Undoubtedly driven by an interest in drawing UK-based banks to Frankfurt and becoming an EU hub for US banks post-Brexit, the German government recently picked up a proposal to relax dismissal protection for high-earning bankers. So it may very well soon be easier for banks in Frankfurt to part with their top employees. READ MORE
After months of exhausting, on-off negotiations with changing negotiation partners at the table, Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU/CSU) and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) agreed on a new coalition agreement for a third grand coalition – usually referred to as “GroKo” in Germany. The deal still has now been formally approved by the 460,000 SPD members in a postal vote, the new government has taken up work a couple of days ago. Our previous blog gives a summary of upcoming changes for employers that are addressed in the coalition agreement. READ MORE
We set out below our best guess on where this leaves employees, management and HR in the UK.
Firstly as we have all heard repeatedly today, nothing is going to change immediately and that is the same for employment law. It will be years before any changes are made and for the time being, everything remains the same and critically, no one has to leave.
Much of our employment law is just that – employment law driven solely by the UK. We then have laws that have been enacted into UK law as a result of European directives – so those laws are the ones that may, at some point in the future, be targeted. Our guess at Orrick is that changes where they happen will be focused on consultation rights, holiday pay and working time. Worker involvement has never had the same traction in the UK that it has with our European counterparts and the UK has always viewed employee consultation with a degree of skepticism. For this reason, we think it may eventually be a focus for change.
