Wrong date stated in Employment Termination Letter

[billy-bob 27]

Dear all,

 

A friend of mine got her employment terminated three days before 6 months probation period, the HR asked her to sign without giving her time to read the Termination Letter. Then, she has been escorted to the door and that's it! The company took all vacation days, and she will receive the last salary check by end of January. Her employment will officially end by end of January, 31-January-2015.

The employer stated that she does not have to work until 31-January-2015.

 

Then, the tricky part is:

Termination of employment: The company stated that 'Your employment will be terminated within the 6 months of probation period and will be ended by end of January, i.e. 31-January-2014'

 

Now, observe 2014!!! By then she was not even employed by the company!

What can she do?

PLEASE ADVICE!

 

P.S. She has left Germany and does not want to either come back or even less to work for that terrible company again! But, can her file for a legal process and sue the company?

 

Honestly, the company would definitely need to learn a lesson, for sure! They are very nasty and treating their international employees very bad!

 

PLEASE, what would you do? She does not have legal help and cannot afford lawyer, but if a lawyer could undertake the case in exchange of, let's say 50% of the possible outcome, is that even acceptable by any lawyer?

 

So, she' still employed, and in the WORK RELEASE clause of the Termination of Employment Letter, it's stated all correct dates, that she does not have to work until 31-01-2015. So, that part is OK. But if the first part 'Employment termination' where's stated that the employment will be ended by 31-01-2014 (wrong year) is not legally valid due to wrong date, then she has to be at the work place on Monday 2-2-2015, otherwise she'll get fired due to not coming to work. She's been very bad treated there, so she refuses to even come to Germany, and doesn't want to work there, but the Company would need to learn a lesson! A very bad HR behaviour by that large international company based in Bavaria...

 

What would you do?

PLEASE ADVICE!

 

Any lawyer that would like to take a look at the Termination Letter and the Employment Contract, and see if they could file for a lawsuit?

 

She is devastated, please help if you can, she would be very happy! I cannot do anything else but post this topic here, but maybe you have an advice to share? She'd be very happy! Thanks!

 

P.S. I guess that it has to be done before end of January as if she does not do that before they'll just fire her claiming that she never come back to work.

 

Thank you all in advance! :)

[Guest]

What??

 

You think that she could sue for a simple date Typo at the begining of a new year??

 

Your "Friend " is bonkers! ;)

[ruapehu 3,756]

?

It looks like the company has done everything correctyl, except for a typo in one part of an otherwise very clear letter.

 

She was in her Probezeit; they are within their rights to let her go...they did not take her holidays, these were included as part of her being let go earlier than the termination date.

 

What on earth do you thin she can sue for? Damages? How has she been damaged by a typo in one part of the letter?

 

Sorry, yes it's not nice for someone to be let go in Probezeit, but nothing you have written in your post suggests the company is acting a particularly bad way (maybe they are, and they chronically let people go during Probezeit...but that's not stated in the post).

 

Now observe: You are both overreacting!!!

 

Sorry, but she needs to get on with her life.

[AlexTr 19,754]

Sorry, SP, but don't you think that German labor law is so sticky that such a typo would invalidate the letter completely? I work with a lot of HR people and I know they have lost big money cases over smaller errors like this.

[Needle 5]

Tell your friend to tell the company to have that typo fixed. It's that simple.

[sarabyrd 18,767]

The only thing that she could do is request reinstatement of the employment contract. Since she doesn't want that she can blow the company a raspberry and rejoice that it is in her past.

[billy-bob 27]

Thank you all for your time and advice. It's obvious that some of replies are w/o understanding the issue at all. No hard feelings.

What you should understand is the importance of the LEGAL in those written statements. So, remember if something happen to you, there's something in for you there, so take it seriously. In this case, it isn't just a simple typo...say that to a German lawyer or a German Judge and you'll see how much such typo is worth!!!

So, once again, she doesn't want even to put her foot in Germany again, even less to work for that large international employer, as the HR there treated her very bad (to not go in to all details, they were extremely nasty). So, the company (the HR department) should definitely learn a lesson, and the best would be if the company would need to pay. She already has declared that all the money would go to charity!!! So, she wouldn't keep anything for herself! And I trust her, I know that would be the case.

 

So, I would appreciate if anyone of you guys can recommend a lawyer. Many thanks in advance.

 

P.S. I appreciate your time, but if you do not have more than a personal opinion to share (like SpiderPig, ruapehu and some others), then please keep it for yourself. This post will be used by others in similar situation and they should not need to read a lot of flubdub. Thank you.

 

Have a wonderful evening and thank you in advance!

[Mik Dickinson 443]

Then google Fachanwalt für Arbeitsrecht

[Guest]

 

She already has declared that all the money would go to charity!!! So, she wouldn't keep anything for herself! And I trust her, I know that would be the case.

 

Neither party cares, so it would seem, so why not just drop it? I, for one, fell asleep half way through your story, and it seems your friend fell asleep and stopped caring long before that. Why do you still care?

[sarabyrd 18,767]

 

In this case, it isn't just a simple typo...say that to a German lawyer or a German Judge and you'll see how much such typo is worth!!!

Most German judges that I have dealt with in over 30 years in the legal business in Germany wouldn't give your friend an hour in court with this kind of complaint. If the typo were for a date in the future - fine. But a date in the past, before the beginning of the contract?

 

Tell your friend that this is hopefully the worst thing that will happen to her all year.

[Biglaa 147]

"Your employment will be terminated within the 6 months of probation period"

 

End of story. It's right there in the letter.

[MikeMelga 7,325]

 

Dear all,

 

A friend of mine got her employment terminated three days before 6 months probation period, the HR asked her to sign without giving her time to read the Termination Letter.

 

AFAIK, they have to communicate to her by letter with 15 days in advance, so actually she cannot be fired in the last 3 days.

[Biglaa 147]

That would be interesting, my impression was always that until the last day they can do whatever the hell they like!

 

Edit: However, I did a little research, and according to German law "§ 622 Kündigungsfristen bei Arbeitsverhältnissen" 2 weeks notice has to be given from either side to terminate during probezeit. The problem that your friend will have here, is that they signed the agreement to terminate, implying mutual agreement to the late termination.

[ruapehu 3,756]

But 3 days before the end of her Probezeit IS within the Probezeit. It doesn't say in the law that the end date of working also has to be within the Probezeit.

 

From post #1, it looks like she received the termination notice within the Probezeit, but there was still more than 2 weeks to the end of her actual contract - OP's first post was on 20 Jan, and the friend had already left the country at that time; last date of contract was 31 Jan.

 

I have often heard of people getting their termination on the day before their Probezeit was due to end. It doesn't mean that is their last day of employment.

[sarabyrd 18,767]

 

AFAIK, they have to communicate to her by letter with 15 days in advance, so actually she cannot be fired in the last 3 days.

 

To put it in plain English: Through the final day of your probation period the termination period is two weeks.

 

What this means: On the final day of your probation period you can be terminated per the date 14 days in the future and will work on a permanent but terminated contract for those 14 days.

 

What this does not mean: The employment must be terminated on a date 14 days before the final day of the probation period.

[mako1 864]

billy bob seems pretty convinced he has a case. Why is he asking a bunch of random foreigners in a tt thread?

[ChussKeDweele 115]

Looking for approval?

[hamex 49]

I still haven`t figured out what she should ask in court for. A Kündigungsschutzklage would only make sense if she still wants to work for this company. I understand she does not want to and left the country.

 

She will get her last check end of the month. At this moment you cannot even say if the final calculation of the company will be correct or not.

If they will miscalculate holidays/days off/ overtime she still can ask for a correction without going to court (see Mahnung/Mahnbescheid in such case)).

As she was on probation there won`t be any compensation for "longterm service" - which usually an "Abfindung" is.

Without a Rechtsschutzversicherung she would have to pay the first round in court (the usual at the Arbeitsgericht level). So she would be in danger to loose money.