There are three formal conditions that must be met if an employer wishes to give notice of termination to an employee. Of course, they also apply in the opposite case, if an employee wishes to terminate an employment contract:

(1) Notice of termination must always be given in writing: If a termination is issued only orally or sent by text message (SMS/WhatsApp) or email, it is invalid. This means that it is only valid if it is in the form of a signed letter.

(2) Furthermore, the termination is only valid once it has reached the addressee. That means it must have arrived in the letterbox, or be handed over personally. It is not enough to be informed orally about the termination. The party sending the termination must always be able to prove later that the termination notice has actually reached the addressee.

Attention: It is very important that the employer always has your current registered address. You can only react in good time if you receive post from your employer immediately.

(3) If the company has a works council, it must be consulted beforehand on the termination. For this reason, make sure you talk to the works council. If it knows nothing about it, then the termination is not effective and you can defend yourself against it.

This only applies to dismissal by the employer.