Labour Research May 2011

Law Queries

TUPE

Q. We know that TUPE doesn’t apply to share transfers, but isn’t there a body charged with overseeing such a situation?

A. The Takeover Panel is responsible for ensuring that where a publicly-listed company may be taken over, the offeree company keeps its prospective employees informed.

Under changes currently under consultation, a company that wants to take a publicly-listed company over will have extra requirements placed on it. Specifically, it would have to, if true, state that it doesn’t intend to make any changes. Also it would have to keep to any statement it made about the future of the staff of the company that it wants to take over — for a period of 12 months.