Articles from Nadine Kirsch

The Federal Labor Court had to deal with the question of whether the deployment of a group of circus performers constituted a service contract or an employment relationship. While the circus performers assumed the establishment of an employment relationship and the employer's obligation to register for social security, the circus assumed a free service contract relationship without an obligation to pay social security contributions.

Late marriage clauses prevent entitlement to a company widow's pension if the marriage was not concluded until after a specified age limit. In the opinion of the Federal Labor Court, such clauses violate the prohibition of age discrimination pursuant to Section 7 (2) AGG.

If age plays a role in the criteria for which employees are to be dismissed, this constitutes age discrimination in accordance with Section 7 AGG. A dismissal in a small company, in which the Dismissal Protection Act does not apply, can also be age-discriminatory and therefore invalid due to a breach of Section 7 AGG.

The burning of privately procured video and audio media during working hours and using company resources on CD and DVD blanks procured at the employer's expense justifies termination without notice for conduct-related reasons.

The lower pay for teachers of foreign origin with a German teaching qualification who teach another language in addition to the regular teaching offer is inadmissible in comparison to teachers of foreign origin with a foreign teaching qualification who teach the same language.

According to Section 17 Para. 1 Sentence 1 BEEG, the employer may reduce the employee's vacation leave by one twelfth for each full calendar month of parental leave. However, if the reduction is only notified after the employment relationship has ended, it is invalid.

An employee can also base their entitlement to a special payment on company practice if the employer has unconditionally made a different amount of payment three times at the end of the year. The employee may regard such conduct on the part of the employer as a binding offer within the meaning of Section 145 BGB to receive a special payment in each calendar year.

In the case of collective agreements in which payment on public holidays and in the event of incapacity for work is not clearly regulated, the agreed minimum wage of the collective agreement applies and not the statutory minimum wage of € 8.50.

A manager persistently demanded payment as a non-tariff employee. The efforts culminated in a sit-down strike in which the plaintiff refused to leave her supervisor's office. Only the police were able to persuade her to leave the company premises. The employer's dismissal without notice has now been declared inadmissible in the unfair dismissal proceedings due to a long-standing, unobjectionable employment relationship. However, the ordinary dismissal is permissible.

A janitor demands that his employer pay him the statutory minimum wage of € 8.50, which has been in force since 01.01.2015. The subsequent dismissal is inadmissible on the basis of the prohibition of retaliation under Section 612a BGB.

In the case of in-vitro fertilization, the Maternity Protection Act applies from the time of implantation of the fertilized egg, the so-called embryo transfer, and not only at the time of implantation of the egg (nidation) in accordance with Section 9 (1) sentence 1.

If an employee prevents the receipt of a notice of termination, he/she must be treated as if the notice had already been received when the attempt was made to send it. If the employee should have expected, based on the employer's statements and the circumstances, that a notice of termination would be received in the afternoon by posting it in the letterbox, a notice of termination shall be deemed to have been received on the afternoon of the same day.