The tech industry trade organisation is reportedly in a Tupe dispute with the new recipient of its pulled funding
Formerly government-backed tech industry trade organisation Tech Nation has announced it will make all of its 70 staff redundant and cease operations as a result of losing its government funding.
The redundancies were confirmed in a LinkedIn post from Tech Nation’s people and culture partner Matt Welch on 14 March 2023.
Welch said: “Sadly, we confirmed on Friday 10 March [2023] that for 70 of these wonderful humans their employment with Tech Nation comes to an end on 31 March 2023 by way of redundancy. Whilst this is a sad moment – every single Tech Nationer can and should be proud of their work and impact at Tech Nation.”
In his post, Welch went on to put feelers out to the technology community about potential job opportunities for the 70 outgoing staff members.
A spokesperson for Tech Nation told Insurance Times that it had 70 permanent employees and operated in eleven regions across the UK.
The team included eleven scaleup engagement managers who were based on the ground in key tech clusters across the UK.
Tech Nation has already begun the process of winding down business. This follows the organisation’s funding from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) Digital Growth Grant being pulled and awarded to banking giant Barclays – the bank confirmed it was the recipient of the £12.09m grant on 10 February 2023.
Different view
Tech Nation is reportedly in dispute with Barclays Bank over Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulations (Tupe).
Read: Chancellor pledges £2.5bn to quantum computing strategy
Read: Insurtech sector breathes sigh of relief following SVB UK HSBC rescue deal
Explore more insurtech content here and discover more news content here
Under Tupe rules, there is a rule of thumb test which states that if the percentage of working time an employee spends in the transferring business is 50% or more then these employees should be moved across to the new employer.
Tech Nation started this redundancy consultation for all staff as of 31 January 2023.
However, Barclays has informed Tech Nation that it will not be taking on any of its staff under Tupe.
A joint spoksperson for Tech Nation and Barclays said: ”Tech Nation and Barclays take a different view on Tupe but are working together on a solution. Barclays will reach out to engage with Tech Nation employees as to possible job opportunities.”
Insurance Times has contacted Tech Nation for further comment.
No comments yet