Company Acquisition and Redundancy as Termination Ground

Thank God I have found this forum!
Here's not just my story, but at least 75 people in our company.

I work for a BIG company (let's call it Company I) which has several subsidiaries (let's say I work with Subsidiary B). Subsidiary B is the I.T. arm of the entire company which provides end-user support. It (Subsidiary B) has several clients as well, and we provide I.T. support to those clients. One of Company I's clients is Subsidiary M -- which is also one of its subsidiaries.
Now, a 3rd party company (Company S) has made a deal with Company I, and both companies announced a few months ago, that Company S will acquire an entire subsidiary of Company I -- which is Subsidiary M (most of Subsidiary M's employees have already signed the transfer; some of them resigned due to demotivation, as expected) .
Again, I work with Subsidiary B (which we thought should not be affected by the acquisition) and sadly, Subsidiary B conducted a townhall the other day, and announced, that everyone of us (75 regular employees)
are "in-scope" of that acquisition. This shocked everyone of us.
We were immediately provided with a timeline:
sometime November 2013, we will receive transfer letters and we have 3 days to sign it or not.
IF we did sign the transfer letter, our tenure and benefits will be carried over but we are only protected for one year (meaning, Company S cannot fire us for a year after acquisition).
IF we will not sign the transfer letter, our jobs will be declared by Subsidiary B as REDUNDANT (legal termination ground as per our Labor Code) once the acquisition is final, and we will then be forced to be terminated (lay-off) and will receive separation pay.
Why "forced"? Well that's because our HR Country Leader said that we are banned from having internal transfers, although there are openings within our current company (and within its other subsidiaries as well).
They said that our only option is whether to accept or not to accept the transfer letter.

Now, we are talking not just any company but rather a BIG, multinational company here. And I'm afraid that they will use all of their legal powers to prevent any employee retaliation or to avoid being sued by their existing employees (us).

Any legal advise from you? Do you think we have a fight against this BIG company? Please help us. We are currently demotivated and lost.

Thank you.

I forgot to mention an important factor..

We will receive a transfer letter by November 2013 because Subsidiary B will be "transferring" our employment to Subsidiary M (so that it will look like we are acquired the same way as those who are existing employees of Subsidiary M).

So from Subsidiary B, we will transfer to Subsidiary M which is technically acquired by Company S. Therefore, we become employees of Company S.

what is the problem? it seems everything is legal. You don't sign they will pay you.. if you sign, you will retain your service in the new company.. what do you want?

Patok wrote:what is the problem? it seems everything is legal.  You don't sign they will pay you.. if you sign, you will retain your service in the new company.. what do you want?

Hi and thank you for your response. I am one of those on the bottom of the food chain who have known about this just a few weeks ago. And until now, the management is reluctant to tell us the whole truth. Or maybe they are not willing at all -- to protect their intentions and their business.

I have 2 more weeks to decide whether to accept the offer to transfer my employment, or otherwise suffer the cost of being separated with my company by February 2014 due to redundancy (HR emphasized this terminology).

If you were on my shoes, would you accept the offer or not? And why?

i agree that everything appears to be legit.

for you, it seems to be bad, but that's life. only you can decide which is better. if you take the money, make sure you have somewhere to go.

Thank you so much for your replies. I'll consider your advice on my decision-making. God bless and more power!