Obviously, this government believes that employers are not already harassed enough with the current economic situation. So every employer, who is already desperately looking for new employees and often can't find any, is forced to comply with a law that requires a minor law degree. The sense does not open itself to me.
What are we talking about? The Verification Act (NachwG), as amended, effective Aug. 1, 2022.
The law is not new. For many years, every employee has had a right to have a written employment contract concluded with him or her, in which the most important regulations mentioned in the law must be included. This serves the purpose of legal certainty, for both employer and employee. Then we have the collective agreements, which may also be referred to, even if the employer is not bound by the collective agreement.
The written form or the text form could be agreed upon and verbal agreements were valid. Very many employers communicate with the workforce and so, in the end, there are rarely heated disputes about the content of the employment contract. In 2022, job seekers have the upper hand, they can choose the job.
But that is not all. The NachwG was adapted due to an EU directive. Section 3 of the amended or adapted NachwG stipulates that employers must pay an administrative fine if they fail to comply with the provisions of Section 2 sentence 2 of the NachwG. The employer should therefore get a move on and ideally have various types of employment contracts in the drawer in case he finds a new employee. The correctly issued, written employment contract must be handed over to the employee before the start of work. However, the can split the employment contract like a Netflix series:
The information on the names of the contracting parties, the working hours with breaks, etc., and the remuneration - including bonuses, etc. - must be communicated in writing at the latest before the start of work.
The other details, regulated in § 2 clause 2, points 2 - 6, 9 and 10 must be handed over at the latest on the 7th day after the start of the employment relationship and the remaining details at the latest one month after the agreed start.
With the best will in the world, I cannot imagine that an employer will hand over the terms and conditions of employment in three stages; instead, as in the past, he will hand over a complete employment contract before the start of the employment relationship so that, for example, the fixed-term employment contract without objective grounds has been effectively agreed.
Particular attention should be paid to the written information about the procedure to be followed in case of termination. That is, before the start of the employment relationship, the employee must be informed about what must be observed if he is terminated. In other words, the notice period, the possibility of filing a lawsuit and the deadline for filing a lawsuit must be stipulated in the employment contract. If this information is missing, the employer violates the NachwG and commits an administrative offense, which can be punished with a fine of up to 2000 euros according to § 4 para. 2.

If you have any questions on this topic, please contact Claudia Frank, attorney at law.