ARTICLE · 09 NOVEMBER 2016

Legislative Change Requires Amendments To Standard Employment Contracts

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A legislative change that entered into force on October 1, 2016, affects multinationals with employees working in Germany.

GermanyEmployment and HR

André Zimmermann LL.M.

Louisa Kallhoff

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A legislative change that entered into force on October 1, 2016, affects multinationals with employees working in Germany. In order to comply with these recent changes, companies doing business in Germany should now double-check and, where necessary, adjust their standard employment contracts.

The Legislative Change

The legislative change of the German Civil Code concerns formal requirements of standard business terms. This has an impact on standard employment contracts because, under German law, standard employment contracts are considered standard business terms.

Since October 1, 2016, provisions in standard business terms are ineffective by which notices or declarations that are to be made are tied to a more stringent form than textual form.

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