On 22 November 2016, the Employment Law Court Cologne, ruled that an employer that pays the employee’s remuneration late, or if it is incomplete, is obliged to pay a lump sum compensation in the amount of EUR 40.00 to the employee. This is based on a new regulation added into the German Civil Code in 2014. Pursuant to this regulation (Sec. 288 para. 5 of the German Civil Code), the debtor of a claim has to pay a lump sum compensation in the amount of EUR 40.00 to the creditor in case of a delayed or incomplete payment. It is controversial whether this regulation also applies to claims for remuneration in employment relationships. The Employment Law Court Cologne affirmed this in the aforementioned decision. However, the court permitted the appeal to the Federal Labour Court, which may still overturn the current verdict.
Germany