Procedure descriptions

Notify the employment agency of redundancies

Are you planning a large number of redundancies in your company? If so, you are obliged under certain conditions to notify (report) the Employment Agency in writing in advance. This also applies if you

give notice of a change of employment,
offer termination agreements or
dismiss employees at your instigation.

You cannot make up the notice of dismissal at a later date. The date from which the obligation to give notice applies depends on the size of your company and the number of redundancies. If there is a works council in your company, you must inform it in writing about your plans before notifying the Employment Agency. Together with the works council, you must discuss how redundancies can be prevented and their consequences minimised.

You must provide the works council with the following information:

Reasons for planned redundancies,
the number and occupational categories of employees to be made redundant,
number and occupational groups of workers to be made redundant,
the period during which the redundancies are to be made,
the criteria envisaged for the selection of the workers to be made redundant,
the criteria envisaged for calculating any redundancy payments.

Exempt from the obligation to notify redundancies are:

Small businesses generally employing up to 20 employees,
seasonal and campaign establishments in the case of redundancies,
due to the nature of these establishments (end of season/end of campaign).

However, if seasonal and campaign establishments make redundancies for other reasons (for example, before the end of the season or due to closure of the establishment), they are subject to the notification requirement.

If your company belongs to the construction industry and you receive seasonal short-time allowance, you must also report the dismissals.

Details

Prerequisite

If your business meets the following requirements, you are required to report layoffs:

Number of regular employees: 21 to 59; Number of planned layoffs: more than 5 employees.
Number of regular employees: 60 to 499; number of planned layoffs: 10 percent or more than 25 employees
Number of regular employees: at least 500; number of planned redundancies: at least 30 employees. The obligation to notify arises if the specified minimum number of redundancies is intended within 30 calendar days.
Termination agreements and self-terminations of employees are equivalent to dismissals if they are initiated by you as the employer.

Procedure

You must submit notice of layoffs in writing.

Before giving notice

Is there a works council? Inform it in advance about your plans and consult with it about preventing or minimising redundancies and their consequences.
If dismissals are unavoidable, you must inform the works council in writing about the exact measures 2 weeks before you file a complaint with the employment agency.
If there is no works council, these information requirements do not apply.

Notification to the employment agency:

Download the form "Notification of dismissal pursuant to Section 17 of the Dismissal Protection Act (KSchG)" from the Internet site of the Federal Employment Agency.
Fill out the form completely.
The notification to the Employment Agency must contain:
- Name of the company
- Location and type of company
- Reasons for the planned dismissals
- Number and occupational group of the employees to be dismissed
- Number and occupational group of employees to be made redundant
- period during which the redundancies are to be made
- criteria for selecting the employees to be made redundant.
Print out the form and sign it.
Attach to the notification form
- a copy of the notification to the works council and
- the written opinion of the works council (if available).
Submit the documents to the employment agency responsible for your company. A store, including the store management, is considered to be one establishment.
Send a copy of the notice of dismissal to the works council responsible.
If the notice of dismissal is complete in terms of content, correct in terms of content, and received in the correct form by the Employment Agency responsible, the Employment Agency will immediately confirm receipt of your effective notice of dismissal.
Together with the confirmation of receipt of your notice of dismissal, the Employment Agency will send you an information sheet for employees threatened with unemployment. Please support their reintegration and hand out the information sheet to all those affected.

Deadlines

The notices of termination must be given within 90 days of the earliest date on which they are permitted - after the expiry of the lock-up period. Otherwise, you must report the intended terminations to the employment agency again.

Required documents

If there is a works council:

Copy of the notification to the works council
Statement of the works council. If you do not have this, you must prove to the Employment Agency that you consulted the works council at least 2 weeks before notifying the Employment Agency. In this case, you must also explain the status of the consultations with the works council.

Costs

None

Processing time