When a business is sold by one employer to another, or the responsibility for providing a service transfers from one employer to another the question arises as to what happens to the dedicated workforce? And if so do they retain the contractual and other rights that they enjoyed prior to the transfer. Theses are the main issues with which the TUPE are concerned.

If an employee is dismissed for a reason connected with a transfer then it will be an automatically unfair provided the employee has one years qualifying service although sometimes employer has potential defence of economic, technical or organisational reason entailing changes in the workforce.