The second senate of the Federal Labor Court, responsible for protection against dismissal, has not yet decided whether permanent positions filled by temporary workers qualify as vacant positions in the sense of § 1 Abs. 2 Satz 2 Nr. 1b of the Protection Against Dismissal Act. If this is the case, and the analysis of case law on similarly situated cases suggests that it is, then operationally justified dismissals against permanent employees would be invalid as long as temporary workers are employed in positions that the employees being dismissed could fill based on their knowledge and skills.