Attorney at law Asma Hussain-Hämäläinen successful at labor court in Wiesbaden
Attorney-at-law Hussain-Hämäläinen has successfully litigated a large number of dismissal protection claims also brought by managing directors at the labor courts. There are some important hurdles to consider in this very specific legal situation. The first and most important hurdle is always getting a decision from the labor courts about the legal jurisdiction of these same courts.
The labor court is always responsible for traditional employees. But when are managing directors employees?
When they work under instructions! Proving this can be difficult. It is therefore by no means common for managing directors to bring a lawsuit before the labor courts and that is why many labor courts refer these lawsuits to the civil courts (regional courts), where managing directors would usually sue against dismissal. However, suing against their dismissal in the regional court often does not help them, because traditional managing directors have no protection against dismissal. Only if protection against dismissal has been agreed or it can be proven that the managing director received this title purely pro forma (this mainly occurs in large corporations) and the managing director actually worked in accordance with instructions or there is a dormant employment relationship or similar, a lawsuit in the labor courts can be successful.
Why is it worth it for managing directors to take a dismissal protection claim to the labor courts?
Managing directors who actually worked as such, i.e. independently of instructions, generally do not enjoy any protection against dismissal, especially not under the Dismissal Protection Act (Kündigungsschutzgesetz).
However, if you manage to bring your dismissal protection claim before the labor courts (and not the regional courts), you can benefit from the Dismissal Protection Act. Given the high salaries that managing directors often receive, it can quickly lead to high six- or seven-figure euro amounts in severance payments or acceptance default wages due to invalid termination, which they would not receive in regional courts.
In a large number of cases, Ms. Hussain-Hämäläinen has either achieved a very good settlement with severance payments of one or even several annual salaries for the managing directors she represented (out of court and in various labor courts, e.g. B. at the Frankfurt am Main Labor Court, the Hessian State Labor Court, the Offenbach am Main Labor Court, the Wiesbaden Labor Court. On April 30, 2024, the Wiesbaden Labor Court, Case number 7 Ca 424 / 23, decided on the question of legal jurisdiction in a dismissal protection action brought by a managing director, represented by Ms. Hussain-Hämäläinen, after a long and intense legal dispute between the parties that legal recourse to the labor courts has been opened for his dismissal protection claim. This is a great success for our law firm!
On the other side is the subsidiary of a very well-known American company, which is represented by a major international law firm.
We will continue to report on the case.
Are you a managing director and are you threatened with dismissal or have you already received a termination letter? Give us a call! Attorney Hussain-Hämäläinen will advise you personally!