TRANSFER OF SHELL INSPECTION SERVICES TO BIS INSPECTION
EMPLOYEE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is happening?
During 2007, Shell EP Europe revised its strategy for the provision of inspection services in line with its desire to form an independent Inspection body. This strategic change necessitated direct ownership of the Inspection Contracts by Shell and as such a Tender process was initiated.
December 2007 saw the distribution of Tender requests to pre qualified Inspection Service Providers and after an extensive tendering exercise and detailed review, Shell EP Europe notified BIS Inspection of its intention to award a contract.
What is the scope of BIS Inspections Contract?
Shell EP Europe has awarded Lot 1 to BIS Inspection. This Lot includes the following Assets and Locations:
Offshore CNS
• Shearwater
• Gannet
• Nelson
• Anasuria *
Offshore NNS
• Brent Alpha
• Brent Bravo
• Brent Charlie
• Brent Delta
Onshore
• St. Fergus
• Mossmorran
• Braefoot Bay
What’s Services are included?
Standard NDT (UT, radiography, MPI, Eddy Current, Dyepen, visual, etc.) and Inspection Engineering services
What’s excluded?
Mature installations, IMPACT project, Anasuria Hull Integrity, Corrosion/Integrity
How long is the contract for?
Valid for 5 years with possibility of two, one-year extensions, i.e. 7 years maximum
When will the transfer take place?
Currently envisaged for January 2009, the exact transfer date has yet to be set and is part of a negotiation process involving your current employer, future employer and Shell EP Europe. Because of the complexity of the transfer and the various locations/sites involved there may be need to stagger the handover with transfer dates varying accordingly. As soon as dates have been agreed you will be notified.
How will this affect me?
The contract transfer will comply with the TUPE regulations. Therefore all eligible employees will have the opportunity to transfer to BIS Inspection as part of the change in contract.
What if I am not in scope for TUPE because of my contract status?
BIS Inspection has committed to honour current contracts in cases where personnel would normally be included within the transfer but are excluded for reasons of contract status (i.e. Ltd Company/Agency personnel).
BIS Inspection will support this group of personnel to move across whilst maintaining their desired contract status.
What is TUPE?
The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (known as 'TUPE').
Broadly speaking the effect of the Regulations is to protect the continuity of employment and terms and conditions of those employees who are transferred to a new employer when a relevant transfer takes place.
This means that the TUPE’d employees become employees of the new employer on the same terms & conditions (except for certain occupational pension rights) at the time of transfer. Effectively it is as if their contracts of employment had originally been made with the new employer.
What constitutes a relevant transfer?
TUPE can apply where a business (or part of a business) is sold to a new employer or, in the case of the Shell Inspection transition, when a “Service Provision Change” takes place (for example where a contractor takes on a contract to provide services for a client from another contractor).
How does TUPE apply to “Service Provision Changes”?
Service Provision Changes concern relationships between contractors and the clients who hire their services. There are three principal forms of transfer, in the case of the Shell Inspection transition it falls under the “assignment of a contract to a new contractor on subsequent re-tendering”.
The Regulations apply only to those changes in service provision which involve “an organised grouping of employees….which has as its principal purpose the carrying out of the activities concerned on behalf of the client”.
This is intended to confine the Regulations’ coverage to cases where the old service provider has in place a team of employees to carry out the service activities, and that team is essentially dedicated to carrying out the activities that are to transfer (though they do not need to work exclusively on those activities).
What happens if I don’t want to transfer?
The Regulations provide employees with the right to transfer. Employees employed and identified as in scope for TUPE transfer immediately before the transfer will automatically become employees of the new employer. However an Employee has the right to object to the automatic transfer of their contract of employment if they so wish.
In that case the objection terminates the contract of employment and the employee is not treated for any purpose as having been dismissed by either the existing or new employer. Moreover the employee is considered to have resigned and would therefore not be entitled to a redundancy payment.
In line with TUPE legislation, if the current employer is able to provide alternative employment the employee may be re-engaged on whatever terms they agree, though the continuity of employment may be broken (although in practice it is unlikely this will happen).
What will happen to my continuous service?
An employee’s period of continuous employment is not broken by a transfer and, for the purposes of calculating entitlement to statutory employment rights, the date on which the period of continuous employment started would usually be the date on which the employee started work with the old employer.
What will happen to my terms and conditions?
Transferred employees retain all rights and obligations existing under their contracts of employment with the previous employer and these are transferred to the new employer. This means that their previous terms and conditions of employment carry over to the new employer. The main exception to this rule concerns the treatment of occupational pensions.
What happens to my Pension?
Occupational pension rights earned up to the transfer are protected by social security legislation and the pension trust arrangements. The new employer is not required to continue identical occupational pension arrangements for transferred employees.
However, where transferred employees were entitled to participate in an occupational pension scheme prior to the transfer, the new employer must establish a minimum level of pension provision for transferred employees.
Information and Consultation rights
Consultations with the affected Workforce
The Regulations place a duty on both the Existing and New employer to inform and consult representatives of their employees who may be affected by the transfer or measures taken in conjunction with the transfer. Affected employees can include:
• Those individuals who are to be transferred
• Their colleagues in the existing employer who will not transfer but whose jobs might be affected by the transfer.
• Their new colleagues in employment with the new employer whose jobs might be affected by the transfer.
Who should be consulted about the transfer?
Employees may choose to consult on a one-to-one basis or elect a representative(s) to act on their behalf.
What information can you expect as part of the consultation process?
• That the transfer is going to take place, approximately when, and why
• The legal economic and social implications of the transfer for the affected employees
• Whether the employer envisages taking action (reorganisation for example) in connection with the transfer which will affect the employees, and if so, what action is envisaged
Disclosure of “Employee Information” to the new employer
Your current employer must provide BIS Inspection with a specified set of information which will assist us to understand the rights, duties and obligations in relation to the employees who will be transferred. This assists BIS Inspection in its preparations for the arrival of transferred employees, and the employees also gain as its new employer is aware of the inherited obligations towards them.
The information transferred is:
• The identity of the employees who will transfer
• Personal details of those employees
• Information contained in the “Statement of employment particulars” for those employees
• Information relating to any collective agreements which apply to those employees
• Instances of any disciplinary action within the preceding 2 years taken by the existing employer
• Instances of any grievances raised by those employees within the preceding 2 years
• Instance of any legal actions taken by those employees against the existing employer in the previous 2 years, and instances of potential legal actions which may be brought by those employees.
What is the “Statement of Employment Particulars”?
All employers are under a legal obligation to provide each employee in writing with basic information about their employment. That information is called the “written statement of employment particulars”. Among other things, the written statement must set out the remuneration package, the hours of work and holiday entitlements.
What happens next?
Your current employer will contact its employees individually informing them of the situation and to invite individuals to ask any questions, raise any concerns that they have.
You will be asked if you wish to nominate yourself or another individual (who is also affected by this transfer) to act as representative for the purposes of the information and consultation exercise.
BIS Inspection may wish to have your details so that they may contact you directly and for information about your terms and conditions. Your existing employer will ask for your consent to release this information.
Who is the person to contact at BIS Inspection if I have questions about my future?
Ian Drummond
How can I keep up to date with the latest developments during the transition?
BIS Inspection has a dedicated website which will be updated on a regular basis.