NSW Redundancy on Sale of Business?

[Anon101]

I am a CEO for a company that is going through a sale. It has taken about five months of due diligence and the sale should be finalised shortly. Over the past couple of months, it was showing obvious signs that my current role would be redundant. Approximately 6 weeks ago, I enquires what was happening to my role. I was informed that it was "disseminated" and would be effectively redundant.

I was also told that my new role would be an integration type of role. I stated that I the new role was not suitable for various reasons. I have requested clarification, and was ignored. I have been unofficially told that they do not want to pay out my redundancy and that the plan is that I will continue as CEO, except my duties and responsibilities will be changed as they seem fit.

I am not morally aligned with the new companies bullying style of HR (I have disagreed with how they are going to effectively demote key employees, how the proudly force employees to resign, and how they do not take issues such as price fixing seriously.

So, my question, as my position is obviously redundant, and they have refused to clarify anything, can I leave on the first day of take over. My notice under normal circumstances is 6 months.

 

[Sarah J]

Hi Anon101,

The first place to look is your employment contract with the original company. 1. Is there a change of ownership clause (restricting the company fro changing paper owners or actual controlling owners)? If so, is there a penalty for change of ownership? 2. Look at the term that describes your position and role. What does the description for "CEO" say? Are they proposing to assign you to actual work that falls outside of this description? 3. What does the agreement say about termination and redundancy? Under what circumstances can the company terminate your role, under what circumstances are you entitled to redundancy/compensation?

The second question is whether the sale of the company is a share sale or an asset sale? This affects who the new owner is and whether your current employer still exists.