Transfer company
The transfer company is an instrument of labor market policy that is (indirectly) defined in Section 111 SGB III (until March 31, 2012: Section 216b SGB III old version). Transfer companies pursue the purpose of finding new employment contracts for employees who are specifically threatened with unemployment within the framework of a maximum of twelve months' employment . Their sole aim is to place the supervised employees back into new employment as quickly as possible. Switching to a transfer company is voluntary for employees at risk of unemployment. Transfer companies are installed using a legally defined procedure in close cooperation with the employment agency .
Establishing a transfer company
A transfer company is set up through an agreement between employee and employer representatives in a company and “ information about operational changes ” according to Section 2 (3) SGB III at the responsible employment agency. This agreement is usually made through an addendum to the social plan or via a specially adopted transfer social plan that makes specific placement and qualification offers for the employees.
Most of the time, a “third party” is hired to run the transfer company and employ those affected by unemployment in a transfer company. On the basis of a contract, the company and the organization that was commissioned with the transfer company agree on the cooperation in the transfer company. The company concludes a termination agreement with the respective employee and at the same time this employee concludes a fixed-term employment contract with the transfer company (three-way contract). The employees who switch to a transfer company at a certain point in time are grouped together in an organizationally independent unit (beE).
Content design and function of transfer companies
The content of a transfer company is usually negotiated between the employee representatives and the company management.
The transfer short-time work allowance forms the financial basis for the employees who joined the transfer company . It is applied for by the transfer company as part of the establishment of a transfer company at the responsible employment agency and is roughly the same as the unemployment benefit . The withdrawal of the transfer short-time work allowance is limited to a maximum of twelve months and has no influence on the duration of any subsequent withdrawal of unemployment benefit I. For this reason, employment in the transfer company results in a postponement of the start of unemployment under social security law.
Often the transfer short-time work allowance is "topped up" by the dismissing company so that the employees of the transfer company can receive up to 100% of their previous earnings. The transfer company is financed by the company, the employment agencies that pay transfer short-time work and sometimes with the involvement of a trustee, as is so-called profiling, an evaluation measure that precedes the start of short-time transfer work to record possible qualifications and placement key points.
The labor policy function of the transfer company consists in placing workers threatened with unemployment. Transfer companies have various instruments at their disposal for mediation. Further training measures organized by the dismissing company, foundations and in close cooperation with the labor administration, e.g. B. financed by means of the European Social Fund , help the employees in the transfer company to reorient themselves professionally or to qualify in such a way that their chances of placement are improved.
Requirements of a transfer company
Operational requirements
First of all, there must be a so-called operational change in accordance with Section 111 BetrVG . A distinction is made here - according to the number of employees affected by the downsizing - between downsizing without a certain magnitude and mere downsizing.
There is no minimum number of employees required to set up a transfer company if one of the following conditions is met:
- Restriction and shutdown of the entire company or of essential parts of the company
- Relocation of the entire company or of essential parts of the company, merger with other companies or the division of companies
- fundamental changes to the business organization, the purpose of the business or the business facilities
- Introduction of fundamentally new working methods and manufacturing processes
However, the following magnitudes apply to the mere downsizing:
- Companies with 21 to 59 employees: 6 employees
- Companies with 60 to 499 employees: 10% or more than 25 employees
- Companies with 500 to 599 employees: 30 employees
- Companies with over 600 employees: 5% of employees
In addition, advice from the responsible employment agency must take place in the run-up to the measure, i.e. before the social plan is concluded.
Personal requirements for employees to join a transfer company
In order for the employee - affected by the downsizing - to be entitled to join a transfer company, he or she must be at risk of unemployment and must have registered as jobseeker before moving to the transfer company.
In addition, he must have taken part in an appropriate labor market measure to determine the prospects for integration (so-called profiling).
The transfer provider must do the latter with the employee before switching to the transfer company and submit the result to the responsible employment agency.
Functional objectives of transfer companies
In the context of extensive rationalization measures and the associated downsizing, transfer companies have become a prominent instrument of modern labor market policy. With the instrument of the transfer company, companies are provided with a mechanism that enables them to cut jobs in a “socially acceptable” manner. Despite the usually considerable costs associated with installing a transfer company, the transfer company instrument offers companies the following advantages:
- Image gain despite operationally necessary personnel adjustments
- Avoidance of notice periods, because the employees transfer immediately, the wages / salaries that would otherwise have to be paid are converted into the financing of the employment relationships in the transfer company
- Improvement of liquidity , because the wages / salaries that are to be discontinued are usually extended over a much longer period of time than with mere continued payment during the notice period
- Avoidance of dismissal protection suits including the accounting consequences
- Better calculability of the costs of downsizing
For the employees affected by the termination, joining a transfer company means:
- Avoidance or postponement of unemployment (postponement of the receipt of unemployment benefit for the duration of the transfer company)
- Uninterrupted course of earnings points in pension insurance
- Transfer of short-time work allowance is drawn for a maximum of twelve months
- Professional support in the professional reorientation
- Financing of further training measures
- Participation in internal qualification measures (trial work)
- Applications from an employment relationship
- Risk-free work trials with a potential new employer by suspending the employment relationship in the transfer company
Employment agencies also benefit from the effects of a transfer company. The employment agencies, which are actually equipped with the supervision and placement mandate, make a significant contribution to the reintegration of the laid-off employees by promoting transfer companies. The extensive care of employees threatened by unemployment is entrusted to external specialists who can concentrate on the placement. The work agencies are thus relieved extensively.
Cons and criticism
Transfer companies can now legally be installed regardless of the size of the company and the number of employees affected if there are (threatened) mass layoffs ( Section 17 KSchG ). Due to the complexity of the subject, the persons involved often do not consider using transfer companies in the event of layoffs in small or medium-sized companies. The possibility of cost-neutral constructs (equipment for the transfer company) is also mostly unknown. Likewise, it is often assumed that a works council must be set up in the company concerned, because the employer is only economically motivated to take transfer measures due to enforceable co-determination rights of the works council. But even without a works council, it can be interesting for the employer / company to make use of transfer instruments.
In the public debate about the use of transfer companies, various aspects of transfer companies are criticized by different interest groups. Part of this debate deals with the allegation that transfer companies have a low level of active labor market policy; in several cases this is associated with the symbol of a parking space. On the other hand, an empirical study by the Society for Innovative Employment Promotion , which as an independent national company belongs to the division for the areas of labor and social affairs of the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of North Rhine-Westphalia , comes to the conclusion that the "media-produced stereotype of transfer companies as' Parking for the surplus' [...] can be resolutely contradicted without any benefit in terms of labor market policy. The image of the dissatisfied participant who is only staying in a transfer company that is only in custody cannot be maintained on the basis of this survey. " The study recommends a stronger focus on qualification-related and investment qualifications than has been the case in the previous practice of transfer companies.
The implementation of a transfer company is always associated with or caused by the company's insolvency . Investors who offer a transferring restructuring regularly make it a prerequisite for the takeover that a certain quorum, not infrequently the entire workforce, is transferred to the transfer company in order to then reinstate some employees who have not been selected according to any social criteria. In this practice, a circumvention of § 613a BGB is seen in some cases , but this is denied by the BAG in constant case law.
An evaluation of the transfer companies by the Institute for the Future of Work (IZA) came to the conclusion that they did not achieve any higher placement success than the employment agencies. According to the authors, this is an argument in favor of discontinuing the transfer instruments. Based on the available data, the study recommended further scientific studies in order to identify “possibly successful strategies” of transfer companies and to prepare them for future reforms.
See also
literature
- Bettina Behle, Giovanni Sciurba: The hare and hedgehog strategy for job seekers - encouraging stories from the job market , Heyne Verlag 2007, ISBN 978-3-453-68006-7
- Siegfried Backes (Ed.): Transfer companies: Fundamentals, instruments , practice. 2. revised and exp. Edition Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag 2009, ISBN 978-3-86550-104-2
- Matthias Knuth, Gernot Mühge: From short-term work to securing long-term employment trajectories. Further development of the instruments of employee transfer , Düsseldorf: Hans-Böckler-Stiftung (Edition of the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, 244), 2009, ISBN 978-3-86593-137-5
- Gernot Mühge, Claudia Niewerth, Maria Icking, Julia Mahler: Social security through employee transfer. An empirical study of transfer societies , materials on monitoring and evaluation. Ed. V. Society for innovative employment promotion mbH. Bottrop (GIB working papers, 39), 2012, ISSN 1866-0401
- Gernot Mühge: Qualification and partial qualification in transfer companies . Stuttgart: Hans Böckler Foundation 2017, ISBN 978-3-86593-281-5
- Frank Müller, Hans B. Schiff, Gerd M. Strauch: Social transfer of personnel - Shaping change fairly with an outplacement , Kohlhammer Verlag 2005, ISBN 3-17-018985-9
- Wolfgang Stock: The establishment of a transfer company with special consideration of the provisions of the works constitution and labor promotion law , Peter Lang Verlag 2010, ISBN 978-3-631-60188-4
Web links
- Tilman Weigel: Un-transferred Schlecker women April 7, 2012
Individual evidence
- ↑ § 111 BetrVG
- ↑ transfer company - BAQ GmbH. In: BAQ GmbH. Retrieved June 20, 2016 .
- ↑ Demmer, Ch .: Parking lot for excess. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung from 18./19. July 2009
- ^ Dommer, M .: Parking for employees. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from 9./10. May 2009
- ↑ http://www.gib.nrw.de/service/downloads/gib-arbeitspapiere-39
- ↑ http://www.iza.org/en/webcontent/press/releases/IZAPress20070108_HartzEval.pdf/
