These changes to the TUPE apply to transfers that take place after January 31, 2014 and provide certainty to the approach that collective agreements have a static impact on workers` contracts. For transfers that took place before 31 January 2014, the old TUPE rules and the application of the decision in Alemo-Herron by the British courts remain relevant. In the event of a transfer, these agreements are transferred to the incoming employer. One year after the transfer, future employers can renegotiate the terms of a collective agreement, provided that the overall change is no less favourable to the workers concerned. However, if the new employer participates in collective bargaining after the transfer, the agreed changes are mandatory for the new employer under the terms of the collective agreement. The impact of a transfer of TUPE on collective agreements This case will be important for workers who have been transferred from a previously performed public sector function to the private sector. Private sector employers will welcome this decision, as they are no longer bound by collective agreements that have been transferred under the TUPE if these agreements are renegotiated and when they are not involved in negotiations. The decision reasonably recognizes an employer`s fundamental right to freedom of association and comforts employers when they have control over future wage revisions if these audits have not yet taken place at the time of the transfer. In Werhof, the collective agreement in question had been negotiated by a employers` organization whose transferor belonged, but not the purchaser. Three years after the date of the transfer, the employers` organization has agreed on a new collective agreement with higher rates of pay. The entitled worker, who had spent time with the company, attempted to argue that he was entitled to the increased rate of pay under the new collective agreement (i.e., a „dynamic“ construction). The ECJ objected and decided that EU law – in particular the Grandfathers Directive (ARD) – did not intend the takers to be bound by collective agreements other than those in force at the time of the transfer.

Such an interpretation is consistent with the objective of the legislation to preserve the rights and interests of workers in force at the time of the transfer. Their purpose was not to protect future expectations of hypothetical rights or benefits that could result from future changes to collective agreements. In practice, these specific conditions will bind the purchaser even after the transfer if certain conditions have been included in a worker`s contract under a collective agreement negotiated between the ceding party and the ceding union`s approved union.