When will overtime be compensated after you leave a company in Germany?

Question

Until end of 2022 I worked for a company in Germany for quite some time, until I sent my resignation letter and decided to move on.

My contract was a "Tarifvertrag", which regulated also the compensation of the overtime, and in my case this amounted some a couple hundred hours. Also I had several holidays I didn't take as time off by the time I left the company.

On my last payroll, however, I saw no compensation for neither holidays or overtime, and I wonder if I should put pressure on the company to pay or wait until the end of January. Being an expat, I have no clue how these kinds of payments are regulated in Germany.

UPDATE: I asked for legal advice to a lawyer and they suggested I would send a registered letter to the company asking for payment within two weeks. I was about to finalize the letter when I received an email that assured me I would be paid within this month. I'm curious anyway to understand if this is "normal".

Answer 1

This answer is from an Austrian perspective, but I guess the regulations are quite similar to Germany. The so called 'Abfertigung, Über­stunden, Ur­laubs­an­spruch/- geld, Weihnachts­geld' which remained unused/unpaid on your last day after serving your notice period should be payed in full with your last paycheck and be listed on your last payroll ('Lohnzettel').

The last wage (which has to include the above mentioned positions) is to be paid with the same due date as a normal wage in the employment relationship. This means that if there is no other regulation in the employment contract, then the statutory regulation, according to which the wage is due on the first day of the following month.

Attention:

Employment contracts or collective agreements often contain expiration provisions, according to which outstanding claims must be asserted against the employer within a few weeks or months or even sued for.

Unless a written assertion is required anyway, it is advisable to always assert open claims in writing - if possible by means of a registered letter. In the event of a dispute, proof can also be provided.

However, all open claims must be asserted in court within 3 years, otherwise they become statute-barred!

I would contact the salary-department ('Lohnverrechung') of your former employer (keep in mind that some companies have their salary department outsourced) for immediate clarification as to why those are not listed and payed.

Make sure you contact them in writing (e-mail or a registered letter) and keep the paper-trail. It might be just a mistake on their side , but in case they refuse for whatever reason they might come up with or try to ghost you, your next step should be a visit to the closest local office of the 'Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte'. They offer free legal advice and are knowledgable about what steps to take next in order to get things straighten out. If they still don't comply with your justified request to get paid, there's always the labor court ('Arbeitsgericht').

Also keep us updated if you don't mind..

Answer 2

If you worked until the 31st of December, it was probably not possible to pay your compensation on your last payslip of December, because that one was processed sometime around the 20th. So what happens in my experience is that you get one final payslip, probably at the end of January, with the final amount resulting from left-over vacation time (Resturlaub) and overtime (Überstunden). If you don't receive it when they do the payroll run end of January, I would just write an email to HR.

As the payment happens after your employment time, it might get taxed with Lohnsteuerklasse 6. This means more money might be deducted, but you can get this back at the end of next year when doing your tax return (Einkommenssteuererklärung).

Answer 3

You asked for the 'normal' way to handle this, so I will describe what usually happens in Germany when you terminate your employment. Most companies will want you to take your remaining holidays as well as any overtime as time off. So your employment contract will run until say the end of February (it is almost always until the end of a month, much easier for accounting) but your last day of actually showing up for work is much earlier, for example the 5th of February. The difference is calculated so that you exactly use up all remaining holidays and use up the overtime as extra days off.

As the company usually wants some time for handing over your tasks this generally means that if you walk into the bosses office and say you want to quit your final date can be several months into the future. This is relevant for unemployment benefits (which you can only get for the time after your contract ends) and can be relevant for a new job. If this would create a conflict with a new job (you can't have two jobs at the same time) you need to negotiate something with your old or new employer.