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Notice period

July 15, 2015 | 30,00 EUR | answered by Jan Wilking

I have an employment contract from August 1994, which was last changed in terms of notice periods in 1997.

Under section 4 Notice Periods, it states:
"The employment contract can be terminated by both contract parties with a notice period of 3 months to the end of a quarter."

I have the following question:
Since I have been with the company for over 20 years now, I have a statutory notice period of 7 months. Section 4 would therefore be invalid, as it states a notice period of 3 months to the end of the quarter for both parties.

Does this mean that the notice period of 3 months to the end of the quarter still applies to me?
Or can I, because section 4 is invalid and therefore no explicit regulation is agreed upon, rely on the shorter statutory notice period of 4 weeks to the 15th or end of the month? And for the employer, the notice period of 7 months applies.

Jan Wilking

Dear inquirer,

I am happy to answer your inquiry taking into account your description of the situation and your input as follows:

In principle, an employee must also observe longer notice periods in the event of termination if this is provided for in the employment contract or a collective agreement. Section 622 (5) sentence 3 of the German Civil Code expressly allows for individual agreements to establish longer notice periods, deviating from the aforementioned principle. However, the notice period for the employee cannot be longer than that for the employer, as stated in Section 622 (5) of the German Civil Code.

Although in the case of the clause you mentioned, extended statutory notice periods apply for employer termination after a certain length of service, this does not render the clause entirely invalid, as the notice period for the employee remains shorter than that for the employer. Therefore, unfortunately, the agreed 3-month notice period at the end of the quarter still applies to you, and an earlier termination would only be possible within the framework of a termination agreement with the employer.

I hope that this provides you with some initial helpful guidance. If you have any further questions, please feel free to use the free follow-up function.

Best regards,

Jan Wilking, Attorney at Law