The company informs the international nurse in an audience-appropriate way about the rights and duties of employees in Germany, in particular about employment contracts, retention clauses, co-determination rights, holiday and break entitlements, rights of termination, maximum working hours and minimum rest periods, and how they can find out more.
We announce the following:
Employment law is governed by a series of statutes, such as the Arbeitszeitgesetz (Working Time Act, ArbZG), the Bundesurlaubsgesetz (Federal Holiday Act, BUrlG), the Entgeltfortzahlungsgesetz (Continued Remuneration Act, EntgFG) and the Teilzeit- und Befristungsgesetz (Part-Time and Fixed-Term Employment Act, TzBfG)
Rights of the employee:
Receipt of income for work performed. Right to employment. Right to freedom of expression, whereby regard must be had to the interests of the employer, customers and contractual partners. Right to equal treatment.
Duties of the employee:
Everyone is obliged to respect other people and treat them fairly – as they themselves would wish to be treated. To act on their own responsibility. To integrate (to adopt language, culture and laws).
In Germany a written employment contract is standard. It should contain information such as salary and holiday days. We ask our nurses to read the contract carefully before you sign it. If you do not understand something, no problem: you can contact us or the human resources department or the person responsible for personnel at the company. We take great care that the qualified nurse has properly understood the following information:
Employment contract
The employment contract should in any case contain the following information:
Name and address: Of the nurse and of the company.
Start of contract: From which date is the nurse an employee of the company (i.e.: From when is the contract valid?).
Fixed term: Does your contract apply only for a certain period? If so: When does the contract end?
Probationary period: How long does the probationary period last? That is the time in which the nurse or the company can end the contract relatively quickly again.
Place of work: Where will the nurse work? If the nurse works at different places, that should be stated in the contract.
Job description: What tasks does the nurse have in the company?
Remuneration (salary): How much money will the nurse receive for their work? Are there supplements or bonuses, for example at Christmas or for weekend work? When does the company pay the remuneration – at the end or beginning of the month?
Training clauses
Retention clauses are agreements that link the nurse’s entitlement to a special payment granted by the employer to the existence of the employment relationship at a particular point in time. In some cases an additional requirement is that the employment relationship is not under notice as of the reference date. With both variants, according to the employer’s intention, the nurse’s loyalty to the company is to be rewarded. Against this must be weighed the employee’s interest in being able to change their job within a reasonable period without financial loss. Retention clauses linked to special payments must therefore not unlawfully hinder the nurse in their freedom of occupation guaranteed by Art. 12 of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz). In this respect the nurse is also subject to the content review under the law on general terms and conditions (AGB).
Break times
Nurses may as a rule not work longer than eight hours on working days. Working time does not include work breaks, which are therefore also not to be remunerated by the employer. How long a nurse must take a break per day is determined by the ArbZG depending on the working time on the relevant day.
If the nurse works nine hours or more on a day, the employer must grant a break time of at least 45 minutes. For working time of six to eight hours there is an entitlement to 30 minutes’ break. If fewer than six hours are worked, the ArbZG does not provide for mandatory recovery periods during the working day.
Break times can be divided into sections of 15 minutes each. An interruption of working time counts as a break only if it is established in advance how long the respective interruption will last. So if at the start of the interruption of work the nurse does not know when they have to resume work, that interruption is not to be counted as a break. In addition, breaks must be scheduled so that no work period lasts longer than six hours.
What is the difference between break times and rest periods?
Rest periods are to be distinguished from break times. Rest period means the uninterrupted period between the end of one working day and the start of a new one. As a rule, at least eleven hours’ rest must be granted.
Exceptions are, however, possible: In selected sectors a rest period of ten hours is occasionally sufficient. The condition is that the rest period reduced by one hour is compensated within a calendar month or within four weeks by extending another rest period to twelve hours.
This exception is possible in facilities for the treatment, care and nursing of persons (e.g. hospitals), in facilities for catering and lodging (e.g. restaurants), in transport undertakings, in broadcasting, and in agriculture and animal husbandry.
Termination
If a termination occurs, nurses are not exposed to the arbitrary will of their employer. If the employment relationship has lasted longer than six months, protection against dismissal applies in Germany. Through the Kündigungsschutzgesetz (Protection Against Dismissal Act, KSchG), employees in this case – the nurses – have the opportunity to object to an unlawful or defective termination and to take legal action against it. Until a decision is reached, the employment relationship and salary payments continue. Often a severance payment can be negotiated.
Further information
This area in particular is extremely important for our nurses and is communicated repeatedly and across disciplines by CareLend in Germany as well as in the home countries.
The entire statutory framework is adequately conveyed to our nurses in the course of their adaptation course, but also before arrival.
Information on this on the respective online presences: