Germany Employment Law

Employees who work 6 days per week are entitled to an annual minimum paid vacation of 24 working days. Working days are all calendar days that are not Sundays or public holidays. Employees with a 5-day working week are entitled to a pro-rata vacation of 20 working days. 

Employees can claim their full vacation entitlement if the employment relationship with the same employer has existed for a minimum of 6 months during the applicable vacation year. Any fraction of vacation days that result in at least ½ day is considered as full vacation days.

The employee is entitled to 1/12th of the annual leave for each full month of the existence of the employment relationship – 

• • • for times in a calendar year for which the employee does not acquire full vacation entitlement in that calendar year due to non-compliance with the waiting period
    • if the employee resigns from the employment relationship before the waiting period has been completed;
    • if the employee leaves the employment relationship after the waiting period has been completed in the first half of a calendar year.

Fractions of vacation days that add up to at least half a day are to be rounded up to full vacation days. In the case where an employee leaves the employment after the waiting period has been completed in the first half of a calendar year, the employee has already received leave in excess of the amount to which the employee is entitled, the holiday pay paid for this cannot be reclaimed.

Vacation must be granted and taken in the current calendar year. A transfer of vacation to the next calendar year is only permitted if there are urgent operational or personal reasons justifying this. If an employee didn’t use their annual leave due to operational or personal reasons, they can carry them to the next calendar year and the leave shall be taken within the first 3 months of the succeeding calendar year i.e by 31st March of the following year. However, at the request of the employee, partial leave i.e. 1/12th of the annual leave must be carried over to the next calendar year.

The vacation is to be granted consecutively unless there are urgent operational or personal reasons for the employee to split the vacation. If the vacation cannot be granted consecutively for operational or personal reasons and the employee is entitled to a vacation of more than 12 working days, one of the vacation parts must comprise at least 12 consecutive working days.

If employers want to be certain that untaken annual leave expires at the end of the leave year or carry-over period they must notify their employee accordingly and correspondingly document that this notification has been given, for example by adding the information provided into the personnel file of the corresponding employee. If employees are granted addition contractual annual leave beyond minimum statutory annual leave, the lapse of such leave should be regulated appropriately, including in their employment contract.

Termination – If the annual leave can no longer be granted in whole or in part due to the termination of the employment relationship, employees must be compensated for the remaining vacation period.

An employee is not entitled to vacation if their previous employer had granted such a vacation period during the same calendar year. This must be certified by the previous employer.

For an employee who falls sick during their annual leave, and is unable to perform work as certified by a doctor, then those days are not counted under vacation days.

Pay – An employee’s vacation pay is based on the employee’s average wage earned in the last 13 weeks before the start of the vacation period, excluding any overtime wages. Employees shall be given vacation pay before the beginning of the vacation period. Federal Paid Leave Act, 1963, §§ 3-4, 7-8, 11.

In the event of incapacity for work, employees have the right to receive sick pay up to 100 percent of their salary for a period of 6 weeks. If the employee falls sick again due to the same illness, the 6-week period will start again if 6 months have passed since the end of the last sick leave or if 1 year has passed since the beginning of the first sick leave. In case, an employee gets sick due to a new disease, the 6-week period commences again.

If the incapacity for work continues for more than 3 days, employees must submit proof of incapacity for work with duration. 

Medical Certificate – Employees have the duty of notifying (Anzeigepflicht) their employer without undue delay of any incapacity for work and its anticipated duration in the future. If the incapacity to work lasts for more than 3 working days. Employees are only obliged to have their incapacity for work medically determined on the third day. Employees are not required to submit the yellow certificate (sick note) to their employer themselves.

A yellow certificate is a sick note that a doctor issues to an employee indicating that they are incapable of performing work.

In accordance with Elektronische Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung (“eAU”), it is the employer’s responsibility to retrieve electronic medical certifications from health insurers directly. Employees will no longer be obliged to present the “yellow certificate” to their employer. However, this only applies to employees with statutory insurance. Employees are still obliged to immediately inform the employer of their incapacity to work. Employers have access to sick leave notices electronically from health insurance providers.

Employees with private health insurance shall remain unaffected. Privately insured employees shall be required to submit a medical certificate (in paper form) documenting their incapacity to work by the 4th day at the latest, unless the employer needs it earlier, either contractually or by instruction on a case-to-case basis (Vorlagepflicht).  Continued Remuneration Act, 1974, § 5.

Duration of Maternity Leave – Female employees are entitled to 14 weeks of maternity leave. Maternity leave can start up to 6 weeks before the expected date of birth and must start no later than the day after the birth. Mothers who give birth to more than one child are entitled to two additional weeks of maternity leave for each additional child. A woman who has given birth must not be employed for 8 weeks after childbirth. This is extended to 12 weeks for premature or multiple births, or if the child is born with a disability. Maternity leave is calculated in calendar days. 

Pay – A pregnant employee is entitled to full pay. The remuneration of the pregnant employee is calculated on the average remuneration of the last 13 weeks or of the 3 months before the beginning of the month of pregnancy. Parents of premature babies may receive up to 4 more months of parental allowance. 

Notice Requirement – A pregnant woman should inform their employer of the pregnancy and the expected day of delivery as soon as the employee is pregnant. A woman who is breastfeeding should inform their employer as early as possible that she is breastfeeding. An employer can request a pregnant woman to present a medical certificate or the certificate of a midwife or maternity nurse as proof of their pregnancy. The pregnancy certificate should contain the expected day of delivery. 

Restriction – Pregnant employees and nursing mothers are not allowed to work on Sundays or holidays. Expecting and nursing mothers are not permitted to work overtime. Expecting and nursing mothers are not allowed to work more than 8.5 hours daily or 90 hours in 2 weeks. Expecting and nursing mothers under 18 are not permitted to work more than 8 hours daily or 80 hours in 2 weeks. 

Breastfeeding break – Employed mothers who are breastfeeding are granted ‘nursing breaks,’ as long as these breaks do not interrupt 8 consecutive hours of work for 2 hours or more. Nursing breaks consist of two 30-minute breaks per day or one 1-hour break per day. If a working mother’s shift extends beyond 8 hours, she is entitled to either two 45-minute breaks or, in the absence of a nearby nursing area, a single 90-minute break. These breaks should not be subtracted from a nursing mother’s pay or counted as hours worked. Additionally, they are distinct from other scheduled breaks, such as lunch breaks, and cannot be used as substitutes for them. Maternity Protection Act, 2000, §§ 3, 6, 9-10, Act on the Payment of Child-Raising Benefit and Child-Raising Leave, 2015, § 2.

Employees are entitled to parental leave if they have a child living in their household, a child for whom they meet the eligibility requirement or a child whom they have taken into full-time care in accordance with and looked after and raised themselves. 

Employees are also entitled to parental leave if they live in the same household as their grandchild and care for and raise this child themselves, and one of the child’s parents is a minor or one of the child’s parents is in education that began before the age of 18 and generally takes up the parent’s full labor force. The entitlement is only available when neither of the child’s parents takes parental leave.

Duration of the leave: An employee is entitled to parental leave until a child reaches the age of 3. An additional 24 months can be taken between the child’s third birthday and eighth year. For adopted or full-time care children, parents can take up to three years of leave from the admission date, but not beyond the child’s eighth birthday. 

Parental leave can be taken, even proportionately, by each parent alone or by both parents together. The employee may not work more than 32 hours per week on average per month during parental leave.

Flexibility in Working Hours: The employee can request a reduction in working hours and their distribution. The application can be combined with the written notification in a manner specified as per their agreement.

Annual leave coincides with Parental leave: Employers can reduce annual leave entitlement for each month of parental leave. Unused leave must be granted after parental leave or compensated if the employment ends.

Pay – Employers are not obligated to pay salaries during parental leave. However, employees may receive state-provided parental benefits, amounting to 67% of their average income in the 12 months before the child’s birth. Law on Parental Allowance and Parental Leave, § 15.

Employees shall have the right to be absent from work for up to 10 working days if it is necessary to organize needs-based care for a close relative in need of care in an acute care situation or to ensure nursing care during this period. The employer shall be obliged to continue paying remuneration if such an obligation arises based on illness benefit from other statutory provisions or based on an agreement.

Employees shall be released from work in whole or in part if they care for a close relative in need of care in the home (care leave). The entitlement does not apply to employers who generally employ 15 or fewer employees.

Duration of Leave – The care leave shall be a maximum of 6 months for each close relative in need of care (maximum duration). Care leave taken for a shorter period may be extended up to the maximum duration if the employer agrees. Care leave and family care leave may not together exceed a total duration of 24 months per close relative in need of care. Care leave is not counted towards vocational training periods.

If the close relative no longer requires care or if home care for the close relative is impossible or unreasonable, the care period ends four weeks after the change in circumstances occurs. The employer must be informed of the change in circumstances immediately. Otherwise, the care period can only be ended early if the employer agrees. The employer may reduce the annual leave entitlement to which the employee is entitled for the vacation year by one-twelfth for each full calendar month of complete exemption from work.  Care Time Act, 2008, §§ 4 and 5.

An employee who is an insured person is entitled to sickness benefits if, according to a medical certificate, they are required to stay away from work to supervise, look after, or care for their sick and insured child, another person living in their household cannot supervise, look after or care for the child and the child is under 12 years of age or is disabled and dependent on assistance. Insured persons who are admitted as accompanying persons for medical reasons during inpatient treatment of their insured child are also entitled to sickness benefits, provided that the child is under the age of twelve or is disabled and requires assistance.

Duration of Leave – The right to sickness benefit exists for each child for a maximum of 10 working days in each calendar year, and for single parents for a maximum of 20 working days. The leave benefit is available for insured persons for no more than 25 working days and for single parents for no more than 50 working days per calendar year.

For the years 2024 and 2025 by way of derogation – Parents with statutory health insurance can apply for 15 working days of child sickness benefit per statutory insured child for the years 2024 and 2025, and single parents can apply for 30 days. If there are several children, each parent is entitled to no more than 35 days, and single parents are entitled to no more than 70 working days.

Sickness Benefit – Child sickness benefit amounts to 70 percent of gross earnings, but a maximum of 90 percent of net earnings. On average, sickness benefits amount to around 75 percent of net income. Parents can apply for child sickness benefits from their health insurance company. Insured employees on the sickness benefit are entitled to unpaid leave from work from their employer for the duration of this entitlement unless there is an entitlement to paid leave.

An employee is entitled to 6 weeks of paid leave for organ or tissue donation. The wages paid to the employee by the employer shall be reimbursed to the employer by the statutory health insurance company of the recipient of organs, tissues, or blood for the separation of blood stem cells or other blood components.

The employer shall be reimbursed by the statutory health insurance company of the recipient of organs, tissues, or blood for the separation of blood stem cells or other blood components the wages paid to the employee, as well as the contributions to social security and company pension schemes to be borne by the employer. and survivor’s pension to be reimbursed upon application. If the recipient of organs, tissues, or blood for the separation of blood stem cells or other blood components is subject to federal medical care or military medical care, the responsible institutions shall reimburse the costs pursuant upon application. Continued Remuneration Act, 1974, § 3a.

Employees are entitled to five days of educational leave per year. The entitlement of a current year can be combined with that of a following year if approved by your employer, meaning you can take 10 days of educational leave in one year. This is based on a five-day work week, the entitlement for anyone working more or fewer than five days a week is adjusted accordingly.

An employee is entitled to 2 days of leave if an immediate family member dies.