Re: Is TUPE (PE= protect employees) being cynically manipulated and disorted to explo
I work for a global IT outsourcer and there are many ways to get around the TUPE legislation.
Firstly TUPE only applies in the EU and even then many countries will "ignore" it, even if they accept it the law was designed to protect cleaners etc and not IT staff. The only countries we worry about TUPE or ARD (Applied rights directive) are the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Austria & Denmark. In any other country then we plan to replace the staff with new staff unless expressly requested by the client.
Next point is that in IT outsourcing most cheap call centre/remote opperations labour is outside the EU. So say your Service Desk, Software development team and Service management departments are moved to India then TUPE does not apply as it is moving outside the EU.
Last point is as an outsourcer we follow the direction of the client. There a few reasons why businesses will out source:
1. Focus on primary business - Let the professionals run their IT enviroment so the business can focus on their core business. In this case often the client will want to protect their employees and we respect that.
2. Lower costs - In this case the client will ask us to reduce the cost of their IT spend. Satff in the EU are generally expensive and Ireland especially so we move elements of the business to a low cost location.
To give you an idea of the savings that are possible:
Ireland - Fully loaded costs of a Lv 1 Helpdesk Agent = €20k salary plus approx €25k overhead
India - Fully loaded costs of a Lv 1 Helpdesk Agent = €3k plus approx €15k overhead
The TUPE experience is solely down to the company who investigate outsourcing.