An announcement of a sickness-based absence may not always justify a dismissal according to a judgment by the Higher Labour Court Cologne (Landesarbeitsgericht, LAG). Following judgments by the Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG), the announcement of absence from work due to sickness may justify a dismissal if the employee asks for leave and threatens the …
Monthly Archive: August 2014
Grant it or else …
According to a recent judgment of the Higher Labour Court of Berlin-Brandenburg (Landesarbeitsgericht, LAG), employers are obliged to grant annual vacation, breaks and rest periods as required by the law on their own without prompting (judgment dated June 12, 2014, docket number: 21 Sa 221/14). If an employer fails to grant the annual vacation entitlement …
Business damaging statement or objective criticism, that is the question.
In a recent judgment the German Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht – BAG; judgment dated 31 July 2014, docket number: 2 AZR 505/13) had to rule on a case in which a candidate for the election committee for works council elections made several statements about problems in the employer’s company. One of the main questions the …
What happens to accumulated vacation entitlements when switching from full to part-time work?
On June 11, 2014 the Higher Labour Court of Lower Saxony (Landesarbeitsgericht – LAG) dealt with the disadvantageous recalculation of unused accrued annual vacation when switching from full-time to part-time work. In accordance with a recent decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the court held that when employees change their working hours from …
Fine feathers make fine birds
Many companies set up standards for work clothes. In these cases, it is a question of law whether changing into mandatory work clothes is part of the employees’ working time. According to the German Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG), the time required to change into work clothes at the work place counts as working time …
Extraordinary dismissal due to numerous short-term absences?
According to the jurisdiction of the German Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG) many short-term sickness absences may justify the ordinary termination of an employment contract (judgment dated November 10, 2005, docket number: 2 AZR 44/05). However, what happens if an ordinary termination is excluded because of collective labour agreements? May the employer then issue an …
Call on for on-call – no mercy for part-time employees
On May 15, 2014 the Higher Labour Court of Munich (Landesarbeitsgericht – LAG) ruled (docket number 2 Sa 14/1) that part-time employees are not entitled to have the total amount of time they are obliged to be on-call (Rufbereitschaften) reduced. The plaintiff worked for the defendant 20 hours a week on a reduced number of …