Labour Law and Protection | HEUSER RECHT UND STEUERN
The Labour Court System in
Germany
www.heuser.de • 07
Pursuant to articles 18 to 21 of Council
Regulation (EC) 44/2001, an employee
can sue an employer not only in the
courts of the EU member state where the
employer is domiciled - but also in the
courts of the member state where the
employee’s usual place of work under
the contract of employment is situated.
Thus, if staff are employed in Germany,
they will be able to sue their British
employer for instance at German courts.
An employer, however, can only bring
action to the courts of the member state
in which the employee lives. A deviant
agreement is possible - provided that the
conflict has arisen or if the agreement
gives the employee an additional
jurisdiction to those he already has
under the regulation. Nevertheless, the
place of jurisdiction for disputes in an
employment relationship that is carried
out in Germany, is likely to be Germany.
According to the Labour Courts Act,
special labour courts are competent
for legal proceedings concerning
employment relationships. Labour
courts of the first instance consist of
one professional judge and two lay
judges. One of the lay judges has to be
an employer’s representative, the other
one has to represent the employees.
An appeal may be filed with the Higher
Labour Court and, thereafter, the Federal
Labour Court. The latter will not decide
on the facts, but only on legal questions.
Legal proceedings at the labour courts
that concern individual claims of
employees have to start with the attempt
to achieve an amicable settlement. If
this fails, standard court proceedings
continue. Proceedings are comparatively
speedy, with the amicable settlement
proceeding often taking place just 4
weeks after the complaint was filed.
This can, however, vary considerably
depending on the particular court.
Dependent on the current workload of
the respective court, the judgement of
first instance may be delivered within
three to four months’ time. Special
circumstances may cause, however, an
extension, so that it might take more
than six months.
• Court Fees and Costs
At the court of first instance, each party
has to pay its own attorney’s fees – the
unsuccessful party will be additionally
charged with the court fees. In case of
an agreement or if the plaintiff withdraw
the complaint, the court fee will be
dropped.
The fees of German attorneys are
usually significantly lower than those
of their British or American colleagues.
Moreover, they can appear for their
clients at all labour courts, so there is
no need to appoint a barrister at extra
costs.