TUPE Does Not Confer Additional Rights On Employees

In Jackson v Computershare Investor Services PLC the Court of Appeal has confirmed that TUPE and the Acquired Rights provisions aim at preventing the employee in an undertaking from being prejudiced as a result of the transfer. It is not their objective to confer additional benefits on the employee or to improve the situation of the employee.

Mrs Jackson joined Ci in January 1999. There were no terms relating to enhanced redundancy or severance payments in her contract of employment with Ci. In June 2004 Mrs Jackson's contract of employment was transferred, under TUPE, to CIS which had an enhanced redundancy scheme. However this drew a distinction between pre March 2002 joiners and new entrants after 1st March 2002. Mrs Jackson argued that as her preserved continuity of employment deemed her continuous employment to have been from 1999 she should be able to rely on the more generous enhanced redundancy scheme applicable to employees who had joined prior to 1st March 2002.