Transfer of staff
7.—(1) This paragraph applies in relation to any officer who, immediately before the coming into force of this Order, is employed by a body specified in the Schedule to this Order and attached to the Information Management Group of the Department of Health for the purpose of performing the Secretary of State’s functions in connection with supporting the development and implementation of information and communication services in the health service.
(2) Any officer in relation to whom paragraph (1) of this article applies shall, on the coming into force of this Order, be transferred to the employment of the Authority.
(3) The contract of employment of an officer transferred under paragraph (2)–
(a)is not terminated by the transfer, and
(b)has effect from the time of the transfer as if originally made between the officer and the Authority.
(4) Without prejudice to paragraph (3)–
(a)all the rights, powers, duties and liabilities of the body from which an officer is transferred under or in connection with his contract of employment shall by virtue of this paragraph be transferred to the Authority, and
(b)anything done before the date of the transfer by or in relation to the body from which he is so transferred in respect of the officer or the contract of employment shall be deemed from that time to have been done by or in relation to the Authority.
(5) Paragraphs (2) to (4) do not transfer an officer’s contract of employment, or the rights, powers, duties and liabilities under or in connection with it, if he informs the body from which they would be transferred, or the Authority, that he objects to the transfer.
(6) Where an officer objects as mentioned in sub-paragraph (5) his contract of employment with the body from which he would be transferred shall be terminated immediately before the date on which the transfer would occur, but he shall not be treated, for any purpose, as having been dismissed by that body.
(7) This article is without prejudice to any right of an officer to terminate his contract of employment if a substantial change is made to his detriment in his working conditions; but no such right shall arise by reason only that, under this paragraph, the identity of his employer changes unless the officer shows that, in all the circumstances, the change is a significant change and is to his detriment.