Verena Pausder, the chief executive of the German Start‑up Association, is calling for a relaxation of employment protection for higher‑earning employees.
“Costs for mistakes are too high in this country” she told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” on Tuesday. Pausder explained that when startup founders, in the early discovery phase, hire a highly qualified person who ultimately does not fit the company, the expense and effort required to part with that employee is substantial. “One of the main problems German start‑ups face is that they simply can’t breathe” she added.
She stops short of advocating a nationwide abolition of employment protection. Instead, Pausder suggests a specific rule tailored to young companies. “You could, for example, tie it to the number of years since the company was founded” she said. In the startup sector, the focus is on talent that can quickly find a new employer; even if a new job isn’t immediate, the previous salary can bridge the gap for a few months.
Pausder also supports a clearly defined severance scheme that would prevent protracted employment‑protection lawsuits. Such proceedings would anyway yield outcomes that were essentially predetermined. “This would save both the affected employees and the companies a lot of money and effort, and it would also lighten the courts’ workload” she concluded.
