Union agreements and TUPE

Our workplace is merging with another, and all the staff will be transferring over to ours under TUPE. They are governed by a different recognition agreement, even though we are in the same union. Our employer has told us that their agreement will no longer apply after the transfer. Is this correct?

Although generally collective agreements do transfer to the new employer under Regulation 6 of TUPE (the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981), in the case of a merger this only applies where the organisation that transfers in maintains a separate identity.

However, any term in a collective agreement that has been incorporated into the transferring workers' contracts of employment will be maintained, as this forms part of their terms and conditions and cannot be changed as a result of the transfer.