Is a termination notice with an invalid end date enforceable? [closed]

Question

If an employer service a notice of termination on an employee, but specifies a date for the termination which is in the past, is it enforceable?

Answer 1

germany

Yes and no.

I will assume that by "enforcable" you mean legally valid, because they don't need to enforce anything, they will just not pay you, and it would fall upon you, to get a lawyer and sue them.

Generally speaking, a wrong date either because it's a typo, or the HR person miscalculated the dates according to the notice period, or any other reason really, does not neccessarily invalidate the termination.

Courts have ruled that if the intention of the termination is clearly visible, then the wrong date does not matter and instead the date is the date that would have been the correct date according to the listed intention.

So for example, if it reads "fristgerechte Kündigung" (termination according to the legal and contractual notice periods) and for some reason the date is wrong, then the date that would have been correct according to said notice periods would be valid instead. Please note that notice periods are a minimum. As with all minimums, everything above is legal. So if there is a 2 months notice period, terminating your contract with an end date of 3 months is perfectly valid. So if it is a typo prolonging your stay, there is nothing they can do (other than issue a sooner termination if that's still possible when they spot their mistake). It is only if the wrong date would be invalid by the standards described as the intention, that a date calculated correctly is used instead.

If it reads "fristlose Kündigung" (immediate termination), then it is clear that it meant "right now" and the legal date of the document is to be used. Which that is depends on whether you were handed it, or got it in the mail a few days later.

That means no matter what they write as a date, it can never be shorter than your notice period if a notice period applies, nor can it be in the past at the time of writing, even for "immediate". It can be in the past by getting it per mail and not checking your mailbox for a few days obviously, but that is on you, not on them.

If it happens to contain neither explanation (which would be a sparkly miracle unicorn in itself, who would do something like that knowing our laws?) then it might indeed be invalid altogether. But please note that that simply means they will issue a new termination with a new date.