Employment Law in Hannover. From the contract to the parting.

A dismissal is decided before notice is given. Anyone who consults the works council incorrectly, fails to document the social selection or misses a deadline loses the case regardless of the facts. We prepare the separation so that it holds.

• Review of the grounds for dismissal and the choice between dismissal for operational reasons, on conduct grounds and on personal grounds
• Consultation of the works council, complete and on the record, because errors there make the dismissal ineffective on their own
• Social selection with a documented assessment and a review of who falls outside it
• Termination agreements covering the end date, release from duties, severance payment, reference and outstanding holiday
• Managing the back-pay exposure while proceedings are running

A certificate of incapacity for work carries considerable evidential weight, including in its electronic form. Where concrete facts give rise to serious doubts, for instance because the incapacity covers exactly the notice period, that weight can be undermined. With aucheck we review your case at no cost and tell you whether you owe the continued remuneration. Only then do you decide whether and how to proceed.

• Free initial review of the evidential value and of the six-week period
• Withholding and recovery of continued remuneration that is not owed
• Representation before the labour court, coordinated with unfair dismissal proceedings under way

Our work before the courts goes beyond protection against dismissal. We represent your company before the labour courts and the regional labour courts throughout Germany, in ordinary proceedings and in resolution proceedings alike.

• Ordinary proceedings (Urteilsverfahren) on bonus payments, overtime pay, the wording of references and the validity of fixed terms
• Resolution proceedings (Beschlussverfahren) to settle disputes over competence with the works council and the validity of works agreements
• Interim proceedings, for instance to enforce post-contractual restrictive covenants
• Preparing a commercially viable settlement where it is preferable to a judgment

Relocating a site, outsourcing or cutting posts are subject to co-determination and bound by deadlines. Keeping to the order, so informing first, then negotiating, then implementing, avoids compensation for disadvantage and ineffective dismissals.

• Review of whether an operational change exists, and determination of the relevant thresholds
• Negotiation of a reconciliation of interests and a social plan with the works council, including the conciliation committee
• Collective redundancy notification and social selection, secured against the usual sources of error
• Transfer of a business under section 613a of the German Civil Code, from informing the staff to handling objections
• Where the reshaping is under the pressure of a crisis, or proceedings are already under way, our Insolvency Law practice area takes it on with us

A works council holds far-reaching co-determination rights that can hold up operational plans. We negotiate firmly on the substance and keep the business able to act.

• Works agreements on IT systems, working time models and codes of conduct
• Representation in the conciliation committee where negotiations stall
• De-escalation of entrenched conflicts with the body
• Interpretation of sector-level collective agreements and negotiation of company-level collective agreements
• Realigning collective agreements in a hive-down, together with our Commercial Law practice area

The rules that bind HR come from employment law, social security law and supply chain law. Breaches lead to additional contribution claims, fines and, in individual cases, investigations against the people responsible.

• Bogus self-employment: review of the use of freelancers, independent contractors and subcontractors, including the status determination procedure
• Working time: implementing the recording duties under the Working Hours Act and designing time recording
• Pay: compliance with and documentation of the minimum wage, equal pay and pay transparency
• Temporary agency work: reviewing assignment contracts for the maximum assignment period and for a disguised supply of labour
• Supply chain: implementing the employment and human rights due diligence duties in your own operations
• Building these risks into the compliance system, together with our Corporate Law practice area

Digital and telephone sick notes have changed how incapacity for work is handled. We examine anything out of the ordinary and settle the entitlements with your staff, so that you do not have to hold that conversation yourself.

• Review of the evidential value of certificates of incapacity where there are concrete indications
• Continued remuneration, its reduction, and the recovery of payments received without entitlement
• Company integration management and dismissal on personal grounds
• Duties under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, from the risk assessment to instructing staff