Do you need information about your rights at work in Germany?

You enter into a contract of employment with an employer. As part of this, you and the employer must at least agree on what work you will do and that you will receive remuneration/money for this work.

You and the employer are able to enter into a contract of employment in writing (both of you sign the contract of employment), verbally (both of you agree to the commencement of work in a personal conversation or on the telephone) or electronically (both of you agree to the commencement of work via text, WhatsApp or email). The employer must have provided you with a written record of this contract after one month at the latest. In question 5) you will find out what to do if you have not received a contract of employment from the employer.

You and your employer can get to know one another during the probationary period and make sure it is a good fit. A probationary period is only valid if it is agreed upon. During the probationary period, you or the employer may terminate the contract of employment—without stating reasons—with notice period of 2 weeks.

Please note: The notice period may be shorter in some collective agreements. A probationary period is not an internship and must, as agreed in the contract, be paid. Legislation governs the permitted length of a probationary period. The Fair Integration advice centres are happy to advise you on this.

No. Do not allow yourself to be pressurized! You can take your time to read through the contract and ask questions if there is something you have not understood. You can also ask for time to think about it and then take the draft contract with you and seek information from an advice centre. If the employer forces you to sign the contract immediately, contact an advice centre as soon as possible.

Advice and information on employment law issues relating to your contract of employment is available free of charge from advice centres such as the Fair Integration advice centres.

If you have already been in your employment relationship for more than one month, you are entitled to a written record of the contract from your employer. They must ensure that the key contractual conditions are forwarded to you in written form.

The information below must be included in the record:

• Name and address of both contracting parties
• Date of commencement of the employment relationship
• Location of employment
• Description of the employee’s work
• Amount and composition of the employee’s wages (wages, allowances, supplements, bonuses, etc.)
• Working hours
• Number of holiday days
• Notice periods
• Reference to which collective agreements and company agreements apply to the employment relationship

Please note: A contract of employment is very important if there is a dispute over working conditions. Without a contract it is very hard to prove which agreements apply and whether these have been breached. This is why you should always request a written contract of employment! If you are refused this, then insist on the record of your working conditions referred to above!

If the employer does not forward you a written contract of employment, then the general statutory regulations apply. Provisions from a collective agreement may also apply if these are binding on all employment relationships in your industry or in your company.

The general statutory requirements include legal minimum standards which apply to all contracts of employment and to which all companies must adhere (e.g. holiday entitlement of at least four weeks per year and minimum wage).

The regulations which apply to your personal employment relationship can be clarified by checking with a Fair Integration advice centre (e.g. based on wage slips and other information relating to the employment relationship).

IMPORTANT: If it comes to a dispute, then verbal agreements cannot generally be proven.

For this reason it is always better if you have a written contract of employment. The Fair Integration advice centre is happy to provide you with information about your rights and options.

For more information :

What can I do if I have not received a contract of employment from the employer?

A collective agreement is an agreement on working conditions such as wages and holidays between a company and a union (“company-specific collective agreement”) or between the employer's association for a specific industry and the union (“industry-wide collective agreement”).

General or umbrella collective agreements are agreements which regulate basic working conditions for all employees in an industry. Collective salary/wage agreements regulate the payments in a specific company or sector.

A collective agreement applies to your employment relationship if you are a member of the union, if your employer is a member of the employer's association and the union and the employer’s association have negotiated a collective agreement. A collective agreement also applies if there is a reference to this in your contract of employment or your employer belongs to an industry in which generally binding collective agreements apply (e.g. building cleaning, security services and others). Ask the Fair Integration advice centre whether a collective agreement applies to you.

The statutory minimum standards (e.g. holiday entitlement of at least 20 working days per year, minimum wage ) always apply.

If there is a valid collective agreement, the arrangements under the collective agreement also apply.

However, deviations from both are possible:

Where contracts of employment have better working conditions, for example if more days of holiday are agreed than in law or in the collective agreement, then the improved regulation of the contract of employment applies.

In rare cases, a law or collective agreement may permit a more inferior regulation than the statutory minimum standards for the employee

. Information about this is available from the Fair Integration advice centre.

Your employment relationship can end by means of termination by you or by means of termination or dismissal by your employer. Specific notice periods must be observed in the case of termination. Termination must also always be in writing. Please note: you must respond quickly even if your contract of employment is terminated verbally!

Your employment relationship may also be terminated by means of a termination agreement (a joint written agreement between you and your employer). If you have a fixed-term contract of employment then your employment relationship ends as of the final date of the fixed term.

IMPORTANT! If you sign a termination agreement, you lose protection against dismissal and run the risk of reductions to your unemployment benefit. Take care if your employer presents you with a notice of termination for signing. It may be a termination agreement which will have disadvantages for you. A notice of termination does not have to be signed by the recipient in order to be valid.

A fixed term, or time limitation, means that your contract of employment is valid for a specified period of time, for example one year. A time limitation must always be agreed in writing between you and the employer. There are three types of time limitation. Time limitation with no material reason is possible for up to a maximum of two years. Time limitation with material reason (material reasons include standing in for individuals on parental leave or project work) is also possible for longer than two years. In the case of time limitation dependant on task completion, the employment relationship ends when the task has been completed. The specific task must be included in the contract of employment.

IMPORTANT! Legal action may be taken against a fixed term contract three weeks after its termination. You must have registered with the employment agency as seeking employment no later than three months before the end of the contract. If you do not become aware that your work is coming to an end until later, you must inform the employment office within three days of receiving this information. If you do not comply with these deadlines, you run the risk of reductions to unemployment benefit.

More information: https://www.arbeitsagentur.de/arbeitslos-arbeit-finden/erste-schritte-arbeitslosigkeit

If you want to keep your job, you have to react quickly because there is only a three-week period in which legal action for protection against dismissal can be taken.

IMPORTANT! Contact an advice centre, a union or a specialist solicitor as quickly as possible. They will provide you with information about what action you can take.

IMPORTANT! You must have registered with the employment agency as seeking employment no later than three days after you received the notice of termination. This can be done in person, by telephone or online. If you register later, you run the risk of reductions to unemployment benefit.

You must notify the employment agency of your unemployed status in person and no later than on your first day without employment. Your unemployment benefit will only be paid from the day on which you register your unemployed status.

More information: https://www.arbeitsagentur.de/arbeitslos-arbeit-finden/erste-schritte-arbeitslosigkeit

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.

Sources:

BMAS (January 2017), Employment Law. Information for employers and employees.

IG Metall Employment Dictionary.

Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft. Questions and answers on employment law.