“Asset sale” should be on every long service employee’s “don’t want to hear” list.
This is because by simply organizing a sale of the business in a certain manner, employers can seek to shed liability for long service employees on termination of their employment in the sale process. The main mechanism for this is not the structure of the transaction itself but that the employee seeking common law pay in lieu of notice can be left with a claim against a corporation without assets to satisfy any judgment.
This is grossly unfair because, of course, that defendant corporation received the purchase price for the assets sold. If you find yourself in this situation all is not lost. There are many effective remedies that can be obtained for such employees but these are not necessarily commonly known.
What should you do? Don’t accept someone’s else’s best guess.