UK: TUPE/collective redundancies: employers must provide agency worker information

In October 2011 the obligations to provide information to union/ employee representatives on a TUPE transfer or when proposing collective redundancies were amended to require information to be given about the employer's use of agency workers throughout its business.  A recent tribunal decision serves to remind employers of the risks of failing to provide this information; the maximum award is 90 days' pay per affected employee.

In Unison v London Borough of Barnet the tribunal made awards of 60, 50 and 40 days' pay per affected employee in relation to the failure to provide agency worker information on a collective redundancy and two TUPE transfers.  The varying levels of award took into account the tribunal's perception of how important the agency worker information was to the consultation process (ie, more important for the redundancies), the ease of producing the information and whether the employer had been made aware of its breach by complaints from the representatives.