TUPE & variation of employment contracts

• Two recent cases have involved examination of an employer’s ability to make changes to the employment contract following a TUPE transfer.

In Tabberer and others v Mears Ltd UKEAT/0064/17, [2018] All ER (D) 180 (Feb) the claimant employees were electricians originally employed by Birmingham City Council. Since their employment with BCC they had been TUPE’d a number of times, ultimately to Mears Ltd. With BCC they enjoyed terms entitling them to payment of an Electrician’s TravelTime Allowance (ETTA). This had been introduced as long ago as 1956 (well before the claimants had joined BCC) and were now anachronistic. The original purpose of the ETTA was to compensate electricians for the loss of a productivity bonus caused by the need to travel to different depots. At that time, BCC had 30 to 40 depots across Birmingham, but, over the years, depots had been closed so that, by the time relevant to these claims, only one remained—at Kings Road. Furthermore, since