Your German employment contract

1. What the contract must contain

German law requires the employer to set out the essential terms of employment in writing. The list is prescribed, and an employer who omits items is in breach even if you agreed verbally.

A German contract can look thin next to an American or British one. That is not carelessness: where the contract is silent, statute and any applicable collective agreement fill the gap, and they usually do so in the employee’s favour. A short contract is often a good sign.

• Names and addresses of both parties
• Start date, and for a fixed term the end date or the reason for the limitation
• Place of work, or a note that you may be deployed at various locations
• A description of the work
• Pay: the components, the amount, any supplements and when it is paid
• Agreed working time, and arrangements for shift work where relevant
• Holiday entitlement
• Notice periods for both sides
• Any probation period and its length
• A general reference to applicable collective agreements or works agreements

2. Fixed-term contracts, and why the reason matters

A fixed-term contract ends on its own. No dismissal is needed, so none of the dismissal protection applies to the ending, which makes this the single most consequential clause in the document.

German law limits fixed terms rather than permitting them freely. Broadly, a fixed term without an objective reason is capped in total duration and in the number of extensions within it. With an objective reason, such as covering a named person’s parental leave or a genuinely temporary project, longer arrangements are possible.

The distinction has a practical consequence worth knowing: where a fixed term is unlawful, the usual legal outcome is not that the contract is void but that it is treated as permanent. That is why unlawful fixed terms are worth taking advice on rather than accepting.

3. Collective agreements

Whether a Tarifvertrag applies to you is frequently the largest single factor in your actual pay and conditions, and it is often mentioned only in one line of the contract.

A collective agreement can set higher pay, more holiday, shorter working hours, extra payments such as a thirteenth month, and longer notice periods than statute requires. In sectors like metalworking, the public sector, chemicals and construction the difference is substantial.

A contract term that is worse for you than the applicable collective agreement is generally invalid to that extent, and the collective term applies instead. So a contract offering 25 days holiday where the collective agreement gives 30 does not cap you at 25.

• Check whether the contract names a specific Tarifvertrag
• A phrase like "in accordance with the collective agreement for the sector" pulls the whole agreement in
• Public sector roles are usually covered by TVöD or TV-L, which are published and readable
• Where no agreement applies, statute is the floor and everything else is negotiated

4. Clauses that do not work, however they are written

German employment contracts routinely contain terms that are simply unenforceable. Employers reuse old templates, and an invalid clause does not become valid because you signed it.

• Holiday below the statutory minimum: void to that extent, and the statutory minimum applies
• A blanket "all overtime is included in the salary": generally invalid, particularly for lower and middle earners, because it is too vague to be transparent
• Notice periods shorter for the employer than for you: not permitted
• Very short deadlines for claiming unpaid wages: a Verfallklausel below the minimum period the courts accept is invalid
• Waiving the statutory minimum wage: void, always
• A post-contract non-compete with no compensation: unenforceable, since German law requires payment for the restricted period
• A penalty for leaving during probation, beyond what the law allows

5. Before you sign

Read for the things that are hard to change later rather than for the tone. Pay is negotiable at the outset and rarely afterwards; the fixed-term question cannot be renegotiated at all once you are in it.

1. 1

   Check fixed-term or permanent, and any stated reason

   This determines whether you have dismissal protection at the end. It is the most important line in the document.

2. 2

   Check the probation period and its notice

   During probation notice is short on both sides. Know the date it ends, because your protection changes on that day.

3. 3

   Look for a collective agreement reference

   If one applies, find and read it. It may give you materially more than the contract states.

4. 4

   Check working time and how overtime is treated

   Agreed weekly hours, and whether overtime is paid, time-banked or purportedly included in salary.

5. 5

   Check holiday against the statutory minimum

   Statute is a floor. Anything below it is invalid, and most employers offer well above it.

6. 6

   Ask for anything verbally promised to be written in

   A bonus, a home-office arrangement or a start date for a pay review is worth very little if it exists only in an interview conversation.