6

I have a friend who is interested in quitting his full-time job in Germany. He has been working for a little over 1 year at 40 hours per week. How much notice must he give to his boss when he quits?

The work contract doesn't specify how much notice must be given, merely saying that the normal for Germany applies. His boss has verbally told him that he should say 3 months in advance.

As we are in Germany I assume that notice to quit must be in writing, but are there some other details that he should be aware of?

kerblogglobel
  • 259
  • 2
  • 6
  • What job is he in? I don't know about Germany, but in France, for example, each industry has its own rules about what the notice period is for various job types. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Apr 09 '14 at 20:42
  • 1
    This question appears to be off-topic because it is about living/working in Germany. Being an expat doesn't change anything in this case. – Dirty-flow Apr 10 '14 at 08:58
  • 4
    @Dirty-flow of course that being an expat changes things, since expats are likely not to know such things that are "common knowledge" to the locals. – Marko Apr 10 '14 at 15:11
  • 2
    I agree with @Dirty-flow, this is a good fit for [workplace.se] though! – jmac Apr 11 '14 at 02:50
  • @Marko please read http://expatriates.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic : "Questions about laws and governance in your country of residence, that might apply differently to non-citizens than they do to citizens" are on-topic, but in this case the nationality doesn't matter. – Dirty-flow Apr 11 '14 at 07:45
  • Agree with Dirty. We need to be careful - just a question about stuff in a country doesn't make it on topic for expats. It has to be a problem that is different BECAUSE it's for an expat. Much as we've closed questions on tax, medicare, driving rules and the like. – Mark Mayo Apr 11 '14 at 08:04

1 Answers1

7

If he worked less than 2 years at this firm and the default German law applies then he must give 4 weeks notice to the 15th or the end of the month.

If he signed a contract that references a specific "Tarifvertrag" then this could be different and must be looked up.

Source (in German)

The quit notice should contain

  • the address of the exployee
  • the address of the firm
  • the reason of the document (quitting)
  • the current date
  • the date when the emplyoment ends
  • name of the employee and employer and their signatures

Both parties receive an original of this document.

juergen d
  • 433
  • 2
  • 9
  • If you don't show up for work without reason, I guess you will get fired immediately. Then you won't get money from that day on and the certificate of the employer probably won't be that good either. – juergen d Jul 03 '14 at 19:43