Tech-enabled advice on workforce restructuring in Germany
With CMS Select, our lawyers combine employment law expertise and legal tech for social selection
When restructuring and terminating staff for operational reasons, we can advise you on how to carry out the social selection process in compliance with the law. We use CMS Select for this to simulate comparison groups and scenarios, evaluate results and develop well-founded courses of action.
When is a social selection process required?
A social selection process is always required when terminating some employees for operational reasons but not all out of a group of comparable employees within the same company. It is therefore not required if the entire business is shut down, but it is required in the event of a gradual reduction in staff.
How can social selection of employees for redundancy be reliably planned?
A reliable social selection process requires complete social data, appropriately defined comparison groups and the careful application and weighting of the statutory selection criteria. At the same time, the effects of different courses of action must be transparently assessed and documented. CMS Select supports our employment lawyers in efficiently analysing extensive employee data, simulating social selection scenarios and providing clients with transparent, data-driven advice on restructuring projects.
How CMS Select supports your restructuring
CMS Select provides support not only in preparing for terminations for operational reasons but also throughout all phases of a restructuring project:
- By carrying out an initial simulation of the social selection process at the start of the project, the implications of various planning scenarios can be identified early and these findings can contribute to the negotiations with the works council on the balance of interests and the social plan.
- With its link to an automated "severance calculator", CMS Select can also be used to keep track of potential project costs – such as social plan severance payments or the "costs" of a voluntary redundancy scheme – throughout the entire course of the project.
- Furthermore other documents required to implement the project – such as notices of termination, works council consultations or cover letters accompanying notifications of collective redundancies to the Employment Agency – can be automatically generated or prepared based on the data saved in the system.
How is the social selection assessed on the basis of the relevant criteria?
The assessment is based on the statutory social selection criteria: length of service, age, maintenance obligations and severe disability. CMS Select provides numerous points-based schemes for this purpose that are acknowledged by case law. Company-specific selection guidelines can also be taken into account.
This allows different weightings and their effects on the social selection process to be analysed transparently and compared with one another to identify the result that best fits the company's plans.
How does CMS Select support documenting and implementing the social selection process?
CMS Select presents the results of the social selection process in a structured and transparent manner. This means that the basis for decisions can be documented transparently and reused for subsequent processes.
The automatically processed data support both the implementation of restructuring measures and the preparation for and handling of any unfair dismissal proceedings. This reduces the administrative burden on clients and ensures consistent documentation.
Frequently asked questions
CMS Select primarily requires the employee data relevant to the social selection process, in particular information on length of service, age, maintenance obligations and severe disability. Data indicating special protection against dismissal (e.g. works council membership, maternity leave, parental leave) is also recorded. Other details from the employment contract such as notice periods may be taken into account in addition. Based on this data, social selections can be calculated, different scenarios simulated and the results evaluated transparently.
Our employment lawyers use CMS Select to analyse extensive employee data in a structured manner, transparently define comparison groups and support restructuring decisions with a reliable data foundation.
Yes. CMS Select also supports the social selection process in the event of an individual termination for operational reasons. To this end the relevant statutory social data of the person concerned is compared with those of employees within the company who are comparable to them under employment law. The application processes the relevant social data and facilitates a transparent review of the social selection process in compliance with the law.
CMS Select is cloud-based. All data is stored on CMS's own servers in Germany in accordance with data protection regulations. CMS Select is based on our own security architecture for our Online Legal Solutions (OLS). Technical and organisational safeguards, together with a role-based authorisation scheme, ensure that the processed data is treated with confidentiality and protected against unauthorised access.
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