If my company merges with, or is taken over by, another company, what happens to employees who have temporary work permits?

The new company will take responsibility for any temporary workers at business locations that were included in the merger if:

• it becomes the successor in interest by taking over your company’s assets and liabilities
• it takes over the portion of your business that employs your temporary workers

The new employer doesn’t need to submit a new offer of employment and the worker doesn’t need a new work permit if both of the following apply:

• both companies (the original employer and the new employer) run the same type of business
• none of the work permit conditions change, including the following:
  • wages
  • job duties
  • work location

If the type of business, the wages, the job duties or the work location changes, affected workers will need to get new work permits. In this case, the new employer will need to either submit a new offer of employment for each worker or get a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) (if the job is not LMIA-exempt). These workers can’t keep working until they get their new work permits.

In all cases, both companies should keep all documents about the merger or takeover in case we do a compliance inspection.

The new employer will need to submit a new offer to us if they want to extend the worker’s permit when it expires.