Termination notice by Employer while on holidays
 
It is important to stress that any written termination notice by the employer has to be challenged within three weeks after it has been serviced or else it becomes valid although the notice might be legally flawed.  Only in circumstances where the employee was unable to do so with no fault of his own can he apply for reinstatement of his court challenge. In a case recently before the BAG  ( Germany´s Federal Labour Court), the BAG reiterated that the three week period is even starting to count when the notice has been serviced to the employee´s home address while he was absent on holidays under full knowledge by the employer.  The background is that a legal statement such as a notice or an offer manifests itself as soon as it has reached the sphere of influence of the other party (for example by inserting the statement into the letter box).  Simply the abstract possibility to be able to access this statement is critical. Here the question is when would the addressee normally access the letter box or email inbox for that matter. A termination notice via email of a labour contract or lease contract, however, does not meet the written form standard and is as such invalid.  In the case under discussion which was ruled upon by the BAG (dated 22. 3. 2012 - 2 AZR 224/1) the employee did not swiftly take action on returning home from his holidays by applying for a reinstatement.  His action was therefore dismissed. 
 

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