Businesses of every size often have demand for adjustment to the economic and technological development, market trends and claims of lending banks.

This pressure of changes frequently leads to a reduction in the workforce. It must be determined whether a reconciliation of interests and a social plan is negotiable in enterprises with more than 20 employees and a works council. In collaboration with employers, we develop strategies for the implementation of actions needed – if possible in consensus with the works councils or against their concepts. The main focus lies on the realization, which depends on the interests of the company, workforce and works council and minimizing of friction losses.

On this issue, we work together with works councils in order to reduce the measures implemented by employers to a level that is inevitable for the business because no compensation of economic disadvantages would equal the avoidance of terminations. Reconciliations of interests are not mere shows in which the works council is not able to change anything. Experience shows that the works council can have a considerable influence on redundancies, which are allegedly irrevocable. Intelligent social plans and sustainable severance payments are needed for putting life into the word “social compatibility” in areas, where job losses are inevitable.