Unreasonable fee?
Dear lawyers,
I have been employed as an external employee at a temporary employment agency since 10.09.2007. The employment contract was initially temporary, was extended several times, and has been unlimited since 01.07.2009. One of the criteria for concluding the contract at that time was my required monthly net income of 1500 EUR. This was provided by my former supervisor through the following, documented components: 1. Contract end payment of 12.37 EUR per hour (equivalent to 9.37 EUR based on tariff end payment group 03 + 3 EUR extra-tariff allowance) + 2. Task-related allowance of 3.38 EUR per hour + 3. Meal allowance of 6 EUR tax-free per day at the customer's location. The task-related allowance was an additional agreement to the employment contract, which was only documented for the first customer assignment, namely the assignment at a telecommunication company in FFM. This assignment started at the beginning of the contract and ended in September 2009. I was not in a customer assignment for the entire month of October 2009. During this month, I received the normal contract end payment of 12.37 EUR for 35 hours per week, which was the contractually defined working hours. The paid hours were calculated as negative hours on my time account. I was also not in a customer assignment for the first three weeks of November 2009, and was paid as in October 2009. In the last week of November 2009, I was then in a customer assignment at a public company in FFM. I was in a customer assignment at an IT company in FFM for the entire month of December 2009 and the entire month of January 2010. Another customer assignment at an IT company is scheduled for 01.03.2009.
The current dispute is regarding the salaries paid by my employer for the months of Nov. 2009 + Dec. 2009 + Jan. 2010. For these months, my employer only paid me the contract end payment of 12.37 EUR per hour, without the task-related allowance and without the meal allowance. After inquiring with the relevant works council, it seems that the month of November (which includes a 5-day assignment with the customer) is no longer disputable, as there is a 2-month exclusion period based on the relevant BZA collective agreement. This leaves the months of Dec. 2009 and Jan. 2010. In these months, my net salary amounted to only 1285 EUR due to the removal of the task-related allowance and the meal allowance. This net amount is economically unreasonable for me, as I have monthly fixed costs of nearly 1000 EUR just for rent, telecommunications, and various loan obligations. Upon inquiring with my current supervisor, they simply stated that for the last 2 customer assignments, no task-related
