The Transfer Of Undertakings (Protection Of Employment) Regulations And Pensions - Pensions In 30 Podcasts, Episode 28

This podcast provides an overview of TUPE and pensions.

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Key Points

Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) is a very complicated area of employment law. It is particularly difficult when it interacts with pension rights. Specific legal advice is advised if you are dealing with pension rights under TUPE. TUPE does not generally apply to pension benefits. As a result, an employee's entitlement to pension benefits do not generally transfer under TUPE. There are, however, three key exceptions to this rule: Beckmann and Martin rights - rights to certain enhanced redundancy benefits and early retirement benefits may transfer under TUPE; minimum pension rights that apply in certain specific circumstances and, if they apply, provide transferring employees with limited protection by requiring the receiving employer to provide pension benefits in line with prescribed minima; and personal pension schemes - an individual's contractual rights in respect of a personal pension scheme (e.g. a Group Personal Pension (also known as GPPs)) will transfer automatically. Main Sources

Council Directive 77/187/EEC (generally known as the Acquired Rights Directive) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (as amended) The Pensions Act 2004 The Transfer of Employment (Pension Protection) Regulations 2005 Beckmann v Dynamco Whicheloe Macfarlane Ltd [2002] EUECJ C-164/00 Martin v South Bank University [2003] EUECJ C-4/01 Procter & Gamble v Svenska Cellulosa Actiebolaget SCA [2012] EWHC 1257 TUPE

Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) applies Council Directive 77/187/EEC (the "Acquired Rights Directive") in the United Kingdom. Before 6 April 2006, the relevant legislation was found in the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981 (TUPE 1981).

If TUPE applies (i.e. if there is a 'relevant transfer') there will be an automatic transfer of employees and their transferable contractual terms from the existing employer (the transferor) to the new employer (the transferee).

TUPE is a very complicated area of law that is covered in detail from the employment law perspective.. The rest of this fact card focuses on the interaction between TUPE and pensions.

TUPE and pension rights

Entitlement to pension benefits under occupational pension schemes do not, as a general rule, transfer...