Public Services Management Update: Contract confusion

A RULING by the European Court of Justice may mean that staff can opt not to be transferred when their employer contracts out services. This would mean that employees could in effect opt for redundancy. It would also appear to legitimise adding redundancy costs to quoted external tenders when comparing against in-house bids. Meanwhile, public bodies are reviewing recent contracts in the light of the Government's guidelines on the transfer of undertakings regulations and the latest legal actions. Last week Leicestershire County Council rescinded redundancy notices to 800 cleaners whose jobs were to have been axed following the awarding of contracts to outside bidders.