§ Mr. ColmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will amend the law to prevent private sector companies from cutting pay and downgrading the working conditions of staff through the termination of existing contracts of employment coupled with an offer of re-employment on less favourable terms with particular reference to employees transferred from the public to the private sector. [132849]
§ Mr. Alan JohnsonIt is unlawful for employers to dismiss employees in connection with a transfer within the meaning of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981 (TUPE), unless the reason for doing so is an economic, technical or organisational reason entailing changes in the workforce. It is similarly unlawful for employers to change employees' terms and conditions of employment in connection with a TUPE transfer. The Government have made clear in the Cabinet Office Statement of Practice "Staff Transfers in the Public Sector" its policy that all transfers from the public sector to the private should be conducted on the basis that TUPE applies unless there are genuinely exceptional reasons for it not to do so.