As one who has appeared in the high court as a result of a failed TUPE action in 1995 ( as UK company manager - we lost the case but won on appeal) I can add that from memory the judges ruling hinged on the fact that helicopters are not brooms and brushes. The fact that we supplied a different product (S76B) compared with the encumbant (S76A) meant that, in the appeal judge's opinion the business entity had not been transferred. It was deemed to be a different contract not the same contract transferred.
The pain and agony caused (unnecessarily) by the previous contractor by deeming that their employees had been transferred meant that:
a. we could not employ them, and
b. they could not get unemployment benefit because the social services maintained that they were still employed.
I shudder every time I hear that dreaded acronym.
G
