Temporary cessation of an undertaking will not prevent a TUPE transfer

The First Respondent, a social club, employed the Claimant as a bar steward and he was dismissed after the Club handed back its lease on the bar to the Second Respondent, the Club then surrendering its premises licence.  The Second Respondent later obtained its own premises licence, running the bar with its own staff.

The EAT held that the bar (the ‘economic entity’) was only temporarily suspended by the loss of the premises licence and as the bar did not cease entirely, there was still a relevant transfer.