Hong Kong Ordinances

EMPLOYMENT ORDINANCE - SECT 32D

Change of ownership of business

(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. (Part VIA added 75 of 1997 s. 4)