In unserer Podcastserie New Legal Horizons blicken wir über den rechtlichen Tellerrand hinaus. Wir besprechen aktuelle und zukünftige Themen, die Sie und uns heute bewegen. Home Office, “New Work”, Whistleblowing Directive – im Arbeitsrecht den Überblick zu behalten und vorausschauend und sicher zu navigieren, ist für viele Unternehmen zwar essentiell, aber auch zunehmend komplex. Ganz besonders, wenn auch noch spezielle sektorspezifische Anforderungen dazu kommen, die es zu kennen und zu beachten gilt. Senior Counsel Dr. Hans-Peter Löw, Counsel Nils Grunicke und Associate Fabia Brauckhoff hab ..read more

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Often, international companies are surprised that under German law certain employment law documents need to be wet-ink signed (handwritten) in order to be enforceable. Failure to comply with this requirement may have significant consequences – a dismissal notice, for example, which has not been wet-ink signed is invalid and does not terminate an employment relationship. Other examples for documents which require wet-ink signatures to be enforceable are fixed term employment contracts and / or post-contractual non-competition agreements. Technically, the same applies to regular employment cont ..read more

The Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht) ruled on 29 April 2021 (docket number: 8 AZR 267/20) that, in principle, the employer may claim reimbursement of required investigation costs from the employee. Subject to reimbursement are necessary costs incurred by the intervention of a specialized law firm if the employer has commissioned it to conduct investigations into the employee based on a concrete suspicion of significant misconduct. The employer must substantiate the necessity of the costs in each case by showing that the costs are based on a reasonable suspicion which has been confir ..read more

The Düsseldorf Regional Labour Court (Landesarbeitsgericht, LAG) has ruled that a “Corona quarantine” during ongoing leave does not automatically lead to the subsequent granting of leave pursuant to section 9 of the Federal Leave Act (Bundesurlaubsgesetz, BurlG) – LAG Düsseldorf, 7 October 2021, docket number 10 Sa 867/21. 1. Facts The plaintiff was on authorised leave when she tested positive for the Sars Cov-2 virus. The health authority issued a notice ordering quarantine and also stated that the plaintiff was now considered sick in the sense of section 2 no. 4 of the Infection Protection A ..read more

On 17 December 2020, the Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG, docket number 8 AZR 149/20) decided that under certain circumstances an employee is entitled to a bonus payment even though no target agreement has been made for the bonus period. If the employer by fault breaches its contractual obligation to set targets together with the employee for a target period, this may give rise to a claim for damages after the target period has expired. The Federal Labour Court awarded an employee damages amounting to 90% of the variable renumeration without the employee having to provide any a ..read more

By judgment of 7 October 2021 (docket number: 10 Sa 867/21) the Regional Labour Court Berlin-Brandenburg (Landesarbeitsgericht Berlin-Brandenburg – LAG Berlin-Brandenburg) has rejected the action for protection against dismissal brought by a teacher who refused to comply with the obligation to wear mouth-nose protection 1. Facts In this case, the employment of the claimant teacher had been terminated by the state of Brandenburg because he had described the mandatory mask for children in school lessons as coercion, child abuse and bodily harm in e-mails to the parents’ representative and refuse ..read more

By judgement of 8 October 2021 (docket number: 5 AZR 149/21) contrary to the two previous instance decisions, the Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht – BAG) dismissed a claim for continued payment of remuneration. The Court has ruled that the evidential value of the certificate of incapacity for work can be affected in particular if an employee terminates his or her employment relationship, is then certified as incapacitated for work on the day of termination, and the certified incapacity for work precisely covers the duration of the notice period. 1. Facts The claimant had been employe ..read more

The Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht – BAG) has ruled on a Corona claim for the first time. By judgement of 13 October 2021 (docket number: 5 AZR 211/21) the Court has ruled that an employer does not bear the risk of loss of work and is not obliged to pay remuneration to employees under the aspect of default of acceptance if it must temporarily close its business due to a government-imposed general “lockdown” to combat the Corona pandemic. 1. Facts In this case, the defendant operates a trade in sewing machines and accessories and maintains a branch in Bremen. Since October 2019, the ..read more

The SARS-Cov-2-Occupational Health and Safety Ordinance ( cf. our blog entry of 23 March 2021 and 22 April 2021 which was due to expire on 10 September 2021 has been amended and extended until 24 November 2021 (“Amended Ordinance”). In recent weeks, public life has slowly opened up in Germany again with a lot of businesses (in particular restaurants) applying the 2G- (meaning only vaccinated or recovered people are allowed to enter) or the 3G-rule (meaning only vaccinated, recovered or tested people are allowed to enter). This has become so common in daily life that it is not easy to explain ..read more