting to an academy is the clearest public sector example: the staff move from the local authority (or the governing body, in a voluntary-aided or foundation school) to the academy trust.

A service provision change happens when a service moves from one provider to another. That covers outsourcing (a council contracting out cleaning or catering), a change of contractor, and insourcing (an NHS trust bringing a service back in-house). TUPE applies if there is an organised group of employees whose main purpose is carrying out that service.

Transfers between public bodies, for example between two Civil Service departments or between NHS bodies, are usually covered by TUPE or by government policy that gives similar protection. Reorganisations within one employer are not transfers.

What transfers with you

If you are assigned to the transferring part, your employment contract moves across as if it had always been made with the new employer. That includes:

• your pay, band or spine point and allowances
• hours, holiday, sick pay and notice terms
• continuous service, which counts for redundancy pay and unfair dismissal
• terms from collective agreements, such as Agenda for Change, the Burgundy Book or the NJC Green Book, as they stood at the transfer

Liabilities transfer too. A claim you had against your old employer, such as unpaid wages, usually passes to the new one.

Teachers moving to an academy keep the pay and conditions they had under the school teachers’ pay and conditions framework at the transfer. The academy is not legally required to follow future pay documents, although most do. The academies vs maintained schools guide covers what can differ.

Pensions

TUPE does not transfer occupational pension rights in the usual way. Public sector staff are protected by other routes:

• Teachers in academies stay in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, because academies must offer it.
• Support staff in academies stay in the Local Government Pension Scheme, as academies are scheduled employers in it.
• Staff outsourced from councils, the NHS or the Civil Service are generally covered by “Fair Deal” policies, which require the new provider to offer continued access to the public sector scheme or, in some cases, a broadly comparable one.

Get the new employer’s offer in writing. The LGPS guide explains what the scheme gives you.

Information and consultation

Before a transfer, both employers must inform the recognised union or elected employee representatives about:

• the transfer and the reasons for it
• the date
• the legal, economic and social implications for staff
• any measures the employers plan to take

If either employer plans changes, it must consult the representatives. A tribunal can award compensation if this duty is breached. The old employer must also give the new one information about each transferring employee in advance.

For academy conversions you will usually get a letter, a staff meeting and a written measures letter from the trust. Read the measures letter carefully, because any planned changes should be listed there.

Changes and dismissals after the transfer

Any dismissal where the sole or main reason is the transfer is automatically unfair. The exception is an economic, technical or organisational (ETO) reason that entails changes in the workforce, such as a genuine redundancy. Changes to your contract because of the transfer are void unless there is an ETO reason or the contract already permits the change.

Harmonising terms, which means putting transferred staff on the new employer’s standard contract, is the most common pressure point. You do not have to agree to worse terms. The Employment Rights Act 2025 includes fire-and-rehire protections, which the government lists for January 2027. The fire and rehire guide explains what that will mean.

Getting help

Your union will usually be involved in the consultation and can advise on whether you are in scope, what the measures letter means and whether to object. If you have a claim, ACAS early conciliation comes first, and the tribunal time limit for most claims is six months since 1 October 2026. The continuous service guide covers how your service record carries across.