Limitation periods

If your contract of employment contains a limitation period and the employer fails to pay wages or pays insufficient wages, you are only able to subsequently claim wages within the limitation period.

Limitation periods may also exist on the basis of a collective agreement. Limitation periods within a contract of employment however do not apply to the statutory minimum wage.

IMPORTANT! Limitation periods may be very short (e.g. three months). If you have not received wages or have received insufficient wages, find out what you can do as quickly as possible, for instance from the Fair Integration advice centre.

Contractual penalties

So-called contractual penalties may be agreed in your contract of employment. This may mean, for example, that you have to pay a fine if you do not comply with a notice period. In most cases the employer is doing this to prevent to you intentionally or negligently being in breach of obligations agreed in the contract of employment.

However, not all contractual penalties which are in the contract of employment are necessarily valid.

Contractual penalties must not be in breach of statutory minimum standards in employment law and they must be set out clearly and unambiguously in the contract of employment. The level of the contractual penalty must be reasonable and must usually be a maximum of one month’s pay.

IMPORTANT! If you receive less pay due to a contractual penalty, you can contact a Fair Integration advice centre.