🛑 Protection against dismissal during care leave and family care leave
In brief
As soon as you announce a short-term absence from work, care leave or family care leave to your employer, special protection against dismissal applies: from that point – but no earlier than 12 weeks before the announced start – until the end of the leave, the employer must in principle not terminate the employment relationship. Termination during this time is possible only in special exceptional cases, and even then only if the responsible state authority for occupational safety has declared it admissible in advance.
Step by step
- Document the noticeAnnounce care leave or family care leave in writing and keep proof (e.g. a delivery confirmation) – protection against dismissal begins from this point.
- React to a threat of dismissalIf you nevertheless receive a termination notice, check without delay whether the responsible occupational safety authority declared it admissible in advance – without this declaration of admissibility the termination is generally invalid.
- Keep to the deadline for filing a claimAs with any termination, the general 3-week deadline for filing an unfair dismissal claim (Action against dismissal) with the labour court applies (§ 4 KSchG) – even if you consider the termination obviously inadmissible.
- Get adviceHave the legal position checked by a specialist employment lawyer or a trade union, especially if a declaration of admissibility from the authority exists.
Deadlines
- Protection against dismissal does not begin automatically with the care situation, but only with the notice to the employer – but no earlier than 12 weeks before the planned start.
- A termination during the protected period is not automatically invalid if the authority declared it admissible in advance (for example in the case of a business closure) – so check every termination individually.
- The 3-week deadline for filing a claim under § 4 KSchG continues to apply independently of the special protection against dismissal – anyone who misses this deadline loses the possibility of suing even in the case of a termination that was actually inadmissible.
- Protection against dismissal under § 5 PflegeZG also applies accordingly during family care leave (via § 2 Abs. 3 FPfZG) and – according to the available sources – also during the follow-up phase of family care leave.
In depth · legal basis, figures and practice – for advisers and professionals
Wording and scope (§ 5 PflegeZG)
"The employer must not terminate the employment relationship from the time at which the announcement of the short-term absence under § 2 paragraph 1 or of the leave under § 3 paragraph 1 was made, but no more than 12 weeks before the announced start […], until its end" (§ 5 Abs. 1 PflegeZG). The responsible highest state authority – or a body designated by it – can in special cases exceptionally declare a termination admissible (§ 5 Abs. 2 PflegeZG).
Extension to family care leave
§ 2 Abs. 3 FPfZG refers to § 5 PflegeZG: protection against dismissal applies accordingly during family care leave, beginning with the notice under § 2a FPfZG, no earlier than 12 weeks before the announced start.
Relationship to general dismissal protection law
The special protection against dismissal under the PflegeZG/FPfZG exists alongside the general Kündigungsschutzgesetz (KSchG, Dismissal Protection Act). The 3-week deadline for filing a claim there (§ 4 KSchG) applies unchanged: even a termination that is inadmissible under § 5 PflegeZG should be challenged in time with an unfair dismissal claim in order to obtain legal certainty.
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