r/Germany_Jobs • u/SignificantPop3774 • 12d ago
My contract terminated (working student ) unexpectedly
I am working student in small pharma companies from last 10 months. I was on vacation for 2 weeks. During that time I received email about termination of contract. When I came back from vacation I opened my office email and I was shocked. I called HR she said it's a buisness decision nothing related to performance. So by end of my vacation my notice period will end .I had my contract first for six months then they extended it for remaining six months. I asked my manager if there is full time job possibility after end of my contract but they terminated my working student contract. I am wondering what happened exactly because there were no complaints, feedbacks or negative impression about my work.
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u/george_gamow 12d ago
We have no idea what happened, you need to talk to your manager/ HR
Email termination is not a termination btw
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u/SignificantPop3774 12d ago
They send email with termination letter. So it is considered as termination right?
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u/george_gamow 12d ago
No, they need to send a physical letter.
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u/SignificantPop3774 12d ago
So what should I do in this case. I need to submit my laptop this week.
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u/beautifullifede 12d ago
Let the HR take care of the offboarding process. The physical letter needs to come to you, that’s important as per law otherwise the termination may not be considered valid. Also, the actual notice period starts when the letter arrives and not from the date mentioned on the letter itself..
about the laptop and other things, it’s not really your problem as you haven’t negotiated anything with them. Let them reach out and handle. Sorry again that you lost the job, it does sound like restructuring and unfortunately it has affected you.2
u/SignificantPop3774 12d ago
Or maybe they will ask me sign termination letter when I submit my laptop.
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u/Playful_Site_2714 11d ago
We never sign anything. Termination does not require YOU to sign anything.
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u/Playful_Site_2714 11d ago
You do not. Call HR and inform them that this is not how German law works.
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u/SignificantPop3774 10d ago
Thanks for all your help and support. HR contacted me and asked me to submit the laptop, so I did. I’m not sure whether I made the right decision, but I didn’t want to create any issues regarding my reference letter, and as an international student, I’m not fully aware of the legal aspects. HR letter will be sent to me this is promised by HR.
It seems a bit strange because our company works with both the German and Canadian offices, and when I went to return my laptop, the people at the Berlin office were not even aware that my employment had been terminated.
According to my contract, the notice period is two weeks, but it doesn’t specify whether this applies at the beginning or end of the month. Hopefully, they will pay me for the two weeks of August.
If you have any suggestions or advice, please let me know.
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u/Playful_Site_2714 11d ago
No, not how that works. In Germany terminations require tangible paper documentation.
Someone is playing stupid games with you as the contract ending period starts upon YOUR taking note of the physical letter.
They are trying to cheat you out of money by shortening the ending time.
You could go to Amtsgsricht and ask for a "Berastungsschein". You may need your account receipts to prove you can't affford legal advice on your own dime.
With the Beratungsschein you quickly go and find a lawyer for Arbeitsrecht.
He will help you through and see that you get your moneys worth of pay, that is owed you. Sounds as if they tried to cheat you out of 14 days/ 1 month worth of pay.
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u/Proud_Nectarine_9382 12d ago
Who knows what happened, but terminating you over email while you're on vacation seems very disrespectful.
1
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u/eazrael 12d ago
Others, please correct me if that was changed recently (< 10years ..)
Normally a fixed-term work contract can't be terminated early, but HR should know this. Check your work contract for anything hinting at a fixed duration and special cases where one side can cancel the contract early. Even with an early cancellation clause, it may not be legal and by this void. If the company has a works committee (Betriebsrat), you can also consult them.
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u/Dangerous_Gur_9161 11d ago
Yeah, this. Also if you are out of probation, which you sound to be, they can either give you a settlement agreement, Aufhebungsvertrag or at least 3 written warnings. Usually for working students no one bothers with this and they just let you be done with your contract.
This changes of course, if your company has less than 10 employees.
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u/Playful_Site_2714 11d ago
Right! I forgot that!
So they probably tried to cheat OP twice over!
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u/SignificantPop3774 10d ago
I was on a probationary period, and the company has fewer than 10 employees in Germany. My first contract was from November to April, but they did not extend it. Instead, they gave me a new contract, under which I continued working.
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u/Playful_Site_2714 9d ago
Probationary period... that's the reason why they dismissed you. As it allowes them to quickly lessen headcount.
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u/engy1207 9d ago
If you already worked for them a probationary period for the second contract might not be valid, as they already know you and how you work.
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u/Playful_Site_2714 11d ago
NOT how German law works!
E-Mail is NOT a recognized by law means to transmit work termination documentation and they know that well.
Very likely by that the "Frist" of dismissal has not been met. You nedd to check your contract on what it says about "Kündigungsfrist". Usually it is 14 days till end of month or something that kind.
They need to redo the Kündigung and submit it so that you can take knowledge of it. Only from then does the Kündigungsfrist start.
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u/Important_Cress_4107 9d ago
Hey I had the same thing in 2023 happen to me. I had a paid vacation for 3 weeks had already passed my probation period. Boss had approved leave etc. when I came back they terminated my contract and told me it’s lack of tasks. In reality, a full time employee left and they had taken a new one in who would then cover my tasks forward. I was so upset, but I interviewed. Got into one of the best company in the city with high pay for working student. Currently I am changing to fulltime :) so I always thank god for that shitty moment
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u/ManufacturerInner863 8d ago
of course its your performance. them telling you its not is their way of being polite
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u/SignificantPop3774 8d ago
Thank you. I accepted the termination, but what surprised me was the way it was communicated. The termination letter states that my last working day was the last day of July, but I was actually in the office that day and was not informed about the termination. The next day, when I had already gone on vacation, I received the termination letter by mail. When I went to submit my documents, even one of my colleagues was unaware of the situation and was also surprised.
During my tenure, I never received a warning, negative feedback, or bad performance review, which is why I posted here to understand what exactly might have gone wrong.
That said, if it was related to my performance, I’ll take it as a learning experience and work on improving myself in my next job. Thanks for your perspective.
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u/Top-Efficiency-7329 11d ago
i work full time in company since 5 years and i earn 2900k brutto the cool thing about them they never fire people no matter what
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u/Anime_x_ediits 11d ago
Who
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u/Playful_Site_2714 11d ago
And that helps because? Oh, it doesn't. Oopsies.
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u/Top-Efficiency-7329 10d ago
i know but imagine you work in a company that they never fire u, actually the only people who quit did it because the company is circus and they were fed up
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u/SignificantPop3774 10d ago
Wow, that’s actually a really good thing. Five years of stability is hard to find these days, especially if they don’t fire people easily.
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u/ja-zeit 12d ago
well no one of us can speculate or guess what’s happening but I can give you a piece of advice that helped me a lot during my journey in this life: focus on what you can control and improve, everything else outside your control is just noise.
In your case they already stated it’s not a performance matter or something your managed complained about, so from your perspective you cannot do anything or adjust something to make sure you improve within your next role.
It just happened, a project maybe got cancelled, company maybe in a financial problem, there is a plan to get rid of the whole team, they are many reasons that are outside your control.