Photo of Christian Schnurrer

Christian Schnurrer

Subscribe to Christian Schnurrer's Posts
Contact:Read more about Christian Schnurrer

If an employment relationship is to be terminated unilaterally, employers in Germany often find themselves between a rock and a hard place. The protection against Unfair Dismissal Act (Kündigungsschutzgesetz, KSchG), if applicable, sets high thresholds for validly terminating an employment relationship. Due to this, if a notice of termination is issued by the employer, employees in most cases file a claim for protection against unfair dismissal with German labour courts. As German labour courts can only decide whether an issued notice of termination is valid or invalid, a successful claim for protection against unfair dismissal means that the employee is reinstated into the employment relationship. In this case, the employee is generally entitled to backpay of the contractual compensation from the end of the notice period to the close of the court proceeding.

The financial risk for employers therefore increases with the length of the litigation. A typical proceeding in first instance takes between six to nine months and possibly longer. A subsequent proceeding in second instance can take additional six months or more. In some (luckily rare) instances legal proceedings can take several years. Depending on the salary of the employee in question, the financial exposure can easily reach six-figure amounts, not including the legal fees.Continue Reading Between a rock and a hard place – not so much anymore?

The release of AI programs, like ChatGPT or DALL E, has sparked intense public debate about the use and limitations of AI. Despite this rather recent public development, in many companies, the use of AI is already well established. In the context of HR, common areas of application are seen in the search for candidates…

In advance of the holiday season, it is common practice in many companies for the employer to show gratitude and to reward employees for their performance over the year. Typically, this is done by granting a bonus or similar one-time payment. Even though the legal basis of such payments often is a contractual agreement, a collective bargaining agreement or a works agreement, in many instances payment is made on an informal, “voluntary” basis. In such cases, employers often assume that they can decide whether to grant a bonus on a year-to-year basis without creating an obligation towards employees.

While this assumption can be correct, often employers are surprised when confronted with the idea of having established a “company practice”. According to German law, such company practice creates a legal entitlement of employees towards their employer for the same bonus granted during the last years. A typical situation for a company practice to surface is an employer who paid a year-end bonus to all employees, for example, the amount of one monthly salary for the last several years. After a change of ownership, the new management decides not to pay the respective bonus, only to find that employees successfully claim the previously paid bonus in German labor courts.Continue Reading Year-end bonus and company practice in Germany