Not for me, for my colleagues. I’ll try and keep it simple

We work for Company A who won the tender a few years ago to run part of the business for Company B.

Company B has decided to pull out from the business and a new Company, Company C has come along to take the whole lot over.

Company C have finally announced they will take on Company A and keep its core staff (us)

Company C have been recruiting for more staff over the last few weeks (before we knew our jobs were safe!) Now as Company C are much better, they treat their staff better/better package/company where you can have a career for life etc a lot of staff from Company A have applied.
These staff have made it past the paper sift then initial tests and today they were meant to have the next stage in the process.

However Company C contacted all the staff from Company A last night who were due to have the next stage today to tell them not to come as they don’t need them.

Word on the grapevine (so cannot tell how true this is, but let’s assume it is) is that boss at Company A has told Company C that they cannot have their staff. Obviously my friends and colleagues are furious!

So, what are, if any, the legalities of this? Have Company A got any right in telling Company C who they can’t employ?

One for acas? (There’s a helpline no on the website)

Yeah told them to get in touch with acas

confused as you say company c has taken over comapany A so how can A say anything to C as they are the same?

Ignoring that it depends on your contract and I assume what was contractually agreed between A and B
I can work for competitors for example if i leave but not take business with me.
I would be surprised if legally A can do this – ie tell c without a contract in place tbh but I also suspect it will be hard to prove they have done this.

Sorry should’ve worded It better, A are an agency who worked for B. C have come in and taken over B and decided to keep A on (more than likely due to contracts)

An agency will have a contract that stops them taking their staff without [ punitive]fees unless they are very stupid/inept.

Whether this applies to a new company i am less sure but my best guess is the contract still holds up as they { C]took on all their contractual obligations of
IANAL

Ah yeah I can see/understand that now, thanks

Probably worth looking into TUPE as that may have some relevance in this situation.

Agency staff aren’t being tuped as our employer is staying the same

It’s probably in the contract between Co A and Co C (previously B). I work for a consultancy and our boilerplate in the contracts with clients has a no poaching clause. A client can’t try to hire me, and I can’t go to work for a client whilst we have a contract with them.

In the past I have worked with ACAS and to be honest if the company isn’t interested then that is that.

Unsure if I have this right to your situation
But a company I had worked for many of years was bought out by Platignum pen group
But we was all different business so therefore we all was individual businesses and run individual
so our terms and conditions was individual to each business.

Unsure if the same as you didn’t say it was under the same name as yours ?

Word on the grapevine (so cannot tell how true this is, but let’s assume it is) is that boss at Company A has told Company C that they cannot have their staff.

It depends on what was actually said. If Company A told Company C “if you hire any of our staff, we will enforce our rights under the contract we have with you* and/or we will enforce our right to have the employee work every day of notice”, then there’s nothing legally wrong with that. If something else was said…then maybe there is something wrong.

* Assuming there is a contract between them – it’s not entirely clear from the OP.

If Company A is an agency then I would imagine they can do what they want with their staff and contract their services or not as they feel fit.

If Company A has a clause in their contract which prevents clients from poaching their staff (quite normal and sensible from their point of view) I can’t see much they have done wrong.

But, TUPE is very complicated and I don’t fully know if it applies to agency situations (I think not) but as others have said ACAS is your friend.