Impliction of taking over existing business

[newbie99]

Hi Posters:

I need to seek some advise regarding to buying a business to run. The current business owner employs a few part times and 2 full time staffs.

My concern is that because some of the staffs may have worked for a long period of time (some over 16 yrs of service) and due to employment laws, do I need to compensate any of these staffs if I decided not to employ them after taking over the business?

I can draw a new contract to employ these staffs when I take over the business?

[themas]

You need to get advice from a competent employment solicitor before you go ahead. The laws on this are quite complex and can be demanding on the new owner of the business. For example, if you make any of the staff you take over redundant you would probably be liable for their redundancy pay for the whole of their service with the previous employer (or even the one before that if the business has changed hands before). Also, you might have a problem if you want to change the terms in their contracts for the worse.

[kempie]

http://www.dti.gov.uk/employment/trade-union-r ights/tupe/page16289.html

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employe es/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/DG_10026691