Wednesday 27 June 2012

Rangers: is it all in the timing?

It’s been a while since our last post about Rangers and the legal spotlight has now moved from questions of insolvency and administration to that of the employment rights held by those players, including Steven Naismith and Steven Whittaker, who don’t want their contracts to transfer to “Newco”. Both sides (players and owners) agree that a right to object to a transfer arises under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (“TUPE”) but there seems to be a difference of opinion about what the Regulations mean in practice. New owner Charles Green was quoted this morning as saying:

“It’s clear the regulations behind TUPE are if someone has an objection, they have to notify within 24 hours. This is almost two weeks after the day. I think this is just opportunism. I’ll definitely challenge it.” 

We can't see a "24 hours" provision in the Regulations but neither, in the discussions about who’s right and who’s wrong, have we yet seen mention of the case law in which precisely these issues of timing have been very carefully considered.