Labor law article 613b protects your job? Not!

My company cut out my department and sold it to our no 1 competitor. All employees received a signed contract enforcing labor law article 613(B) that we cannot be terminated for 1 year after the merger "for reasons related to the merger" (ie: redundancies).

2 months later the management VERBALLY says they seek to terminate most redundant people (40%). They say its NOT because of the merger but because of low sales forecasts. Of course no one believes him but one attorney I consulted says it will be hard to prove.

Has ANYONE wrestled with this before? My Deutsch is ZIP so I rely on input from others.

So you're going to take the advice of an Intarwebs forum over that which an actual attorney told you? Rethink your strategy.

This is legal, to a point. They cannot cut more than 10% of their workforce without a bunch of social protection laws kicking in. Other than that, being let go because you're unnecessary/redundant is not the same as "because of the merger" which specifically entails protecting you because you worked for a competitor.

I was at a company which was forced to cut 9.99% twice inside two years. A year after that we were bought and one more round o cuts came, though they weren't required to be 10% that last time. The best thing you can do is to outshine all the others so you don't get th axe.

woof.

They can cite an "urgent business reason" (in this case falling profits) to get round the law. They still have to justify *which* employees are redundant - according to a Social Plan, if it's a decent sized company. When your dismissal comes, you have just 3 weeks to decide if you want to challenge it in the courts.

For Gods sake - go to an Anwalt sofort!!!
Taking naive Germans and foreigners to the cleaners is a Volksport here.
I was asked to sign an "Aufhebungsvertrag" (voluntary agreement to leave my job)
by a nasty employer (IT).
The same afternoon I went to an Anwalt (OK, I have a German partner who knows the rules).
The Anwalt said - ignore this - go on holiday (as planned).
I went on holiday and had effectively the choice of my job back or juicy compensation when I came back on return.
I took the latter - and the generous Hamburg Anwalt didn't even send me a bill!

A few things that could influence your case:
- Are they trying to terminate 40 % of all employees of the merged company, or just from your department that was recently acquired?
- How big is the new company (the one you're working for right now)?

If the cut 40 % of the complete workforce, it's obviously not related to the acquisition of a small department from a competitor. If they are a decent-sized company, they will be forced by law to do a Sozialplan (as mentioned above), and you should at least be able to receive a decent settlement depending on your length of service.

Are you sure this is according to BGB §613b? I only know 613a, and only managed to find weblinks to 613a, e.g. on Wikipedia:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betriebs%C3%BCbergang