Termination for personal reasons.
Under German law, employers with more than 10 employees (in any given business unit) may not dismiss staff at will. A layoff is legitimate if it is based on personal reasons. Admissible personal reasons are any circumstances preventing the employee from performing the necessary work on a permanent basis. Note that personal reasons are not related to any misconduct, fault or “culpability”, but rather to any objective inability of the employee to fulfill contractual obligations. Examples: → Prolonged illness → Imprisonment → Missing work permit → Lack of physical fitness, e.g., after an accident → Revocation of driving license (if relevant for the position) The negative prognosis is important here: The work performance is not only impaired in the short term, but the employee will also not be able to perform it in the future.
Applicable notice period: minimum 1 month, increasing over time as of § 622 BGB.
German labour courts generally do not assume a negative health prognosis and do not allow for a dismissal for health reasons if the employee has not been ill for more than six weeks per year in the last few years.