Toggle high contrast
Issue date
The TUC is warning today (Monday) that Brexit would make it easier for employers to impose pay cuts and worse conditions on workers in firms that are sold to a new owner, or services that are contracted out.

10 June 2016

The TUC is warning today (Monday) that Brexit would make it easier for employers to impose pay cuts and worse conditions on workers in firms that are sold to a new owner, or services that are contracted out.  

Government figures suggest that close to a million (910,000) workers each year are affected by such transfers, and protected by the EU-derived Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations – known as TUPE.

Two of the largest employment sectors in which TUPE transfers of employees are common are cleaning and domestic services.

TUC analysis of labour market data finds that of 612,000 low-paid people in cleaning and domestic work, nearly three-quarters (74%) are women. And of 480,000 people working in the kitchen and catering assistants sector, nearly two-thirds (63%) are women. The majority of women working in each sector are also part-time workers.

The TUC says that this is further evidence that it is low-paid female workers who tend to be at particular risk of losing employment rights from Brexit.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“If you’ve ever worked for a company that’s been taken over, or a service that’s been contracted out, you will know how worrying it can be to get transferred to a new boss. But thankfully there are EU rules that stop the new boss cutting your pay and conditions overnight.

“But if we leave the EU, those guarantees are gone. Lots of employers are itching to persuade politicians to scrap these protections – and if we leave the EU they’d have the chance they’ve been waiting for.

“Low-paid women workers are especially at risk. This is because jobs like cleaners and caterers are amongst those most likely to be contracted out. The best way to protect working people from losing these rights is to vote Remain so we keep the current EU rules.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- Case study: Maurice Shaw (51) lives in Manchester and works for a government body. When his workplace was transferred to new management, his new bosses tried to impose changes to his employment terms, including a larger workload, longer hours, and lower pay. Working with his union PCS, they used EU-derived TUPE legislation to stop the changes going ahead and to protect the rights of Maurice and his co-workers. Maurice said: “We were going to be stitched up by the new boss, with longer hours and lower pay. But we found out that it was illegal under laws that come down from the EU. If we leave the EU, then those laws could easily be lost, and the tables could be turned against the rights of workers. I’ve no doubt after what happened to me that working people are better off when the EU has their back.”

- Why would TUPE protections be at risk outside of the EU? Ministers made changes that weakened TUPE rights in 2013, but EU rules prevented them going further. Employers groups have repeatedly called for EU-derived TUPE rights to be further watered down. Brexit would allow government the opportunity to do this, as the EU guarantees that restrict any further dilution would be gone.

- Which workers are most affected by TUPE? The most recent analysis that gives an indication of how many workers are affected by TUPE regulations each year, and the sectors they work in, comes from an impact assessment published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in 2013. BIS estimates that each year around 31,000 TUPE transfers take place, with around 910,000 employees in those workplaces affected. TUPE transfers are often the consequence of outsourcing the provision of a service. The sectors listed by BIS as those where outsourcing involving TUPE transfers are most common are cleaning of premises, catering, printing, transportation of goods, training, temporary filling of posts, security, building maintenance, payroll, computing and recruitment.

- TUPE and employers: As well as protecting the pay and conditions of workers, the TUC argues that TUPE regulations benefit employers too. This is because they create a level-playing field for businesses, and enabling restructuring to take place more easily and without disputes.

- Low paid jobs by gender 2015 in cleaning and catering: For most of the sectors in which TUPE transfers are most common, it is not easy to draw out labour market data. However for two of the largest – cleaning and catering – this is possible. TUC analysis of around a million employees in the lowest paid occupations reveals that 74 per cent of cleaners and domestics are women and 83 per cent of those women work part-time. Similarly 63 per cent of kitchen and catering assistants are women, of which 71 per cent work part-time.

Low paid employee jobs by gender (thousands)

Cleaners and domestic

Kitchen and catering assistants

All

612

480

Male

158

178

Female

454

302

Male  full-time

60

79

Male  part-time

98

99

Female full-time

75

88

Female part-time

379

215

Source: 2015 Office for National Statistics ASHE survey

- Further information on TUPE and Brexit: For more information on how leaving the EU may affect TUPE protections, see the TUC information note Rights for outsourced workers: risks of Brexit which can be found here: www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/TUPErights.pdf

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Follow the TUC on Twitter: @The_TUC and follow the TUC press team @tucnews

Enable Two-Factor Authentication

To access the admin area, you will need to setup two-factor authentication (TFA).

Setup now