diff --git a/openupgrade_scripts/scripts/hr/16.0.1.1/pre-00-hr-employee-empty-names.py b/openupgrade_scripts/scripts/hr/16.0.1.1/pre-00-hr-employee-empty-names.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..91f9d5ec65fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/openupgrade_scripts/scripts/hr/16.0.1.1/pre-00-hr-employee-empty-names.py
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+# Copyright 2026 NuoBiT Solutions SL
+# License AGPL-3.0 or later (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0)
+from openupgradelib import openupgrade
+
+
+@openupgrade.migrate()
+def migrate(env, version):
+    """Name empty-named employees before hr's own migration runs.
+
+    The 16.0 hr post-migration (create_work_contact) creates a res.partner
+    per employee taking the partner name from the employee name. Core Odoo
+    accepts nameless partners, but with OCA partner_firstname installed its
+    _check_name constraint raises EmptyNamesError and the whole -u all dies
+    (seen 2026-07-06 on a real 15->16 hop: one active employee with an empty
+    name). Give such employees a deterministic non-empty name first —
+    work_email when available, a synthetic marker otherwise.
+
+    hr_employee.name is a stored related to resource_resource.name, so fix
+    the resource first (source of truth), then the stored column.
+    This file sorts before hr's own pre-migration.py by basename, which is
+    the guaranteed ordering for same-version scripts.
+    """
+    openupgrade.logged_query(
+        env.cr,
+        """
+        UPDATE resource_resource r
+           SET name = COALESCE(NULLIF(BTRIM(e.work_email), ''),
+                               'Employee #' || e.id)
+          FROM hr_employee e
+         WHERE e.resource_id = r.id
+           AND (e.name IS NULL OR BTRIM(e.name) = '')
+        """,
+    )
+    openupgrade.logged_query(
+        env.cr,
+        """
+        UPDATE hr_employee
+           SET name = COALESCE(NULLIF(BTRIM(work_email), ''),
+                               'Employee #' || id)
+         WHERE name IS NULL OR BTRIM(name) = ''
+        """,
+    )