We are considering contracting out some of our current in-house services, such as catering and cleaning. Are these covered by the legislation on transfers? How do I handle it?

Jennifer O'Sullivan writes:

The application of the European Communities (Protection of Employees on Transfer of Undertakings) Regulations 2003 (“TUPE”) in Ireland to the area of contracting out services can be a grey area from a legal perspective. The area of contracting out of services and second generation awards of service contracts has a clear legislative basis in the UK, under the amended 2006 Regulations, but in Ireland this specific issue is governed by the principles set down by the European Court of Justice in the decision in Süzen [1997] Case C-13/95