Dismissal and action for protection against dismissal

You have received a notice of termination from your employer and want to defend yourself against it? Then you must act quickly. When you receive the notice of termination, you have three weeks to legally defend yourself against the termination. If you do not do this and the deadline expires, the termination becomes effective, regardless of whether the termination was justified in the matter.

When is the termination effective?

First of all, certain formal requirements must be met. For a termination to be effective, it must be in writing. This is derived from Section 623 of the German Civil Code (BGB). According to this, it is not sufficient, for example, if notice of termination is given by e-mail. Termination by e-mail is therefore invalid.

The effectiveness of the termination also requires that the notice period is observed. As a rule, the periods of notice result from the employment contract or collective bargaining agreement or also from company agreements. If nothing is expressly stipulated in the contract, the statutory notice period of Section 626 of the German Civil Code (BGB) applies.

What types of termination are there?

In employment law, a distinction is made between ordinary (timely) and extraordinary (termination without notice) termination.

In the case of ordinary termination, the employment relationship can only be terminated within the notice period. If the Dismissal Protection Act applies, the notice of termination must be given either for reasons relating to the individual or for reasons of conduct or for operational reasons. Only if such a reason exists can the employer effectively terminate the employment relationship with due notice.

Pursuant to Section 626 of the German Civil Code (BGB), the employment relationship may be terminated for cause (without notice). When such an "important reason" within the meaning of § 626 BGB exists cannot be answered in a general way and must be examined in detail in each individual case. The law states that the contractual partner can no longer be "reasonably expected" to continue the employment relationship.

Legal action against dismissal

The action for protection against dismissal must be filed within three weeks of receipt of the notice of termination. We will explain whether the Dismissal Protection Act applies in your case or how else you should best proceed against the dismissal during an initial consultation.

If you have any questions regarding your cancellation, please feel free to send us a message using the contact form below and tell us about your concerns. We will get back to you as soon as possible. If you wish, you can also enclose documents via the contact form. This way, we can check your documents as part of our free initial review and see how we can best help you.