Employment Ordinance

(1)
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 in accordance with
section 6
or
7
.
(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,
section 32B(3)
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, but the employee refuses the offer,
section 32C(1)
or (2) (as the case may be) shall have effect, subject to subsection (4), in relation to that offer and refusal as it would have had effect in relation to the like offer made by the previous owner and a refusal of that offer by the employee.
(4)
For the purposes of the operation, in accordance with subsection (3), of
section 32C(1)
or (2) 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.
(5)
This section shall have effect (subject to the necessary modifications) 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 or one or more of the persons by whom it is owned immediately after the change,
as this section has effect where the previous owner and the new owner are wholly different persons.
(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.