PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
3 February 2012
ERSA calls for a review of TUPE regulations
ERSA has signalled that it would support a decision by the Government to consult formally on changes to the 2006 TUPE regulations.
In a submission to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, ERSA highlights how the Government’s decision to terminate previous welfare to work contracts during the 2011 to make way for the Work Programme led to unprecedented complexity and uncertainty across the sector about the potential application of TUPE rules. This led to significantly increased costs to both primes and subcontractors and is likely to have led to some potential subcontractors deciding not to take on contracts.
ERSA’s chief executive, Kirsty McHugh, said: ‘Whilst ERSA believes that TUPE principles can help to maintain staff performance in a contracting environment, we believe that the experience of the welfare to work industry, where there has been transition from multiple provider to multiple provider in rapid timescales, has raised a range of questions in relation to TUPE regulations that make them warrant review.
In 2011, ERSA’s HR Forum, made up of welfare to work providers from around 50 organisations, took the lead in attempting to co-ordinate an industry view on transition arrangements across the welfare to work sector. The process helped to deliver a more coherent approach that might not otherwise have been achieved.
Ends
Notes to Editors
ERSA is the trade association for the welfare to work industry. Established in 2005, by the industry for the industy, it exists to help members achieve their shared goal – to help people achieve sustainable work. ERSA’s membership ranges from large multinational corporations to small specialist charities. It represents over 90 percent of those organisations that have been awarded prime contracts for the Work Programme, plus a larger number of subcontractors. Approximately half its members are third sector organisations.
For copies of ERSA’s submission and for all press enquiries please contact Philip Curry at philip.curry@ersa.org.uk or 07932 792 435.
