In accordance with the Act on the Notification of Conditions Governing the Employment Relationship (“Act”), employment contracts are required to be in written form in Germany (a written employment contract shall include a ‘wet-ink’ signature, not a digital signature). Notwithstanding the above, with respect to violations of the written notification requirements, the Act has been practically meaningless, as currently it does not provide for any sanctions and, thus, is ultimately a “toothless tiger”.

However, this will now change drastically with amendments to the Act taking effect from August 1, 2022. To implement EU directive 2019/1152, the aim of which is to create transparency for employees with regard to the working conditions that apply to them, the German legislature has passed a law that will bring far-reaching changes to the Act: In addition to a modified catalogue of contractual conditions that employees must be notified about, violations of these notification requirements by employers will be treated as administrative offenses in the future.

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