Private sector employers taking on public sector staff as a result of
tendering will have to match their previous terms and conditions, including
pensions, according to a new code of practice.
The code, due out imminently, also aims to quell union complaints about a
two-tier workforce by ensuring employees recruited by the private sector are
offered "broadly comparable terms and conditions" to those
transferring from the local authority says???.
It is expected to form part of the conditions of all local authority
contracts as well as transfers following retendering and will apply the
principles set out in the Cabinet Office Statement of Practice on Staff
Transfers in the Public Sector. This states staff should transfer under the
protection of the TUPE regulations.
Private sector employers must make pension provision that is actuarially
certified as being "broadly comparable" with the public service
scheme and allow staff to transfer their accrued service credits.
New recruits must be offered employment on "fair and reasonable"
terms and conditions which are, overall, broadly comparable to those of the
transferred employees, and must include an offer of "reasonable"
pension arrangements.
"In many ways the code is what many organisations with good personnel
practices have already been following," said Mary Mallett, deputy
vice-president of Socpo.
But John McMullen, head of employment at Pinsent Curtis Biddle, said the
code would significantly reduce employers’ ability to negotiate flexible
agreements on staff transfers.
