Company take over do i have to go?

Beatle_Ray

Hi There,

Can some one please give me some guidance. I work for a small company and have done so for 30 years plus now and the two people i work for are coming up for retirement and seem to be actively looking to sell the company to another company, one of the people i work for i believe would like to retire and the other wants to carry on working, the company is just about solvent although the monthly commissions have not been to good of late, we make a 10k loss in Jan and a £7k loss in Feb, there has been a meeting with the director who wants to carry on working with another company who have expressed an interest in buying us, we had a bad period of business about four years ago but pulled through and at the time we were offered voluntary redundancy, my questions are, if the company does get sold do i have to go with it and if i choose not to will that offer of voluntary redundancy still stand from four years ago? If i did decide to go with the company as part of the package could i then be made redundant within a short period for a spurious reason, i recall there is a breathing space for this type of practice but from what i know of the buying company i dont trust them, i'm hopeful that i can take some of the clients from the current firm and start on my own but would need to redundancy to achieve that, what guidance can you give, anything would be grateful,
Thanks in advance

Beatle Ray

patman99

Best to go with it. The new company may well be a bigger, more stable operation.
You will be TUPE'd across, so won't lose any future redundancy as all your previous years of employment counts.

Who knows, you may well enjoy working for your new employer.

anamenottaken

Beatle_Ray wrote: »

Hi There,

Can some one please give me some guidance. I work for a small company and have done so for 30 years plus now and the two people i work for are coming up for retirement and seem to be actively looking to sell the company to another company, one of the people i work for i believe would like to retire and the other wants to carry on working, the company is just about solvent although the monthly commissions have not been to good of late, we make a 10k loss in Jan and a £7k loss in Feb, there has been a meeting with the director who wants to carry on working with another company who have expressed an interest in buying us, we had a bad period of business about four years ago but pulled through and at the time we were offered voluntary redundancy, my questions are, if the company does get sold do i have to go with it and if i choose not to will that offer of voluntary redundancy still stand from four years ago? If i did decide to go with the company as part of the package could i then be made redundant within a short period for a spurious reason, i recall there is a breathing space for this type of practice but from what i know of the buying company i dont trust them, i'm hopeful that i can take some of the clients from the current firm and start on my own but would need to redundancy to achieve that, what guidance can you give, anything would be grateful,
Thanks in advance

Beatle Ray

No. That was then: this is now (or, rather, may be).

If the new owning company did dismiss you on the grounds of redundancy, you would still be entitled to statutory redundancy pay taking into account the same length of service as if you had not moved.

Be careful!

TBagpuss

If you chose not to go, you won't be redundant, you will be resigning, so would not be entitled to any package from your employer.

If the firm is bought then you will retain all your existing rights. If the new company then wants to get rid of you, then if they make you redundancy your redundancy package would be based on your 30 year service, not just on the period since the firm was taken over.

Any redundancy package would (unless you agree something different at the time) be based on your statutory entitlement which may or may not be the same as the voluntary package offered 4 years ago.

The package from 4 years ago is not relevant.

You should check your contract and any employee handbook - many have a 'non-competition' clause and non-poaching provisions which would mean you could not simply take existing clients with you.

If you don't want to stay with the new employer then you can hand in your notice and leave (you will get paid for any untaken leave, but nothing more) or, if you think they want to get rid of you, you could try to negotiate some sort of early retirement package, which might be attractive to them if there is not a genuine redundancy situation but they would like to see you go.

Beatle_Ray

Thanks for the replies, those were my worse fears really, i don't want to go the new firm but with a mortgage and wife to support it almost makes me feel like I'm making myself redundant on purpose, the move just dosent feel right, maybe its my age and fear of the unknown but at 52 i feel if that i dont take a chance now doing it for myself i never will. The two directors seem to have been made an offer for the business which includes all the creditors and debitors, shame really as i have been here since 1981, 34 years, i dont think they will give me anything when i leave, harsh but thats life isnt it

Ta

getmore4less

It is very important to know how is the company owned and what theis "sale" really is?

A sale of shares to a new owner has no effect on employees they are still employed by the same company nothing changes except the share holder(then things might change).

Takeaway_Addict

Beatle_Ray wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, those were my worse fears really, i don't want to go the new firm but with a mortgage and wife to support it almost makes me feel like I'm making myself redundant on purpose, the move just dosent feel right, maybe its my age and fear of the unknown but at 52 i feel if that i dont take a chance now doing it for myself i never will. The two directors seem to have been made an offer for the business which includes all the creditors and debitors, shame really as i have been here since 1981, 34 years, i dont think they will give me anything when i leave, harsh but thats life isnt it

Ta

I'm not sure why you think its harsh? You, presumably are not a slave and have not been forced to work for this company, and presumably you have been fully remunerated for the work you provided this company during this time?

corf999

Beatle_Ray wrote: »

i don't want to go the new firm but with a mortgage and wife to support it almost makes me feel like I'm making myself redundant on purpose,

You are not being made redundant - you will receive no money if you leave!

I have been through 2 company sales and essentially all that changed was the headed note paper and email addresses.

datlex

Speaking from personal experience, a company I worked for was taken over by another. That company then shut down our office making everyone redundant. We all still got our redundancy from the date we were taken on with the original company.

melloecastro

Don't they have to offer voluntary redundancy for you to take it? To leave would be resignation not redundancy unless they have started a redundancy consultation I would have thought? Maybe look at starting some consultancy work on the side and plan as a contingency what you would want to if the new company insists on employing you?

TBagpuss

Beatle_Ray wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, those were my worse fears really, i don't want to go the new firm but with a mortgage and wife to support it almost makes me feel like I'm making myself redundant on purpose, the move just dosent feel right, maybe its my age and fear of the unknown but at 52 i feel if that i dont take a chance now doing it for myself i never will. The two directors seem to have been made an offer for the business which includes all the creditors and debitors, shame really as i have been here since 1981, 34 years, i dont think they will give me anything when i leave, harsh but thats life isnt it

Ta

If you choose not to go with the new owners then you are resigning,. You are not redundant.

You can chose:
1. Stay with the company. You will retian your empkloyment rights, continue to get paid, and if the new owners decide they no loner want you they can either make you redundant, or negotiate a severance package with you.

2. Chose to leave because it doesn't 'feel' right, in which case you are resigning, and the change in company ownership is irrelevant, you have simply decided to leave your job

Personally, i would not recommend giving notice unless you have already found a new job to go to.

If what you really want to do is set up in business for yourself then of course you can give that a go, but the company are not going to pay you to leave unless they decide to make redundancies, and you would need to wait for them to announce that. You cannot chose to be redundant, you can only volunteer for redundancies *if* and when the company decides they need to make some. (and given your length of service and age, you would be expensive to make redundancy, so they may not chose to select you even of they do want to reduce the workforce)