The most important cornerstones of the job are recorded in the employment contract.
But sometimes there are pitfalls in the document that hardly anyone thinks about before starting a job.
Do you have a job offer in your pocket?
Then congratulations!
Before you sign the employment contract, however, you should check a few points that keep causing trouble.
1. Salary
In the employment contract, the monthly salary negotiated in the interview plus other allowances (such as vacation or Christmas bonuses) is recorded.
But be careful: "It is important that not only the agreed remuneration, but also any increase after the end of the probationary period or an adjustment to rising living costs is set in
writing
," explains Stefan Kramer, specialist lawyer for labor law, on the Staufenbiel Institute blog
.
Only with collectively regulated contracts does the salary increase automatically.
In the case of tariff salary, the
grouping
should also be
mentioned.
2. Job description & location
The job description defines which tasks can be assigned to you.
Here, too, attention should be paid to a precise job title and task description.
Because: The more vague the formulation here, the more varied are the tasks that the boss can assign to you.
Conversely, you cannot refuse activities that do not correspond to your qualifications or are poorly paid.
In addition, the contract should be as
no spatial Ver-set-wetness-be-fug-nis-se
provide for the employer, as the firm Hensche writes on its website.
Otherwise you could very quickly be forced to relocate to another city.
+
An employment contract should always be carefully checked for dubious clauses before signing it.
© Christin Klose / dpa
3. Trial period and notice period
Prospective employees should also take a close look at the passage with the probationary period before signing the contract.
The duration of the probationary period should be clearly regulated, within which both contracting parties can terminate with a notice period of two weeks.
However, the employment contract should not
contain a so-called trial period
. "If you sign that, instead of a normal probationary period, you have agreed to a fixed-term employment relationship, ie a fixed-term contract in plain
English,
" warn the labor law experts at
Hensche.de
. Formulations of such a trial period clause say, for example, that the employment relationship is “limited in time for the purpose of trial” and therefore “ends without the need for notice” after the agreed contract period has expired.
The
notice period
should also be clearly stated in the employment contract, especially in the case of
temporary employment
.
Employees can only terminate fixed-term employment contracts prematurely if this has been expressly agreed in the employment contract.
4. Overtime
“Overtime is paid for with the monthly salary” - this phrase can still be found in many employment contracts, but it is worded too generally and is therefore invalid.
At least a specific number of overtime hours should always be mentioned here, which are already covered by the salary in order to be legally valid.
“It should also be clearly regulated whether overtime can be compensated for by free time and the scope of this,” recommends the Staufenbiel Institute.
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5. Post-contractual non-competition clause
Your new employer would like to give you a post-contractual non-competition clause?
This has to be
negotiated
or checked by a lawyer
before signing
.
With this, companies want to prevent employees from switching to a competitor or founding a competing company, usually up to two years after they have left the company.
Otherwise there is a risk of substantial fines.
However, such a ban cuts you down considerably when choosing a job - because most of the suitable jobs can be found with the competition.
Apart from dubious clauses in the employment contract, three warning signs should ring all alarm bells anyway - and a job offer should be reconsidered.
(as)
List of rubric lists: © Christin Klose / dpa
