As of: April 3, 2024, 12:30 p.m
By: Laura Hindelang
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If the salary does not arrive in the account for weeks and months, employees have comprehensive rights. Here's how to get your money.
A delay in the payment of wages does not always have to be difficult. If the transfer of salary is delayed, it is often due to minor glitches such as accounting errors or a holiday that was not taken into account. For the members of the Bundestag, who normally receive their salaries on the first day of the new month, the payment delay was due to an incorrect due date. Instead of March 28th, April 28th was given, reports
Bild
. However, if there are longer delays in payment, you should exercise your rights as quickly as possible.
Employees have to pay in advance for their salary
Wage payments are regulated in the employment contract: in exchange for the labor, the employer is obliged to pay the specified salary. Employees generally have to pay in advance, i.e. work before they are paid, explains
Stiftung Warentest
. Employees should therefore generally receive their wages on the first day of the following month. In practice, many companies transfer salaries as early as the 25th of the month. However, employment and collective agreements also contain provisions that grant the employer more time.
If the payment of your salary is delayed, you should always ask first. © Pond5 Images/Imago
If the salary does not arrive in the account on time, the company is automatically in default of payment. The
Hasselbach law firm
advises that you first contact your boss verbally. You can also get information about the late payment from the accounting or human resources department, writes the job portal
Kununu
. If the salary still doesn't arrive in your account, you should send a written reminder. This means you can later show a court that you gave the employer the opportunity to behave in accordance with the contract, explained the lawyers at the
Hasselbach law firm
.
Refusal to work and dismissal without notice
According to Kununu
, the reminder is
particularly important if salary payments are not set for a specific date. Give the employer a maximum notice period of two weeks. It is best to send the reminder as registered mail and add the date and signature to the letter. After a second reminder, you can take further measures, for example you can refuse to work if your salary has not been paid for more than three months, explains the
Hasselbach law firm
.
You are also entitled to unemployment benefit. As proof of the lack of continued wage payments, you can, for example, present extracts from your salary account to the employment agency. If you do not receive a salary for a long period of time, you also have the right to terminate your employment without notice. As with refusing to work, you should definitely threaten this step with a prior warning, explains Martin Bechert, specialist lawyer for labor law at
Stiftung Warentest
. In both cases, the warning should contain the word “warning” and outline the planned steps.
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This is how you sue for your salary
If the warnings have no effect, you can sue for your salary. First of all, a reminder procedure at the labor court is recommended in order to obtain an enforcement order quickly and easily, explains Stiftung
Warentest
. The labor courts usually offer the necessary official form for downloading on their website.
However, if you assume that the other side will not accept the claims, you can immediately start legal proceedings. In simple cases, this can also be done without a lawyer. If, for example, you are clearly entitled to wages that you have not received, “you can usually conduct the procedure without legal representation,” emphasizes Andrea Baer, presiding judge at the Berlin-Brandenburg State Labor Court in an interview with Stiftung
Warentest
.
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In addition to the possibility of claiming the missed salary, you are usually also entitled to compensation, explains the
Hasselbach law firm
. For example, if you have to give up your car because you cannot pay the leasing contract due to missing salary payments, you also have the right to sue for financial damages. How promising the payment claims are depends, among other things, on the economic situation of the employer. If insolvency is imminent, it is important to immediately apply for insolvency money at the employment agency, writes the
Hasselbach law firm.
This means you can get at least part of the lost wages back as part of the insolvency proceedings.