German court allows headhunters' phone calls

Headhunters in Germany are celebrating a court ruling which legitimises one of their most important activities: telephoning people at work in order to poach them on behalf of their clients.

Richard Fudickar, a headhunter at Boyden and president of the German branch of the Association of Executive Search Consultants, said: 'We are very happy. It has always been our position that we do not destroy or disrupt the activities of the companies we call. Allegations that this is illegal have been resolved.'

The right to phone people at work is taken for granted by headhunters in other countries. But German law had been unclear. A 1999 ruling by a court in Stuggart said the practice was 'immoral' and unlawful; in 2001 a court in Karlsruhe said phoning in office hours was lawful, but only to make an appointment to call back after work.

The latest judgement, delivered this month by the Bundesgerichtshof, the highest German civil court, broadly decides in favour of the Karlsruhe decision. The new ruling was reached after Dechtle, a German IT company, sued a search firm for trying to poach its employees.

Rolf Behrens, managing director at Banking Consult, a Frankfurt search firm, said the ruling will enable firms to be more up-front. 'For the past two years we have used our researchers to make the initial contact. They told people they were calling from a research company instead of a headhunter. If people were open to being approached, they said a headhunter would call back in the evening.'

It will now be possible for search firms to announce themselves as such from the start, said Behrens.

Jürgen Merkel, managing director at MB Consulting, a rival search firm, said the ruling would make little difference: 'We were always careful about the people we phoned. We always said can we call back this evening and make you a job offer, so we will carry on the same way.'

Bernd Weller, an employment lawyer at the law firm Lovells in Frankfurt, said poaching employees remains illegal in situations where it can be considered immoral. These include: inducing an employee to leave before the end of his notice period; and enticing away a competitor's employees in order to weaken its position in the market.

The latter could include enticing away entire teams of financial services staff to work for a competitor. 'Team moves are much more difficult to achieve legally in Germany,' said Weller.

Merkel disagreed. 'We can do team moves no problem at all. We are in the process of doing one right now,' he said.