“Easy fire” he promises to Frankfurt on the banks of the City

With the City losing its luster as a financial services centre, following the decision for a Brexit, many european cities …
throwing “bait” to attract the banking giants.
Paris puts forward the cultural and gastronomic trump, Amsterdam’s leading position in digital services and Dublin English. Frankfurt, on the other hand, is working on a different “carrot” to entice the banks: a friendly piece of legislation on redundancies, similar to that which applies in Britain.
The federal authorities of Hesse, the German state where Frankfurt is seeking ways to loosen labour law in order to facilitate the banks in the layoffs of their employees –especially the most highly-paid. According to the minister of Finance of the land, Thomas Schaefer, such a change could become a pole of attraction for financial giants and give the lead in Frankfurt compared to the other “suitors” -in particular, of the Paris that has become synonymous with the strict working regime “ties the hands” of employers.
The logic of the British is as follows: “to recruit senior executives when business is good, we should be able to fire when things get worse”. As pointed out by Schaefer in a recent interview, “certainly there is a way to relax the strict regulations about the layoffs when it comes to the influx of such significant funds”.
It could be years until the London to be found and officially outside the European Union, but already the Brexit has cast a shadow over the City and the activities of financial groups in the whole range of the European Union. This is the reason why the Frankfurt and several other european metropolises have already begun preparations to accommodate the activities of the banks that will seek a new roof.
“We need to catch up with the developments that triggers the Brexit, before other cities such as Paris and Milan,” explains Uwe Becker, deputy mayor of Frankfurt.
The layoffs are “game”
German labour law makes it difficult to fire employees from the “core” of an organization, regardless of their remuneration, while being more relaxed in the layoffs of executives in the top management. Schaefer proposes that the relaxed regulations will be extended to include all of the strains, such as, for example, those who have annual earnings above 300,000 euros. The Union of Banks of Foreign in Frankfurt has suggested, in fact, be given a period of 3-5 years in the banks move from London to the German city, during which the agencies will be governed by uk law.
“When we meet ceos and management teams of Brexit, they are asking us what is in accordance with the labour law,” says Eric Menges, president of the semi-public agency FrankfurtRheinMain, which promotes business development in the region. “They declare that they fear the German contracts”, reveals.
The problem is that any reform of labour legislation should be done at national level and the contribution to be made by the Ministry of Labour, who is responsible for these matters, which is run by social Democrats, and this complicates things. The federal minister of Labour Andrea Nahles, however, doesn’t seem to have the intention to change the laws on the protection of workers, as has been made clear by the spokesperson of the ministry.
The land of Hessen, in the meantime, make contacts with the british banks with a view to highlight the comparative benefits of that claims to have the Frankfurt compared to the other “suitors”, as for example, the competitive tax structure and a strong local economy. The aim of the officials of Frankfurt is not, as specifying the same, to steal jobs from London, but to ensure that those transferred from the british capital will end up in Frankfurt.
Can the German metropolis to look “uncool” in front of the Amsterdam or Paris, but it has the reputation of “quiet power” -a city that is friendly to businesses and already has strong foundations in the financial industry.
Paris is the city of light, love and lunch” said Hubertus Väth, head of the commercial group Frankfurt Main Finance. “And in the financial sector, the lunch is for losers”.
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