Change negotiations 

As an employer, you are subject to a statutory obligation to negotiate if you regularly employ at least 20 employees, and your organisation is about to experience 

• changes in at least one employee's work tasks, working methods or arrangements for working facilities or working hours, 
• actions that may lead to laying off or dismissing one or more employees or changing their full-time work into part-time work on economic or production-related grounds, 
• a decision on lay-offs, or 
• a transfer of business. 

Before starting the change negotiations, you must submit a written proposal for the negotiations, which must include at least the date and location of the negotiations and a proposal on the issues to be discussed. The negotiations shall address the rationale, impact, and options of measures directed at personnel. Often both parties have a separate representative in the negotiations. In the change negotiations, the parties must act constructively and negotiate in a spirit of cooperation in order to reach consensus. 

The change negotiations involve fixed time periods. Violating these can incur compensation payments or fines. Read the instructions for change negotiations carefully.  

If you have under 20 employees, the change negotiations will not apply to you. However, before dismissal, you must provide your employees with an explanation of the reasons and alternatives for dismissal and inform them of the employment services available to them