Only seven months after the introduction of the first German Minimum Wage Law (Mindestlohngesetz, MiLoG) (see our article in this regard), the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has issued a new decree which reduces the statutory documentation obligations regarding working hours and the reporting requirements of foreign employers.

According to the new decree, employers are no longer obliged to document the start, end and duration of the working hours and to keep the respective notes for at least two years if the regular monthly gross salary of the employee exceeds EUR 2,958. The documentation requirement is also dropped for a regular monthly gross salary exceeding EUR 2,000 if it can be proven that the net salary has been paid for the last twelve months. The same also applies pursuant to the decree if the employee is a close relative of the employer.

It is remarkable in this regard that if one of the above-mentioned requirements is met, the reporting and declaration obligations of foreign employers pursuant to § 16 MiLoG are also dropped. Therefore, if one of the above-mentioned exceptional cases is given, then foreign employers are released from their obligation to submit information in relation to the employments to the German customs administration in German language. The obligation to provide a declaration that the employees who are employed in Germany will receive remuneration at least in the amount of the statutory minimum wage is also dropped in these exceptional cases.

Accordingly, with the new decree many employers will be released from the majority of the bureaucratic requirements of the Minimum Wage Law. However, an employer intending to invoke one of the exceptions has to be able to prove that they are given. 

The new decree is probably only one of the several adjustments to the Minimum Wage Law which are still to follow. In particular, the questions as to whether the statutory minimum wage under German Law has to be paid for very short employment in Germany (e.g. truck drivers for the mere transit through Germany) or which remuneration components (e.g. bonuses or overtime premiums) may be off-set against the statutory minimum wage are still open and have to be clarified in the near future by the German lawmaker or by the German labour courts. 

The new regulation has entered into force on 1 August 2015.

Anton Kastenmüller, Attorney (Munich)