What happens to me? Take over

[Drum71]

What happens when we are taken over or merge with another firm?

Should my contract change? What happens to my length of service?

Don’t know what else to add. All I know is that this is happening but I don’t know when. Thanks.

Depends on how it happens.

If your employer is a company and is acquired, nothing changes on acquisition.

If the business in which you work is acquired (as opposed to the whole company) , then usually you will automatically transfer to employment with the acquirer (so it’s as though your contract was already with them). There should be some sort of consultation in advance of this. Your terms will stay the same, although there may be changes relating to the pension arrangement you contribute to, and any share schemes /other employer-specific benefits that can’t easily be replicated. Your length of service is unchanged.

HTH.

The new owner can rationalise jobs and reorganise if they are in the same line of business. So jobs don’t necessarily transfer intact. Many mergers and acquisitions lead to job losses.

Therefore, you will have to wait and see what happens. There are TUPE rules which I believe are relevant.

Thanks both. If I have been there 9 years and they decide not to take me am I made redundant with redundancy pay etc?

They don't get to 'decide not to take' you. Under TUPE your employment transfers over to the new employer under the same terms and conditions and with length of service preserved. It's not optional for the new employer.

Sometimes it is the case that if there is a merger or duplication of roles, or a reorganisation, there might be a restructuring process and possible redundancies, but you would be notified of plans for these as part of the consultation process under TUPE and you can't be selected for redundancy because you came in as part of a transfer.

For example if the company taking you over had 8 administrators already, and your company had 2, making a total of 10, but they decided they only needed 8, they'd have to include all 10 in a process, not just choose not to employ those who have come in under TUPE.

There are rules. A lot will depend on the overlap between the functions. The company I work for has just merged. I’m billable and part of a function that isn’t present in the other company so I don’t think too much will change. Functions like HR etc will merge and they will probably need redundancies.
Your length of service will transfer and usually your own Ts and Cs shouldn’t change if you’re kept. What a lot seem to do nowadays is get incomes o to new contracts (pay, conditions etc) and eventually natural turnover takes care of the rest.

It can be worrying for sure. Hope it works well for you - you never know, it might open up new career options for you

Get incomers onto the new contracts sorry. So anyone who is a new start may be on the new (usually worse) terms

Flowery thank you so much. I’m so reassured. Thank you again.

TUPE rights do give you protection
IME it is always best to be part of the party that is 'taking over'

Just to add to what's already been said ...

from a timescale perspective, realistically when companies merge or are taken over, it is unlikely that the new company will make wholesale changes from Day 1.

IME the powers that be take time to review where synergy savings are needed (ie duplicated roles), so you may find that you have quite some time (months or even a year or more) before any impacts filter down to your dept.

Double edged sword, as it creates uncertainty, but on the plus side, you've got time to manage your career and decide whether to get your CV out there and register with portals like Indeed.com etc.

Obviously it's best to hang on for potential redundancy if the worst comes to the worst, but there's no harm in seeing what's out there.