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You dismiss an employee or an employee leaves your business

Ending an employment relationship

Understand notice periods, protection against dismissal and severance, compute the notice period, check whether the Dismissal Protection Act applies, quantify severance and payment in lieu of leave, and transmit the employment certificate: 8 steps.

Start here: German notice periods, holiday and sick pay

Understand: notice periods, dismissal protection, reference letter

  1. Step 1 of 8
    CoursePaid individually38 min

    German notice periods, holiday and sick pay

    A notice period always consists of two statements: a length and an end date. The basic four weeks may expire on the fifteenth, the ladder in section 622(2) of the Civil Code only at month end — and that is where most calculations fail. Before all of it stands the written-form rule in section 623, which makes a dismissal by email simply void. The second module: 24 Werktage are four weeks, and twenty days on a five-day week, plus the waiting period, carry-over and the six weeks of sick pay with their two clocks. Two modules with case studies worked on the statute itself.
  2. Step 2 of 8
    CoursePaid individually45 min

    Dismissal protection, social selection and severance

    General protection against dismissal applies only after six months and only above the small-business threshold, which weights part-timers and distinguishes by hiring date. The first module sorts the three grounds for dismissal, the four criteria of social selection, the hearing of the works council and the specially protected groups. The second follows the dismissal further: a three-week deadline to sue, the risk of default wages, the severance of 0.5 monthly earnings per year under section 1a, dissolution by the court and the notification of collective redundancies.
  3. Step 3 of 8
    CoursePaid individually41 min

    German references, employment certificates, holiday pay

    What the employer owes when an employment relationship ends. The first module explains the reference under s. 109 GewO: simple or, on request, qualified, electronic only with consent, clear and free of hidden statements, plus the satisfaction scale and the burden of proof according to the Federal Labour Court. The second walks through the electronic employment certificate for the employment agency with its fine of up to €2,000, the holiday pay-out based on the last thirteen weeks, the holiday certificate and the final payslip.

Compute: notice period, small business, severance, payment in lieu of leave

  1. Step 4 of 8
    CalculatorFree result

    German notice period calculator — the length-of-service ladder

    The ladder in BGB s. 622(2) applies ONLY to notice given by the employer. Employees remain on the basic period of four weeks, even after twenty years.
  2. Step 5 of 8
    CalculatorFree result

    Small-business exemption — does German unfair-dismissal law apply?

    General protection against unfair dismissal applies only where MORE than ten employees are normally employed. Part-timers up to 20 hours count 0.5, up to 30 hours 0.75, and trainees do not count. For staff hired before 2004, more than five such long-standing employees is enough.
  3. Step 6 of 8
    CalculatorFree result

    German redundancy severance under KSchG s. 1a — half a month per year

    Severance under KSchG s. 1a is 0.5 months' earnings per year of employment. More than six extra months count as a full year; exactly six months do not.
  4. Step 7 of 8
    CalculatorFree result

    German payment in lieu of untaken leave — when employment ends

    Leave that can no longer be taken because employment has ended must be paid out. It is cut to twelfths only if you leave within the first six months or in the first half of the year — leave in the second half after six months and the full annual leave stays due.

Transmit: employment certificate

  1. Step 8 of 8
    FormFree20 min

    Sending the German employment certificate electronically (BEA)

    The employment certificate (Arbeitsbescheinigung) is due only at the request of the employee or the employment agency — but then electronically through BEA, from payroll software or the SV-Meldeportal. When, what, how, with a worked example.

The other paths

A different procedure, the same principle: the three pillars in order.

Read in German