German Employment Law: What Expats Need to Know

Know the rules before you need them.

You work in Germany. That means German employment law applies to you – all of it, regardless of your nationality, your employer’s home country, or what language your contract is in. The rules are different from what most expats expect, and some of them come with deadlines that don’t move.

The most urgent topic is dismissal. Three weeks after a termination letter arrives, the right to challenge it expires – regardless of how many mistakes your employer made. To the dismissal section.

Unpaid wages, overtime, holiday pay after termination: claims here expire too, often faster than you’d expect. To the pay section.

Reference letters in Germany are written in a coded language. What sounds fine often isn’t. To the reference letter section.

Coming from a common law country, some basics here will catch you off guard: how courts work, what severance actually means, what’s in your contract that you may have missed. To the employment law basics.

In these sections, you will also find recent court rulings summarized in a way that is easy for regular people to understand. The following rulings do not yet fall under any specific section:

(pls. scroll aside)

• Can a works council change pension rules without a formal vote? BAG · 27.1.2026 Auto Works Council Hasnohub

FAQ

Does German employment law apply to me even though I’m not German? Yes – if you work in Germany, German law applies to your employment relationship. Your nationality and your employer’s country of origin don’t change that.

My contract is in English. Does that matter? No. The language of the contract doesn’t determine which law governs it. If you work in Germany, German law applies.

I just received a dismissal letter. What now? Don’t sign anything. Don’t agree to anything on the phone. You have three weeks to file a claim – and that clock started when the letter arrived. Read this first.

What does a consultation cost? Write me a brief summary of your situation. I’ll tell you directly what makes sense and what it would cost.

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