Some employees may be left behind with a transferor contractor when a service is taken back in house by a client, even if the contractor only provided services to that one client.
The EAT has ruled that employees who were part of the transferor's infrastructure and had strategic roles concerned with the running of the transferor, rather than being involved in the front line delivery of the service to the client, were not assigned to the service and so did not transfer when the service was taken back in house. In this case the relevant employees were the directors of the transferor, but the same might apply to others, eg a handyman at the transferor's head office, employed to keep the building in a suitable condition for client work to be administered, or a cook providing lunch for the directors.
Of course in some cases the old business transfer test might be satisfied, in which case such employees might well transfer. (Edinburgh Home-Link Partnership v The City of Edinburgh Council, EAT)
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Steve Bell
Managing Partner - Employment, Industrial Relations and Safety (Australia, Asia), Melbourne
Emma Rohsler
Regional Head of Practice (EMEA) - Employment Pensions and Incentives, Paris
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