What’s German Labor Law?

Your rights explained, from hire to fire. If you were to only read one article on this website - this is the one to read.

Whether you were born and raised in Germany, or you’ve recently made the country your home as a foreign national, understanding the protections you have as an employee can be difficult to navigate. And that’s because: it’s not a very straightforward doctrine - in fact, German Labor Law isn’t just one law, but in fact a collection of a lot of different Acts that work together to protect you as an employee. Pretty epic in fact - it’s one of the reasons why Germany is such a great place to live. Regardless of your citizenship - you’re protected. 

This article will give you an overview of how German Labor Law comes into play at every part of your employment journey. 

German Labor Law, as the name suggests, are intended to provide guidelines, structure and rules around how employers and employees interact within Germany. As an employee, these rules are in place with you in mind, and heavily favors the individual over the company. It’s in your best interest to familiarize yourself with the laws and how they change. There are numerous documents like the German Civil Code and the Maternity Code, all of which you can read about more thoroughly here.

Application Process:

Through the mandates in German Labor Law, employers in Germany are required to provide an equitable process of finding and retaining employees. This means not only creating an accessible way to find a job posting, but also ensuring that all people are included and welcomed to apply. This is why if you’ve looked at job postings, you might see the “m/f/d” denotation - it relates to gender identity and stands for male, female and diverse (non-binary, trans, not disclosing). This law doesn’t regulate language that has implied bias; efforts to ensure job descriptions are more inclusive and less discouraging for women and minority groups is a whole other topic, if you’re not familiar with how bias in job posting can look, check this out.

Once You’re Hired: 

Once you’ve been given a job offer - and you accept - you are then entitled to an employment contract. However, it isn’t actually mandatory to have a written agreement immediately (that being said, we do not recommend taking a role until you have a contract). Note: the reason having this written employment contract is so important is that in case the employer does not provide you with your salary, it will be incredibly difficult to fight back without written documentation of not just the employment agreement but proof of the work you’ve done.

Contents of the Contract:

It might feel a little obvious, but there are also basic regulations that every German Employment Contract needs to include - and it’s important that once you receive one, you keep an eye for each to be part of what they’ve offered. The contract should include the following: your full name and personal information such as:

• address you’re registered at

• start date

• the job description

• location

• hours of working

• vacation days

• salary/hourly rate

• reference to work guidelines

• probation period

• role type (permanent, contract, part time)

• notice period.

If they are an employer that is also operating with English as a business language (i.e. like a majority of startups in Germany) they will usually - as a courtesy - include the English translation. However - this is only as a courtesy, and has no legal basis. Meaning: the German version supersedes anything that is stated in the translation. As a result, you should always have a German native or ideally a lawyer review it; this is a rule of thumb we suggest for any other contract you sign. Resources like deepl are also an option, but given the level of importance, we would not rely on it as your primary source of truth.

Why this is a risk: let’s say for example the English version states that you can take vacation for 30 days a year, but the German version states 25. In the eyes of the law, the German statement of 25 vacation days will be honored.

Probation Period vs Notice Period

For foreign nationals - the idea of probation period and notice period will likely be the biggest adjustment. In the United States, most employers have what is called “at will” employment, which allows the employer and employee in most cases to end their employment effective immediately.

For Germany that is not the case at all; the standard rule for a probationary period is 6 months for both the employee and the employer. During that time, an employee or employer can choose to terminate the contract with just two weeks notice for work. This time can even be shortened if the employee has vacation days remaining. An employer can also choose to end the employment relationship without having to provide any cause - whether performance, culture fit or operational (layoff). Once the probation period has ended, you as the employee are then required to provide at least as much a heads up as the predetermined notice period in your contract.

Let’s say your notice period is three months, and you just got a new job that you are meant to start on June 1st; this means your last day at your current company would need to be May 31st at latest. In a more standard agreement, this would mean that you need to inform them that you will be resigning by February 28th. Of course, an employer could be flexible and shorten your notice period - but according to your contract, your initial obligation would be three months. Notice periods tend to be longer for more senior roles, which are harder to fill.

For the employer, it works almost the same way - however, this is partially why it can become quite difficult to let go of employees. Once you have passed your probation period, an employer cannot legally end your contract without documented proof of cause. If it’s performance related, there needs to be proof of written warnings; if it's operational (i.e. layoffs) there needs to be proof of financial calculations done to try and save your role, with proof that they tried to find another role in the company before reaching this conclusion.

If an employer dismisses you, for either reason, they then are required to still pay you through your notice period. In the above example: say they announce a layoff on February 28th, they would need to pay you in full through May 31st at least.

What happens if my employer doesn’t do things correctly?

Unfortunately, there are often times when the correct procedures are not followed by the employer; perhaps they claim you were let go for performance but they didn’t give you any warnings. Or - as we’ve seen become more common - the employer claims it was operational but did not follow the correct steps to ensure your role was saved. If either of these scenarios has happened to you, then you may have grounds to challenge the termination and take them to court. 

If you take them to court, you are essentially stating that you want your job back. In a large majority of cases, a case like this (if valid from the employee side) will end in a settlement because the employer doesn’t want the employee to come back. Though it can be challenging and mentally taxing, fighting back is also vindicating.  

With this type of lawsuit, it does need to be filed within 3 weeks of when you received notice. So be sure to take action quickly. You can read more about the process of fighting back here.