International employment law: key insights from Germany

Businesses with an international presence must grapple with the idiosyncrasies of numerous legal systems, often with rules and procedures that seem anomalous. In a series of six podcasts, I have discussed “Five things you should know about employment law in….” with Emanuele Licciardi, Harold Berrier, Claire Taylor-Evans, Matthijs Roest Crollius, Juan Carlos Lombardia and Daniela Hangarter-Sperling and Julian Leicht.

Our next episode is German employment law.

In today’s modern, tech-driven world, with electronic signatures regarded as the norm in a business environment the requirement for the use of “wet ink” on contracts of employment and letters giving notice has a strangely retro feel. 

In this month’s Employment Podcast I discuss with Julian Leicht and Daniela Hangarter-Sperling some of the issues created by the requirement in German law and procedure for documents to be signed in wet ink and some of the consequences if they are not. Some of the consequences can be draconian and expensive for the unwary.  We also discuss the difficulties associated with dismissing an employee for poor performance and sickness, the intricacies of providing a written reference and how one goes about trying to agree a settlement package with an employee and what happens if the employee does not want to engage in those discussions.

We hope you enjoy our discussion.