Company take over

oliel

Been told that the company I have worked for 20 years is being sold assets also being purchased and business being taken over.    Sale hasn't gone through yet but is highly likely.  I have a few questions.   What questions should I ask as an employee? Will my employers pension contributions change?  Holiday entitlement etc.   If they decide to make redundancies what am I entitled to?  My employment contract from 20 years ago is for 2 days a week work but I've worked full time for a good few years so I curious about this too.   Is there anything else I should ask?  Thanks.

Brie

Your employment contract doesn't need to be a piece of paper, it can be what has been agreed between you and your employer.  It might be documented on an email as in a "Sure Oliel we'd love you to work full time".  

What possibly will happen is that the employees will be TUPEd over to the new employer.  There are specific legalities that go along with this so it might be best for you to have a ramble through the attached link from gov.uk and ask further questions.  But yes your new employer might change the pension scheme, holiday entitlement and all sorts of things but they have to do according to the specific TUPE rules as well as general employment law.  

Business transfers, takeovers and TUPE: Overview - GOV.UK

And about redundancy - as I understand it - the new employer has to take all employees rather than pick and choose.  So if there is redundancy sooner rather than later your current employer would need to do that and fund it.  Of course the new employer could start redundancy once they are in control but a lot of what happens will be based on your current situation, most importantly your 20 years service, and that continues for a minimum of 2 years.  

oliel

Brie said:

Your employment contract doesn't need to be a piece of paper, it can be what has been agreed between you and your employer.  It might be documented on an email as in a "Sure Oliel we'd love you to work full time".  

What possibly will happen is that the employees will be TUPEd over to the new employer.  There are specific legalities that go along with this so it might be best for you to have a ramble through the attached link from gov.uk and ask further questions.  But yes your new employer might change the pension scheme, holiday entitlement and all sorts of things but they have to do according to the specific TUPE rules as well as general employment law.  

Business transfers, takeovers and TUPE: Overview - GOV.UK

And about redundancy - as I understand it - the new employer has to take all employees rather than pick and choose.  So if there is redundancy sooner rather than later your current employer would need to do that and fund it.  Of course the new employer could start redundancy once they are in control but a lot of what happens will be based on your current situation, most importantly your 20 years service, and that continues for a minimum of 2 years.  

I have nothing in writing re my hours it was agreed verbally obviously my wage slips reflect it though. 

p00hsticks

oliel said:

Brie said:

What possibly will happen is that the employees will be TUPEd over to the new employer.  

Note that if it it is a straight buy out of the company then TUPE may not apply as the company effectively remains, but just under new ownership. I think it depends on the exact form of the sale. .

MyRealNameToo

p00hsticks said:

oliel said:

Brie said:

What possibly will happen is that the employees will be TUPEd over to the new employer.  

Note that if it it is a straight buy out of the company then TUPE may not apply as the company effectively remains, but just under new ownership. I think it depends on the exact form of the sale. .

It won't apply, at least from the buyout itself... they may make changes upon purchasing that subsequently trigger TUPE. 

If I buy ABC Ltd all its employees worked for ABC Ltd before and still work for ABC Ltd after so there has been no transfer of employer/undertaking. The fact the shareholder is different is irrelevant to TUPE. 

oliel said:

Been told that the company I have worked for 20 years is being sold assets also being purchased and business being taken over.    Sale hasn't gone through yet but is highly likely.  I have a few questions.   What questions should I ask as an employee? Will my employers pension contributions change?  Holiday entitlement etc.   If they decide to make redundancies what am I entitled to?  My employment contract from 20 years ago is for 2 days a week work but I've worked full time for a good few years so I curious about this too.   Is there anything else I should ask?  Thanks.

You ideally need to clarify if they are buying the company or just its assets. You can ask about what's known about future plans but as the sellers your current employer may not know too much unless its being deemed "a merger" and even then they arent obliged to tell you. 

Personally I'd be interested to know who's buying it, is it private equity, a competitor, a client or supplier etc? This may give some insight into what the future holds. 

What's relevant will probably depend a little on what your role is... "shared services" (hr, IT etc) are always going to be more at risk because unless its a PE buyer as they're will be synergies whereas if you are front line there may be no synergies because you are a complementary firm so no duplication initially

EnPointe

oliel said:

Been told that the company I have worked for 20 years is being sold assets also being purchased and business being taken over.    Sale hasn't gone through yet but is highly likely.  I have a few questions.   What questions should I ask as an employee? Will my employers pension contributions change?  Holiday entitlement etc.   If they decide to make redundancies what am I entitled to?  My employment contract from 20 years ago is for 2 days a week work but I've worked full time for a good few years so I curious about this too.   Is there anything else I should ask?  Thanks.

are  they  buying the company ?  or  is it a TUPE  ?  

if they are buying the company  nothing  changes at all  , initially ...  but this may subsequently  turn into a TUPE scenario or they may  decide the  parcel up the bits they want  and  then close the remainder down 

if it's TUPE scenario  then there will be the all the Measures and negotiation  required  by TUPE  

in both cases  your  service for the point of view of Notice, Seniority and redundancy  will be  when you  started  the  job 

p_anotherguy

oliel said:

Been told that the company I have worked for 20 years is being sold assets also being purchased and business being taken over.    Sale hasn't gone through yet but is highly likely.  I have a few questions.   What questions should I ask as an employee? Will my employers pension contributions change?  Holiday entitlement etc.   If they decide to make redundancies what am I entitled to?  My employment contract from 20 years ago is for 2 days a week work but I've worked full time for a good few years so I curious about this too.   Is there anything else I should ask?  Thanks.

Are sales declining or why are you worrying about redundancies?

MyRealNameToo

p_anotherguy said:

oliel said:

Been told that the company I have worked for 20 years is being sold assets also being purchased and business being taken over.    Sale hasn't gone through yet but is highly likely.  I have a few questions.   What questions should I ask as an employee? Will my employers pension contributions change?  Holiday entitlement etc.   If they decide to make redundancies what am I entitled to?  My employment contract from 20 years ago is for 2 days a week work but I've worked full time for a good few years so I curious about this too.   Is there anything else I should ask?  Thanks.

Are sales declining or why are you worrying about redundancies?

Almost every acquisition results in "synergies" even if cost cutting isnt the primary reason for the deal. A company with 200 staff may have 3 people in HR, merge two companies of that size and you are unlikely to need 6 people in HR so likely 1-2 are not going to be in a job long term.