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CONTRACTS OF EMPLOYMENT AND REDUNDANCY PAYMENTS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1965 - SECT 23

Change of ownership of business.

23.(1) The provisions of this section shall have effect where

(a)a change occurs (whether by virtue of a sale or other disposition or by
operation of law) in the ownership of a business for the purposes of which a
person is employed, or of a part of such a business, and

(b)in connection with that change the person by whom the employee is employed
immediately before the change occurs (in this section referred to as "the
previous owner") terminates the employee's contract of employment, whether by
notice or without notice.

(2) If, by agreement with the employee, the person who immediately after the
change occurs is the owner of the business or of the part of the business in
question, as the case may be, (in this section referred to as "the new owner")
renews the employee's contract of employment (with the substitution of
the new owner for the previous owner) or re-engages him under a new contract
of employment, [subsections (3) to (10) of section 13] shall have effect as if
the renewal or re-engagement had been a renewal or re-engagement by
the previous owner (without any substitution of the new owner for
the previous owner).

(3) If the new owner offers to renew the employee's contract of employment
(with the substitution of the new owner for the previous owner) or to
re-engage him under a new contract of employment, [subsections (3) to (6) of
section 12 shall have effect subject to the next following subsection, in
relation to that offer as they would have had effect in relation to the like
offer made by the previous owner.]

(4) For the purposes of the operation, in accordance with subsection (3), of
[subsections (3) to (6)] of section 12 in relation to an offer made by
the new owner,

(a) the offer shall not be treated as one whereby the provisions of the
contract as renewed, or of the new contract, as the case may be, would differ
from the corresponding provisions of the contract as in force immediately
before the dismissal by reason only that the new owner would be substituted
for the previous owner as the employer, and

(b)no account shall be taken of that substitution in determining whether the
refusal of the offer was unreasonable [or, as the case may be, whether the
employee acted reasonably in terminating the renewed, or new, employment
during the trial period referred to in section 13].

(5) The preceding provisions of this section shall have effect in relation to
a case where

(a)the person by whom a business, or part of a business, is owned immediately
before a change is one of the persons by whom (whether as partners, trustees
or otherwise) it is owned immediately after the change, or

(b)the persons by whom a business, or part of a business, is owned immediately
before a change (whether as partners, trustees or otherwise) include the
person by whom, or include one or more of the persons by whom, it is owned
immediately after the change,

(6) Nothing in this section shall be construed as requiring any variation of a
contract of employment by agreement between the parties to be treated as
constituting a termination of the contract.[

© 1965 Crown Copyright

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