Labour Law Frequently Asked Questions on Germany

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Labour Law Frequently Asked Questions on Germany

What are the essential features of labour law in your country?

Labour law in Germany is strongly influenced by the idea that the employee, because he/she is personally and commercially dependent from the employer, needs protection by law. This aim shall mainly be achieved by a limitation of the contractual freedom of the parties to a contract of employment, prescribing minimum social standards concerning certain stipulations and prohibiting others. Like in other countries, many labour law regulations in Germany are the result of the economical development of the recent years. For example, quite a lot of recent regulations take into consideration that employees have to be more "flexible" to save their employment from being exported into countries where the wages are lower. On the other hand, many protection rules have become stricter, often because of directives of the European Union or because of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice which have to be applied or transformed in all member states of the European Union.

Another characteristic of German labour law is the important role of co-determination of employees' representatives in the supervisory boards of stock corporations and of limited liability companies with more than 500 employees.

Notwithstanding the importance of labour law, it must be stated that in spite of many efforts, Germany hasn't yet got one uniform code of labour law which unifies the relevant regulations. The labour law and social law regulations are spread over at least 50 codes. Additionally, the jurisdiction of the German Federal Labour Court plays an important role, not only in interpreting the statutory law but also in closing gaps that were left in the statutes.

Two categories of German labour law have to be distinguished:

Individual labour law (often in connection with social law)

Collective labour law

The individual labour law regulates the relation between the individual employee and the individual employer, for example minimum standards for the working conditions, continuation of salary payment in case of illness, part-time employment, permanent or temporary contracts, statutory notice periods, protection against unfair dismissal.

The collective labour law regulates the rights and duties of employers and employees if organized in a group (employers' association/trade union/works council) as well as the effectiveness of agreements entered into by these bodies, like collective agreements or shop agreements.

Of course, there are a lot of...

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