Employment Law
From a single termination agreement to a headcount reduction in a restructuring — employment law mistakes are expensive and rarely reversible.
We advise employers and employees on individual and collective employment law, with a focus on periods of change: dismissal and protection against dismissal, termination agreements, transfers of undertakings under sec. 613a BGB and headcount reductions in restructuring and insolvency. In those situations employment law, works constitution law and insolvency law interlock, and getting the sequence wrong can rarely be repaired in court. We appear before the labour courts and negotiate with works councils and conciliation committees.
Statutory references follow German law; the section numbers in brackets point to the German provision so that you can pass them straight to in-house counsel or an auditor.
How we help
- Dismissal — challenge or defendUnfair dismissal claims, review of social justification (sec. 1 KSchG) and the three-week deadline (sec. 4 KSchG).
- Termination agreementsGarden leave, references (sec. 109 GewO) and severance, without triggering a benefit blocking period (sec. 159 SGB III).
- Transfer of undertakingEmployee information, right of objection and the prohibition of dismissal under sec. 613a BGB.
- Headcount reduction in a crisisDismissals in insolvency and self-administration (sec. 113 InsO), reconciliation of interests with a name list (sec. 125 InsO).
- Works council negotiationsReconciliation of interests and social plans (secs. 111, 112 BetrVG), conciliation committee (sec. 76 BetrVG) and collective redundancy notification (sec. 17 KSchG).
- Director service agreementsService contract separate from corporate office, removal (sec. 38 GmbHG) and post-contractual non-compete clauses.
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