What is TUPE in cleaning contracts?
TUPE is the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations, which protect employees' terms when a business or a service contract changes hands. In cleaning, it applies routinely when a contract moves.
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<a href="https://cleanoptix.co.uk/glossary/tupe">What is TUPE in cleaning contracts?</a> — diagram by
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</figure>It applies to service provision changes, which is why it is so common in this industry: winning a cleaning contract from an incumbent usually means inheriting the people who deliver it, on their existing terms.
Employee liability information has to be provided by the outgoing party within a set period before the transfer. Late or incomplete information is the usual source of trouble, because a new contractor is pricing and planning around people whose terms they have not seen.
Terms transfer with the employees, which means a new contractor can inherit a workforce on several different sets of terms and hours. Harmonising them afterwards is constrained by the regulations rather than a free management choice.
In practice
A contract changing hands at a hospital site.
The incoming contractor's price assumed a fresh team on current rates. The existing staff transfer with their terms, several of which are historic and better.
Employee liability information has to be provided, and the time to establish what is transferring is before the price is submitted rather than after.
The contract is won and loses money from the first month, which nobody discovers until the first payroll run.
What goes wrong in practice
- Bidding a contract without factoring in inherited terms, which can make a won contract unprofitable on day one.
- Employee liability information accepted late or incomplete without pressing for it.
- Attempting to harmonise terms after transfer as though it were an ordinary variation.
- Consultation obligations overlooked in the rush to mobilise.