Can the new owner require a medical exam before letting me keep working?

Generally, a new owner can ask for a medical exam only where it's genuinely connected to a legitimate purpose, such as confirming you can safely perform the actual physical or safety-sensitive requirements of your specific job, rather than as a blanket condition applied to everyone simply because ownership changed. Being kept on through a sale doesn't erase your existing job or its established requirements, so a new owner generally can't treat continuing employees as brand-new applicants who must re-prove basic fitness for a role they've already been doing, often for years, without a real reason tied to the actual work.

A medical exam requirement becomes more defensible where there's a genuine, job-related safety concern, a role has materially changed in a way that raises new physical demands, or the requirement is applied consistently as part of a broader, legitimate workplace safety program rather than singling out particular employees. If you have an existing medical condition or accommodation, a new, broad medical exam requirement also needs to be handled carefully alongside your existing accommodation rights, not used as a backdoor way to probe into something unrelated to actual job requirements.

If you're asked for an exam that feels disconnected from your actual duties, ask directly what specifically it's meant to assess and why.