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

Agency work is a specific form of employment. What is different here is that the temporary employment agency with whom you enter into a contract and the company in which you work (are assigned to) are not the same. The temporary employment agency itself has therefore entered into contracts with a range of different companies (hiring companies or hirers) to whom the employee will be assigned. Another specific feature is that the temporary employment agency will only assign you to a hiring company for a specific period of time. The periods for which you work for a hirer may vary significantly. The assignment may just be for a few days, but it may also be for a few months. This means that, as an agency worker from a temporary employment agency, you may be assigned to different companies for different periods of time and therefore work in a range of different companies.

No. There is no difference between agency work, temping and personnel leasing. They are just different terms which mean the same thing.

Important: A temporary employment agency is not the same as a recruitment agency. A recruitment agency sets out to assign employees to permanent posts where they are employed on a permanent basis. By contrast, in the case of temporary work, employees are employed by an employer and are then simply assigned to different companies for limited periods of time.

Regulations relating to temporary work can be found from a range of different sources. Statutory regulations are contained in the German temporary Employment Act (Arbeitnehmerüberlassungsgesetz (AÜG)). This regulates key issues relating to temporary employment including the conditions necessary for a temporary employment agency to receive authorisation to supply temporary workers.

Collective agreements within temporary employment regulate basic working conditions such as wages and days of leave. It is therefore important to know which collective agreement applies to the individual employment relationship. If you have any questions, please contact a Fair Integration advice centre.

Yes, as a temporary worker you are normally permanently employed which means you have a contract of employment which is either for a fixed term or for an indefinite period. However, as a temporary worker you are not employed in the company to which you have been assigned/are working. Your employer is the temporary employment agency with whom you have signed a contract of employment.

The contract of employment is in place between you and the temporary employment agency. The temporary employment agency therefore assumes the usual obligations of an employer:

1. Wage: You receive your salary from the temporary employment agency.
2. Holiday: The amount of holiday you receive is regulated in the contract of employment or in the collective agreement. If you wish to request holiday, the request must always be made to the temporary employment agency.
3. Illness: If you become ill, it is the temporary employment agency who is responsible for the continued payment of your wages. For this reason it is important to always call in sick to your temporary employment agency.
4. Accident: If an accident at work occurs, you must report this to the temporary employment agency. If you are not able to work as a result of the accident, then it is the temporary employment agency which is responsible for the payment of your wages.

No contract is entered into between you and the hirer/hiring company. However, while you are working in a specific hiring company, you are obliged to follow the instructions of the company. This means that the hiring company gives you instructions such as how you must complete the work involved in the job and will specify the precise working times for each day.

The working time account is very typical for temporary work. The contract of employment between you and the temporary employment agency will specify how many hours you must work during the week. However, in some hiring companies, more or fewer hours will be worked and occasionally there will be overtime to do. This is the reason for the working time account. If 35 working hours per week are agreed in a contract of employment and, for example, you work for 40 hours in the company, then you will be paid for 35 hours and 5 hours will be credited to the working time account. These hours are known as plus hours. There are also minus hours in the case where fewer hours are worked than agreed.

If you have accumulated plus hours, you can arrange time off in lieu. This must be agreed beforehand with the temporary employment agency. If the contract with the temporary employment agency ends, you must be paid for the plus hours accumulated on the working time account. The collective agreement provides more detailed information about the working time account. Contact an advice centre for information!

Important: The temporary employment agency cannot force you to reduce your plus hours because no hiring company has been found for you (see next point).

Please note: Information about hours in your working time account can often be found on your payslip (under AZK-Std. or Zeitkonto). In some cases the employer will provide you with a separate summary of the working time account each month.

If your period of assignment in a hiring company comes to an end and you are not assigned to another company by your employer this is referred to in Germany as assignment-free time (“einsatzfreie Zeit”). In this assignment-free time, accumulated hours in the working time account are only reduced if you have previously agreed this with the temporary employment agency. Assignment-fee time is therefore something other than leisure time. Assignment-free time can also not be debited as minus hours from your working time account without agreement.

Assignment-free time must be paid, this means you continue to receive your wages even though you are not currently working in a company. However, you must be contactable in the event that the temporary employment agency has found a new hiring company for you. As a temporary worker, you are entitled to leave. The employer is not permitted to instruct you to take this leave during the assignment-free time.

In temporary work there is a so-called maximum assignment duration (Höchstüberlassungsdauer). This stipulates the maximum time you are permitted to be assigned to a hiring company. Temporary workers are not permitted to be assigned to the same company for more than 18 months. This is the case unless provision is made within a collective agreement that the temporary worker stays in a company for more than 18 months; in this case, it is then legally possible. Following this, the assignment in the company must end and you can then be assigned to another company as a temporary worker. However, following an intervening period of 3 months, you may be assigned again in the company in which you had previously worked for 18 months. The hirer, however, also has the option of employing you after 18 months on a permanent basis (or even earlier than this) in their company.

There is a statutory minimum wage in temporary work below which the amount you earn must not fall. Since 1/4/2021 the minimum wage is €10.45 per hour. If you are hired to work in an industry in which a generally binding industry minimum wage applies, this must be paid.

It is important that you are correctly classified. In the collective agreements, specific activities are allocated to specific wage brackets. You must receive a higher wage for specific activities. It is important that you are classified in the correct wage bracket immediately. Changing aspects of the classification at a later point is much harder.

Important: It may happen that your employer classifies you in a lower wage bracket than is actually correct. Find out from your union or from a Fair Integration advice centre whether you have been classified in the correct wage bracket.

As a rule, from the first day of your assignment in a company you should be earning the same wage as permanent employees in this company who do the same or similar work (equal pay principle). You should also be working under the same working conditions (overtime, breaks, rest time, night working, holidays, etc.) as your colleagues (equal treatment principle). However, this might be regulated differently in a collective agreement. It is therefore possible that you will earn less than your colleagues in the hiring company if a collective agreement applies to your employment relationship. A collective agreement applies to virtually all temporary workers and therefore they often earn less in the first 9 months for doing the same work as their permanently employed colleagues. If you work in the same hiring company for more than 9 months then by law you must receive the same wage as your colleagues. However, many temporary workers do not remain in the company for nine months and this regulation therefore never comes into effect for them. The point in time at which the equal pay regulation applies may be regulated differently by the collective agreements. Find out more about this from a Fair Integration advice centre.

In the case of dismissal or termination, notice periods must be adhered to and that also applies to the temporary worker. Notice periods may arise from the German Civil Code, from collective agreements and from the contract of employment. In the probationary period—which in temporary work generally lasts for 6 months—notice periods are frequently very short. Contact an advice centre for information!

If your assignment in a hiring company ends and you are not assigned any new work, that does not mean you can be automatically dismissed because of that. If you are not assigned, then this is initially assignment-free time and the temporary employment agency must continue to pay your wages even if you are not assigned and working. Despite this, temporary workers are often dismissed due to a lack of assignments.

Sources:

German Trade Union Federation (DGB) (2017, 20th April). Guide to unsecured employment, FAQ on agency work/temporary work (Ratgeber Ungesicherte Beschäftigung, FAQ zu Leiharbeit/Zeitarbeit.)

Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) (o. D.). Frequently asked questions and answers on the theme of agency work.