In the event of a company closure or of a relocation, German law plans the negotiation of a redundancy scheme between the management and the WC. Appeal to strike is then forbidden. For a little while, unions have nonetheless been infringing this rule, claiming that negotiating the social plan is also within their attribution. The court's decision could cost a lot to companies. (Ref. 070378)
The case judged by the Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht – BAG) concerned a conflict opposing the IG-Metall to Heidelberger Druckmaschine GmbH, German leader of the off-set printing, which had decided in 2003 to close his Kiel (northern Germany) factory with a redundancy plan which respected the legal minimum. IG-Metall had then launched a five-week strike and put forward high claims: a 3 months’ notice, plus an extra two months for every year in the company; a two-year retraining plan
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