TUPE does not apply between law firms where services go into "run off", the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has ruled.
In Ward Hadaway Solicitors v Love and Ors [2010] UKEAT 0471_09_2503, Ward Hadaway were one of a panel of four firms who provided legal services to the Nursing and Midwifery Council. After the council tendered out its work to a single provider, Capsticks, in 2007, Ward Hadaway continued to work on the cases it already had—a practice known as a "run off" of services.
The question arose of whether this amounted to a service provision change under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/246).
The Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld the decision of the employment tribunal, ruling there had been no TUPE transfer of staff. One of the main reasons for the decision was that there had been no transfer of the actual work between the two firms as Ward Hadaway continued with its own work in progress and Capsticks took on all the new work.
Employment lawyer, Charles
