1. Mrs Bellot 2. In person 3. In person 4. In person 5. C Owen, Representative 6. Ms T Grant, Solicitor 7. In person 8. In person 9. Mr S Eckett For the v Respondent — 2018

Nine claimants were made redundant from Ace Waste Haulage Ltd on 31 July 2018. The preliminary hearing concerned whether Ace's business, or part of it, had transferred to X-Bert Haulage Ltd under regulation 3(1)(a) TUPE 2006, or whether there had been a service provision change under regulation 3(1)(b). The point mattered because the claimants were seeking redundancy payments from the Secretary of State, and the other claims were stayed pending the TUPE issue.

The tribunal found that some redundant employees later obtained work with X-Bert, but they had each approached X-Bert individually. There was no discussion between Ace and X-Bert about moving employees across, and those who joined X-Bert did so on probationary periods, different terms and conditions, different machinery, and generally different customers. The tribunal also accepted that Ace was a haulage and waste-sorting business, while skip hire was carried on by Simpson Eco Skips, not Ace.

Applying Cheesman and the TUPE principles, the tribunal held that there was no stable economic entity which retained its identity and no transfer of a going concern. The agreements made on 23 July 2018 were one-off asset and waste-clearance arrangements: X-Bert cleared waste from Ace's site in exchange for plant and equipment, and there was no transfer of goodwill, books, records, contracts, or lease. The tribunal therefore found no transfer under regulation 3(1)(a) and no service provision change under regulation 3(1)(b).