Recent news

Latest items of recent news relevant to Germany as reported in our fortnightly newswire ‘Dernières nouvelles’.

Germany: Disabled workers may not claim tax relief for taxi costs arising from their daily commute

The Federal Fiscal Court has determined that a disabled man’s taxi costs for travel to work could not be subject to tax relief at cost, but only at a rate as if he was travelling by his own vehicle …

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Germany: Pay agreement in the chemical and pharmaceuticals industry

The employer association BAVC has reached a deal with the IG BCE union for two 3 …

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Germany: Should staff councils be involved in the setting of fixed-term limits?

The Federal Labour Court (BAG) has recently been called upon to determine whether the duration of a fixed-term agreement is invalid if the staff council was not involved in setting its term …

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Germany: Decline in IAB barometer for September 2022

The IAB barometer measures trends in the labour market and is a composite of two predictive measures …

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Germany: Where mental health should be top of the HR agenda

Whichever way the issue is viewed, Germany has a long-term mental health problem amongst its population …

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Germany: Galeria terminates collective agreement

Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof department stores unilaterally terminate collective agreement …

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Germany: Employee was not entitled to increased wage because of prevailing rates in their sector

German law differs from laws in other jurisdictions in a number of ways …

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Germany: BAG creates legal certainty when extending the maximum leasing period through a collective agreement

An employee has no independent right to challenge the extension of their temporary employment, even though they are not a member of the union that signed up to the extension …

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Germany: Works and Arbitration Board Meetings may once again be held remotely on a digital basis

Section 129 of BetrVG, recently passed by the two parliamentary chambers, has made it lawful once gain to hold meetings “by means of audiovisual equipment” as long as they are in real time …

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Germany: Proposals for a new “Citizen’s Income” are now well advanced

As Europe is about to plunge into recession, Germany struggles with high inflation and problems with energy supply, the timing is perhaps just right to increase government’s costs by almost €5BN a year …

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Germany: Employers must record detailed aspects of working time

Although the European Court of Justice determined in 2019 (CCOO vs Deutsche Bank C155/18) that employers must operate an objective, reliable and accessible system to measure the daily working time actually undertaken by each employee, the German government did not amend the law to encapsulate the change …

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Germany: Sections of the commercial register may now be accessed free online

This new facility will be of particular interest to works councils, that frequently have to wait for company data to be provided to them after a formal request, and also to recruiters seeking to check the bone fides of a candidate’s previous employer …

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Germany: Lufthansa, pilots reach wage deal, strike called off

Response from Lufthansa leads to second round of pilot strikes being called off …

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Germany: SARS-CoV-2 occupational health and safety ordinance revised

Companies will be required to develop and implement new operational hygiene plans from October 2022 …

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Germany: No publication of employee lists to conduct an election meeting

Although an electoral board has the right to request employee lists, those employees seeking to form a works council have no such right …

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