Even though a termination is currently rare in our industry due to the shortage of drivers, it still happens that one or the other receives a termination notice in their mailbox. In principle, there are certain rules of conduct that both the terminated party and the terminating party must adhere to.
Update May 2026: The Federal Labour Court has tightened the requirements for proving delivery of a termination via registered mail with return receipt. More on this further down in the article.
When can one be terminated, and especially how? I will address this in this contribution.
How must a termination look like
A termination must generally be made in writing pursuant to § 623 BGB . If a termination is given orally or delivered via email, WhatsApp, or whatever else there is, via fax, such terminations are invalid. And foremost, there must be a reason for the termination. Because just because the employer has a fart sitting crosswise, he may not terminate an employee.
The legislature knows four grounds for termination, which I will not go into further here:
The grounds for the termination do not need to be mentioned in the termination notice!
Do I have to sign a termination
A termination does not become effective only by accepting it. However, neither the employer nor the employee can reject a termination. It must and should not be signed.
While some employers do require a signature under the termination, especially when it is presented to them, this signature can result in disadvantages for the employee, such as waiving remaining vacation time or what is often attempted: waiving any wage claims.
In principle, one is not obliged to sign a termination. Not even the receipt of such! Therefore, here is the rule: Do not sign anything first and go to the lawyer / trade union, in order to file an action for protection against dismissal. Because here the deadlines are very short. One has only 3 weeks to submit this at the court § 4 KSchG .
If the termination was not delivered by post but merely presented in the office, do not leave it lying there. In the event of an action for protection against dismissal, the lawyer needs the termination letter. Formal errors could have “slipped in.”
New BAG Ruling: Registered mail is no longer automatically sufficient proof
Many employers send terminations via registered mail because they believe this allows them to securely prove receipt of the termination. However, the Federal Labour Court (BAG) has significantly restricted this assumption in a recent decision.
The BAG clarified:
A delivery receipt together with the online shipment status from Deutsche Post is not automatically sufficient to legally prove the receipt of a termination.
This means:
In case of doubt, the employer must still be able to prove that the termination actually landed in the employee’s mailbox.
The mere status “delivered” does not necessarily suffice for this according to the court.
This is particularly important in cases of termination because the employer must prove when the termination was received. Because from this point in time, important deadlines run, for example, the three-week deadline for filing an action for protection against dismissal.
For employees, this ruling means:
Just because an employer claims that the termination was sent via registered mail does not automatically mean that receipt is legally clearly proven.
Therefore, employers will likely have to rely more frequently on personal handovers, messengers, or other safer methods of delivery in the future.
Judgment of the Federal Labour Court dated 30.01.2025 – Az. 2 AZR 68/24
If the termination was not delivered by post but merely presented in the office, do not leave it lying there. In the event of an action for protection against dismissal, the lawyer needs the termination letter. Formal errors could have “slipped in.”
