By Pete Offord, ex-UoS catering and Unite rep
TUPE
is a piece of legislation that comes into force when workers
transferred from one employer to another. Such as when one company
buys another out or when a public service is privatised.
In
general it gives provision to protect the terms and conditions of the
transferred staff, essentially meaning that they should keep roughly
the same rates of pay, hours, place of work etc.
Similarly there is
provision for keeping staff within the same pension scheme, although
management have already stated that this will not apply at Sussex
University. There is even automatic recognition for the trade union
of transferred staff.
It is
a popular piece of legislation for managers to name check as a way
of reassuring staff that the looming changes are nothing to be scared
of as everything will stay the same.
Here's
the thing, TUPE is not worth the piece of paper its written on.
Following
transfer TUPE legislation can be superseded and contracts changed if
the employer has a Economic, Technical and Organisational
reason to do so.
This can be pretty much anything, there is no
technical definition but typically a the new company will claim that
it needs to restructure the service on some flimsy pretence, such as
making it run more efficiently or to make it more profitable.
This
means that taking on public services becomes a lot more attractive to
private companies, transfer today, tear up staff contracts tomorrow.
It also means that the company can de-recognise a trade union.
Recently
in Hampshire Sure Start Centres (Children's Centres) were transferred
into the loving hands of a third party charity under TUPE. Within a
matter of days this charity (Action for Children) restructured the
service, shedding jobs and offering those staff new posts ,on their
own far poorer conditions.
One worker based in Basingstoke was
offered an “alternative” post in the New Forest. Staff had been
promised by the County Council during the consultation prior to
transfer that their jobs and salaries would be safe, all because of
TUPE.
At
Sussex University the groundwork for privatisation has already been
laid, Catering and conference staff have had their hours of working
bought out and £100,000s has been sunk into a revamp of the
facilities. There has been a gradual erosion in the number of
security staff and cleaning, already part-privatised.
Taking over
services with shiny new premises or with staff cut back to the bone
is a lot more attractive to private companies, it saves them time and
money. Senior Management have been leaning on the heads of the
various professional services for the past few years with the warning
that they must break even.
Action
needs to be take now to prevent outsourcing ever taking place, that
means making it clear to University Governors that workforce will not
stand for privisation. A campaign should be waged as part the
necessary consultation that the University must undertake to make the
view of campus known.
Union
members should conduct a indicative ballot to show concretely that
mood is there for a fight with a view to building for a ballot for
industrial action if the University does not back down.
Further
Reading
