When the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) came into force, they established a new duty on the transferor – when there is a relevant transfer of a business, a part of a business or a service provision change – to supply specific information about the transferring employees to the new employer by providing what is termed ‘employee liability information’.
This information consists of:
- the identity and age of the employees who will transfer;
- information contained in the employees’ statements of employment particulars, such as written statement of pay, hours of work, holiday entitlement etc.;
- information about any relevant collective agreements;
- details of any disciplinary action taken against an employee in the last two years;
- details of any grievance action raised by an employee in the last two years;
- details of any legal action brought against the employer by an employee in the last two years; and
- information about any potential legal action.
The information must be given at least two weeks before the completion of the transfer, unless this is not reasonably practicable. If the transferor fails to provide the required information, the transferee can bring a claim for compensation in the Employment Tribunal and is entitled to a minimum of£500 from the transferor for each employee for whom information was not provided.
The Data Protection Act 1998 allows the disclosure of this information because it is required by law. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has now published guidance to help organisations comply with their data protection obligations when passing on this information. This includes recommended good practice for carrying out this duty under the TUPE Regulations, advice on requests for information over and above what is required by law and how employment records should be dealt with on the transfer of a business.
A copy of the guidance can be downloaded from the ICO website. See http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover/data_protection/guidance/good_practice_notes.aspx.