Redundancy compensation during probationary period

Hello Toytowners.

Just wanted some general advice with regards to employment lawsor from anyone who has been in a similar situation.

Arrived in Germany 2 weeks ago. Started working at BenQ mobile as a design engineer. 7 working days into my contract, the CEO has annouced that 277 people will lose their jobs. Sadly, as a new starter, this includes me.

Naturally, I am distraught and disappointed. It has cost a lot of money to move to munich in Kaution, Rent, Furniture and so on. Being slightly naive, and believing that this job was going to provide a rosy future, I did not ask for a relocation package.

I would like to get some compensation if I can but I have already been warned that I am operating within a 6 month probabtionary period. Legally, I have also been told that I dont have a leg to stand on.

Any thoughts, any advice much appreciated. Please PM me if you can.

Cheers.

damn, that sucks, good luck!

If you were following old siemens norms and are on delegation here, see what the contract says. usually it mentions a months notice either side, but will pay for you to go home etc etc.
but in the "socialplan" criteria I am afraid you will have little chance

Wow 7 days! Thats probably not even long enough to qualify for unemployment benefit here is it? Otherwise it wouldnt have been as much of a problem cos the dole rocks here, would take you through Oktoberfest AND most of the Ski season too like it did for us when we got fired.

What do you want to do then? Stay here and find something else or go home?

As far as compensation goes, well german laws cover this pretty well, I have been through this twice now, once with a large company that had to go through all sorts of procedures, sometimes this involves compensation and sometimes not. Usually the betriebsrat, creditors etc all get together and try and work out whats best with the money thats available. I was lucky, I volunteerd to get fired in the first round and got a nice redundancy payment, but the next two rounds not only didnt get any redundancy, they also missed out on salary.

Tough situation, sorry I dont have any solid tips. What do you want to do from now? Have you got money to live off while looking for work, or travel home or are you totally screwed?

Hi Tyrell,
what type of skills do you have? How much experience and what type of work are you looking for? There are jobs around for software engineers if you have the skills.

they probably wouldn't have given it to you either.

you're in your probationary period and in that time either you or your company can end the contract without any reason with a 2-week notice. there's no way around that.

your advantage: you're british. you can stay w/out fear of losing your work permit. there are other jobs out there for peeps with your skills (assumedly), so go to the unemployment office & get looking for work! but make sure you get a good letter of recommendation from BenQ, even if only after 7 days working.