Employment law – in brief …

Starting from 1 October 2016, as a result of § 309 No. 13 of the German Civil Code (BGB) as amended, pre-formulated contract terms through which notifications and declarations to the contractual partner are bound to a "stricter form than the textual form" are invalid. Up to now, standard business terms were invalid pursuant to § 309 No. 13 of the previous version of the German Civil Code if they required declarations to have a "stricter form than written form".

In the future, users of clauses may therefore require in their standard business terms only that the contractual partner provide declarations in textual form. As a result, we recommend that you revise and incorporate the legislation changes in your standard set of employment contracts. More information on this topic can be found in the attached newsletter.