diff --git a/zou/migrations/versions/e1f2a3b4c5d6_merge_salary_scale_cascade_and_reconcile_heads.py b/zou/migrations/versions/e1f2a3b4c5d6_merge_salary_scale_cascade_and_reconcile_heads.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..65a076e6a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/zou/migrations/versions/e1f2a3b4c5d6_merge_salary_scale_cascade_and_reconcile_heads.py
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+"""merge the salary-scale-cascade and squash-reconcile heads
+
+The fork carried two parallel Alembic heads:
+
+  * 2b8f88aa610f - reconcile squash schema with legacy
+  * d1e2f3a4b5c6 - cascade delete salary scale on department (via the
+                   import-workflow / person-links line)
+
+Both descend from a0f668430352, so ``alembic upgrade head`` could not pick a
+single target and aborted with "Multiple head revisions are present", which
+made ``zou upgrade-db`` a no-op on deploy. This empty merge revision unites
+them into one head so upgrades resolve again.
+
+Revision ID: e1f2a3b4c5d6
+Revises: 2b8f88aa610f, d1e2f3a4b5c6
+Create Date: 2026-06-21 10:30:00.000000
+
+"""
+
+
+# revision identifiers, used by Alembic.
+revision = "e1f2a3b4c5d6"
+down_revision = ("2b8f88aa610f", "d1e2f3a4b5c6")
+branch_labels = None
+depends_on = None
+
+
+def upgrade():
+    pass
+
+
+def downgrade():
+    pass