Presently, micro-businesses with fewer than ten employees have the option to inform and consult affected employees directly if there are no established appropriate representatives, such as a recognised trade union . Currently however, TUPE requires larger businesses to organise elections for affected employees to choose employee representatives for information and consultation purposes.

Following consultation, the government has decided to move forward with its proposal to amend the existing TUPE regulations to extend the circumstances where individual as opposed to collective TUPE related consultation can take place to include TUPE related transfers involving:

• Employers with fewer than 50 employees.

• Employers of any size involved in a transfer of fewer than 10 employees.

Once the proposed changes come into force, then in either scenario, employers will have the flexibility to directly consult with employees when no existing employee representatives are in place. This reform will be effective for TUPE transfers occurring on or after July 1, 2024.