The Incoming Provider's TUPE Checklist: From Due Diligence to Day 1 Compliance

You won the contract. The client is delighted. The mobilisation team is ready to go.

Then the Employee Liability Information lands.

Suddenly there are inherited collective agreements you didn't price for, AfC pay scales that blow your model, and three grievances in progress that are now your problem. The bid margin is gone before you've issued a single uniform.

This is the TUPE scenario that catches incoming FM providers every time — not ignorance of the regulations, but underestimation of what they actually inherit. Under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006, the incoming provider steps into the outgoing provider's shoes on day one. Everything transfers: terms, liabilities, disputes, and obligations. You cannot undo it. And at bid stage, you often have the least information of anyone in the room.

This checklist is a working tool. Use it.

Why Incoming Providers Carry Most of the Risk

The outgoing provider knows the workforce. The client knows the contract history. The incoming provider knows neither — and yet inherits both.

As the GOV.UK TUPE guide makes clear, all employees assigned to the transferring organised grouping move across automatically. Their terms transfer unchanged. Any dismissals connected to the transfer are automatically unfair unless an Economic, Technical or Organisational (ETO) reason applies. The burden sits squarely with whoever is taking the contract on.

Poor due diligence at bid stage is not just a compliance problem — it is a commercial one. As RFM Group notes in their TUPE in FM guidance, incoming providers who fail to identify workforce liabilities early often face cost overruns that make contracts unviable within the first year.

PRE-BID Due Diligence Checklist

Before your bid is submitted, do this:

• Request workforce data at ITT stage. Headcount, grade, salary, contracted hours, and length of service. If the client won't provide it, price in a contingency or flag the risk in your assumptions.
• Identify union recognition. Is there a recognised trade union? Are there collective agreements in place? These transfer with the employees under Regulation 5 of TUPE.
• Estimate AfC or public sector pension obligations. If this is a public sector contract, Agenda for Change pay scales and associated pension contributions can be substantial. Failure to price these correctly is one of the most common causes of post-award financial pain.
• Flag TUPE risk in bid assumptions. Document what you know and what you don't. Build your assumptions into the commercial model explicitly — not as a footnote.
• Seek indemnity clauses at contract negotiation. Push for protections in the contract for pre-transfer liabilities that were not disclosed. As the NEC Contracts FM TUPE practice note outlines, the contract framework should clearly allocate TUPE risk between client and provider.
• Review any available TUPE schedules from previous mobilisations. If this is a re-tender, ask whether TUPE information from the previous transfer is available. It will tell you what the outgoing provider inherited and what issues arose.

POST-AWARD / PRE-TRANSFER Checklist

You've won. Now the clock starts. This phase is where compliance is built or broken.

• Request Employee Liability Information (ELI) within the 28-day window. The outgoing provider is legally required to provide ELI at least 28 days before transfer. Chase it as soon as the award is confirmed.
• Verify ELI completeness. ELI must include: identity and age of transferring employees, employment particulars, disciplinary and grievance records (last two years), collective agreements, and any legal actions. Check every field.
• Identify key personnel. Who are the supervisors, technical leads, and customer-facing staff? Who is essential to service continuity from Day 1?
• Plan your consultation timeline. You must inform and consult with employee representatives before the transfer. Build the timeline backwards from the transfer date. As DCS Group's FM TUPE guide notes, leaving consultation too late is the most common procedural failure in FM mobilisations.
• Draft your measures notification. If you intend to make any changes post-transfer — rotas, reporting lines, base locations — you must notify representatives in advance. Vague or absent measures notifications create tribunal risk.
• Set up payroll for all transferring staff. Do not leave this to the week before. You need national insurance numbers, bank details, tax codes, and pension enrolment confirmed in advance.
• Arrange Day 1 inductions. Every transferring employee should know where to go, who to report to, and what's expected of them on their first day under the new contract.
• Confirm IT, access, and uniform readiness. System access, site passes, and PPE must be ready. Nothing signals poor mobilisation like Day 1 staff standing at a gate with no credentials.
• Check TUPE liability documentation is complete. If anything is missing from ELI, raise it formally with the outgoing provider and document the gap.

DAY 1 Checklist

• Confirm all employee transfers are completed and payroll is live
• Issue welcome communications to all transferring employees — keep it human, not just legal
• Ensure employee representatives have been briefed on the outcome of consultation
• Verify site access, credentials, and equipment are in place for all staff
• Confirm line manager accountability for every transferred employee

FIRST 30 DAYS Checklist

• Monitor wellbeing and early grievances. Transfers are disruptive. Proactive check-ins prevent grievances from escalating.
• Address any role change requirements with ETO documentation. If operational changes are needed, document the ETO rationale before acting — not after.
• Close out consultation formally. Issue a written summary of consultation outcomes to representatives and keep it on file.
• Review against ELI for accuracy. Are the actual terms of service matching what was disclosed? Any discrepancies need to be recorded.
• Flag discrepancies to legal. Undisclosed liabilities, missing information, or inaccurate ELI should be escalated. You may have grounds for compensation from the outgoing provider under Regulation 12.

The One Thing Most Incoming Providers Skip

Documenting the ETO rationale before making any post-transfer changes.

Providers often know they need to restructure after mobilisation. What they don't do is build the written ETO rationale first — before any restructuring begins. Without it, any dismissal connected to a post-transfer reorganisation is automatically unfair under TUPE. This is not a technicality. It is the most common source of TUPE tribunal claims in the FM sector, and it is entirely avoidable.

Write the ETO rationale. Get it signed off. Then act.

Take It Further: MCFM Academy TUPE Training

If you want the process knowledge to sit behind this checklist, MCFM Academy has two courses built for FM professionals:

• Mastering TUPE: Process and Compensation Strategies — £45 | 1.5 hours. Covers the full TUPE process, compensation obligations, and how to manage liability risk on both sides of a transfer.
• MCFM00132: Mobilising Human Resources and TUPE in Facilities Management — Designed specifically for FM mobilisation leads, this course covers TUPE within the broader HR mobilisation context, from bid stage through service commencement.

The checklist gets you through the process. The courses give you the understanding to handle what doesn't fit neatly on a checklist.