Employment basics

Rules that apply to nearly every profession in this repo and were previously scattered across the files that happened to need them: what the contract must say, how long the probation runs, how much notice either side owes, what the working-time and holiday laws actually guarantee, and what protection you have against dismissal.

None of it depends on your profession. All of it applies to Minijobs too, which is where it is most often ignored. Beamte are outside all of this — a different statute, different everything.

The contract

Under the Nachweisgesetz, the employer must give you the essential terms in writing, on paper and signed — most of them within seven days of starting, the rest within a month. Since the 2022 reform the list explicitly includes:

pay and its components · working time · place of work · holiday · probation · the procedure and notice periods for termination, including the three-week deadline for contesting one · overtime arrangements · any training entitlement · the pension institution, where one applies.

An employer who does not provide it is committing an administrative offence. More usefully: the document is your evidence when something is later disputed.

Read for these three things specifically:

  • Which tariff agreement applies, if any. It overrides most of the defaults below in your favour, and it is a one-line reference in the contract.
  • Befristung — fixed term. Without an objective reason a fixed term is capped at two years, with at most three extensions inside it; with a reason (cover, project, seasonal) it can run longer. Academic contracts are the extreme case — see the WissZeitVG.
  • Ausschlussfristen — clauses requiring claims to be raised within, typically, three months. They are common, they are usually valid, and they quietly destroy unpaid-overtime claims.

Probezeit and notice

Probezeit is capped at six months. During it either side may terminate with two weeks’ notice and no reason. On a fixed-term contract the probation must be proportionate to the term.

After it, §622 BGB sets the statutory minimum: four weeks to the 15th or the end of a calendar month. The employer’s notice then lengthens with your tenure:

Your tenure Employer’s notice
2 years 1 month, to month end
5 years 2 months
8 years 3 months
10 years 4 months
12 years 5 months
15 years 6 months
20 years 7 months

The lengthening is one-directional. Your own notice stays at four weeks unless the contract says otherwise — and a contract may not give you a longer period than the employer has. Tariff agreements often set different periods, in either direction.

Notice must be in writing and signed. Email and messaging do not terminate a German employment contract.

Dismissal protection

The Kündigungsschutzgesetz applies when both are true:

  1. you have been there more than six months, and
  2. the business has more than ten employees (part-timers counted pro rata).

Where it applies, a dismissal needs a reason in one of three categories — conduct (verhaltensbedingt, normally requiring a prior Abmahnung), personal capacity (personenbedingt, including long-term illness), or operational (betriebsbedingt, which requires a Sozialauswahl ranking staff by tenure, age, dependants and disability).

The three-week deadline is the single most important line in this file. A Kündigungsschutzklage must reach the Arbeitsgericht within three weeks of receiving the dismissal. Miss it and the dismissal becomes legally effective however unlawful it was. There is no general extension and no informal grace.

Stronger protection applies during pregnancy and Mutterschutz, during Elternzeit and Pflegezeit, to severely disabled employees (the Integrationsamt must consent first), and to Betriebsrat members.

Never sign an Aufhebungsvertrag in the room. A termination agreement is voluntary, and because it is voluntary the Agentur für Arbeit will normally impose a Sperrzeit of up to twelve weeks on your unemployment benefit. Employers offer them precisely to avoid the protections above. Take it away, get advice, and note that a severance payment often does not cover what the Sperrzeit costs.

On the day you learn a job is ending, register as arbeitsuchend with the Agentur für Arbeit — within three days of learning of it, or at latest three months before the end. Late registration is itself a Sperrzeit ground.

Working time

The Arbeitszeitgesetz is a health-and-safety statute, and it is stricter than most arrivals expect:

  • 8 hours a day maximum, extendable to 10 only if the average stays at 8 over six months or 24 weeks
  • 11 hours of uninterrupted rest between shifts
  • Breaks: 30 minutes over a six-hour day, 45 minutes over nine. Unpaid, and not attachable to the end of the shift
  • Sundays and public holidays are prohibited working days — with broad exceptions for healthcare, emergency services, hospitality, transport and continuous processes, which is why so much of this repo works them anyway. Exceptions require a replacement rest day
  • Working time must be recorded. Following the ECJ and a 2022 Bundesarbeitsgericht decision, employers must have a system for recording all hours, not only overtime. This is your evidence in any dispute about unpaid work

Supplements for night, Sunday and holiday work are a matter for the tariff or the contract — the statute compels a supplement only for night work, and leaves the amount open. What the supplements are worth, and why §3b EStG makes most of them tax-free, is in shift work and supplements.

Holiday and sick pay

Bundesurlaubsgesetz minimum: 24 working days on a six-day week, i.e. 20 on the usual five-day week. Tariff agreements and normal contracts give 25–30, and 30 is the public-sector standard.

Three rules that are frequently got wrong:

  • Carry-over is the exception. Leave lapses at 31 December unless operational or personal reasons justify carrying it to 31 March.
  • But it does not lapse silently. Following the ECJ and the BAG, untaken leave only expires if the employer actively told you to take it and warned you of the deadline. Where they did not, it accumulates.
  • Leave keeps accruing while you are sick, and sickness during booked leave gives the days back — with a medical certificate.

Sick pay: after four weeks’ employment, Entgeltfortzahlung at 100% of pay for up to six weeks per illness. Then Krankengeld from your Krankenkasse at roughly 70% of gross, capped — see health insurance. The certificate reaches the employer electronically (eAU); the employer may demand one from the first day, so check the contract rather than assuming three days.

The Arbeitszeugnis

§109 GewO entitles you to a written reference on leaving, and a qualifiziertes Zeugnis covering performance and conduct if you ask for one. Ask. Recruiters expect it, and a missing Zeugnis is read as an answer in itself.

It must be truthful and benevolently worded at the same time — an obligation that made the document impossible to write honestly, so the profession evolved a code instead. Grades hide in the degree words:

Phrase Grade
stets zu unserer vollsten Zufriedenheit 1
stets zu unserer vollen Zufriedenheit 2
zu unserer vollen Zufriedenheit 3
zu unserer Zufriedenheit 4
im Großen und Ganzen zu unserer Zufriedenheit 5

The closing formula carries as much weight as the body. A full ending thanks you, regrets your leaving and wishes you well. An ending that omits the regret, or omits the thanks, is deliberate. So is bemühte sich (tried), war stets bemüht (always tried and never managed), and a conspicuous mention of punctuality where the substance should be.

If yours reads badly, you can demand correction — and within the Ausschlussfrist, so do not sit on it.

The Betriebsrat

A works council may be elected in any establishment with five or more employees. It is not a union; it is a statutory body with co-determination rights over working time, shift plans, overtime, holiday scheduling, monitoring systems and individual dismissals — the employer must hear it before any dismissal, and a dismissal issued without that is void.

Where one exists, it is usually the fastest route to fixing something. Where none exists, employees can call a meeting to elect one, and the law protects those who do.

Sources

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