When a business is sold what happens to the employees?

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Accepted Answer

If your employer’s business is sold, what happens next depends on the type of work you do and what your current employment agreement says. If you’re a ‘vulnerable worker’ you get extra protections and can transfer with the same terms and conditions including redundancy compensation.
If your work isn’t classed as ‘vulnerable’, there’s no general right for you to automatically continue employment with the new owner of a business. Even if you’re offered a new employment agreement, there’s no right to be offered the exact same terms and conditions as your current job by the new employer. But your current employment agreement should describe what your employer should do if the business is sold. They need to:
• talk to you about the sale as soon as reasonably possible;
• tell you whether your position will continue with the new employer and under what terms, or whether there will be a redundancy.
Employees have no general right to compensation or redundancy pay – you’ll be entitled to what you agreed to in your employment agreement (including if you’re a vulnerable worker who decides not to transfer). It may also depend on your employer’s financial circumstances at the time of your redundancy. If you’re offered the same (or similar conditions with the new employer, this is called ‘technical redundancy’.
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