Many layoffs in the IT area are legally open to challenge. Read what contractors should pay attention to.

Photo: Jirsak – shutterstock.com
Even in times of the corona crisis, the emotions of contracting parties can rock up objectively. This also applies to the following case: Due to an allegedly disrespectful utterance of an employed programmer towards an end customer, the main client of an IT company terminated the long-term cooperation without notice with immediate effect.
The declared extraordinary termination would have affected a complex subcontractor contract with the IT specialist at various insurance companies as end customers. From the IT company’s perspective, however, there was a pure misunderstanding. She therefore commissioned the Hamburg law firm Dr. Becker with the representation of her extrajudicial interests in order to enforce either compensation or continued employment.
By rejecting the client’s one-sided declarations of intent, which the lawyer also declared, the law firm succeeded in ensuring that no legally effective termination of the contractual relationship between the parties was brought about. On the one hand, there was no reason for termination. On the other hand, the ordinary termination declared purely in the alternative could not lead to the termination of the project contract due to the lack of important prerequisites.

Photo: Ina Becker – law firm Dr. Becker
Through her intervention, the lawyer Ina Becker created the basis for compensation payments in favor of her client in a considerable amount. As a result, she negotiated continued employment with guaranteed acceptance of services rendered for the IT company she represented. The long-standing, successful business relationship between both parties could be cemented again through the mediation and mediation activity.
Many layoffs in the IT area are legally vulnerable, Becker knows. Her advice: “It is important to seek legal advice as soon as an IT project suddenly ceases to exist. The contractor must defend himself against termination within a very short period of time, ie within a period of up to three days . ” The Hamburg lawyer warns that he also has to observe important rules of conduct in order not to suffer any legal disadvantages.