Court of Appeal clarifies TUPE law in relation to collective agreements

In Alemo-Herron v Parkwood Leisure Ltd [2010] EWCA Civ 24, the Court of Appeal held that a private-sector transferee is not legally obliged to comply with any changes (e.g. a pay increase) made to the terms of employees transferred from the public sector - if those changes were agreed by a public-sector negotiating body - after the TUPE transfer had taken place.

The Court of Appeal followed the ECJ’s decision in Werhof v Freeway Traffic Systems (C-499/04) and stated that the decisions of the domestic courts in cases such as Whent v Cartledge (EAT/39/96) were wrong.