Legal advice – How members benefit from the service
„lest any error be made
that cannot be undone.“
Attorney Ludger Ramme, ULA General Manager for legal advice
for the members of the Health Care Executives Association.
Since the beginning of 2016, the Health Care Executives Association has been offering legal advice to its members, the costs of which are already included in the membership fee. To this end, the interdisciplinary association of executives in the healthcare sector cooperates with „United Leaders Association“ (ULA), the association of German executive associations. Its managing director Ludger Ramme explains how members benefit from the offer.
The legal advice for the members of the Health Care Executives Association offers advice on labour and social law issues. What does this mean exactly?
This is of interest to all members and interested parties who have an employment contract. Anyone in an employment relationship is subject to employment law. On the one hand, this concerns the employment contract itself, and on the other hand, things like the job description, a certificate, the working hours or the relationship with the works council. Our lawyers can advise you on all these questions concerning the employment relationship.
What is special about the legal advice of the Health Care Executives Association?
The Health Care Executives Association is a forum for all decision-makers in the health care system – the range of consulting services is correspondingly diverse. We offer our legal advice for each of the 15 ULA member associations. They all agree that they are associations of highly qualified employees in a wide variety of companies. In the medical sector, the Association is our partner, and its members thus benefit from our consultancy services in labour law, which under normal circumstances would be considerably more expensive. An initial consultation is included in the membership fee; in most cases this is sufficient to clarify an employment law issue. If, however, legal representation in the labour court is required, a double membership in the Health Care Executives Association and the ULA also provides legal representation in court at very favourable conditions.
However, membership of the association and therefore access to the ULA is not limited to legal advice. There are also many other benefits of this network, such as the exchange of information across professional boundaries and access to interesting events. It is also a fact that the service providers in Germany do not have their own lobby other than the ULA and its member associations.
Are there any topics that members approach you particularly often when giving legal advice?
Yes, there are questions that keep coming up. For example, many employment contracts are presented to us before they are signed, so that we can check whether there is any hidden discrimination. Our lawyers can, of course, see this immediately; it is a question of notice periods and non-competition clauses, or questions about occupational pension schemes and the payment of severance pay. All these things can already be addressed in the employment contract – and if you set the right course there, that is definitely a good thing. Other issues arise in the course of the employment relationship, such as transfers or the right to interim and final certificates. What can they say? Which hidden formulations are permissible and which are not? There are many questions related to employment law. For experts and managers there are always considerable sums of money involved – and therefore it is good to have a competent advisor. So that no mistakes are made that cannot be undone.
Source: Berliner Ärzteblatt | issue 1/2