Ordinary dismissal: when it is valid and what you can do now

What is an ordinary dismissal?

An ordinary dismissal is the unilateral declaration with which you or your employer ends an employment of indefinite duration while observing the notice period. The other side does not have to agree. The employment does not end immediately, but on the termination date, i.e. on the last day of the period. Until then, you continue to work and receive your salary.

The ordinary dismissal is the normal case. The legal basis for the periods is Sec. 622 BGB, for the form Sec. 623 BGB. Whether the employer needs a reason is governed by the Protection Against Dismissal Act (KSchG).

A dismissal always ends the entire employment. If the employer only wants to change individual terms, such as salary or place of work, and cannot order this unilaterally, it needs a dismissal with new terms (Änderungskündigung): it dismisses you and at the same time offers to let you continue working on new terms (Sec. 2 KSchG).

The term also exists in tenancy law. What applies there is explained in our guide on the notice period for a rented flat. This guide is about employment.

Ordinary and extraordinary dismissal: the difference

The difference lies in the notice period and the reason. An ordinary dismissal observes the notice period and only needs a reason under the Protection Against Dismissal Act. An extraordinary dismissal usually ends the employment immediately and always needs good cause (Sec. 626 BGB).

Feature	Ordinary dismissal	Extraordinary dismissal (without notice)
Legal basis	Sec. 622, 623 BGB, KSchG	Sec. 623, 626 BGB
End of employment	when the notice period expires	usually immediately on receipt
Reason required?	employer only if the KSchG applies; employee never	always good cause, for both sides
Time to give notice	no fixed limit	2 weeks from knowledge of the reason (Sec. 626 (2) BGB)
Formal warning beforehand	for misconduct, usually yes	depending on seriousness, often yes
Deadline for your claim	3 weeks from receipt (Sec. 4 KSchG)	3 weeks from receipt (Sec. 13 (1), Sec. 4 KSchG)

Employers often combine both: they dismiss without notice and "alternatively" with notice at the next possible date. If the summary dismissal does not hold up in court, at least the ordinary one should take effect. What this means for your claim is explained in our guide on summary dismissal.

Does the employer need a reason? When the Protection Against Dismissal Act applies

An ordinary dismissal without a reason is permitted as long as the Protection Against Dismissal Act does not apply. If it applies, the dismissal is invalid if it is "socially unjustified" (Sec. 1 (1) KSchG). Two requirements must be met together.

1. Waiting period: more than 6 months. Your employment must have existed in the same business or company without interruption for more than 6 months (Sec. 1 (1) KSchG). What counts is the day on which you receive the dismissal, not the end of the notice period. If you started on 1 January and receive the dismissal on 30 June, the KSchG does not yet apply, even if your employment only ends in mid or late July.

Important: the waiting period is not the same as probation. Probation only shortens the notice period to 2 weeks and lasts no more than 6 months (Sec. 622 (3) BGB). The waiting period under the KSchG runs regardless of whether a probationary period has been agreed. More on this in our guide on the notice period during probation.

2. Size of the business: more than 10 employees. The business must normally employ more than 10 employees, excluding trainees (Sec. 23 (1) sentence 3 KSchG). Part-time staff count proportionately (Sec. 23 (1) sentence 4 KSchG):

Regular weekly working hours	counts as
up to 20 hours	0.5
up to 30 hours	0.75
more than 30 hours	1

At exactly 10.0, the KSchG does not apply; from 10.25, it does. For employees whose employment began before 1 January 2004, a transitional rule applies with a threshold of more than 5 employees; only employees whose employment also began before 1 January 2004 are counted (Sec. 23 (1) sentences 2 and 3 KSchG).

If both requirements are met, the employer must prove in court the facts on which the dismissal is based (Sec. 1 (2) sentence 4 KSchG).

Small business and first 6 months: no protection at all?

No. Even without the KSchG, an ordinary dismissal is invalid if it is not in writing, the works council was not consulted or special protection against dismissal applies (see below). It must also not be immoral (Sec. 138 (1) BGB, Sec. 13 (2) KSchG) and must not punish you for exercising your rights in a permissible way (prohibition of victimisation, Maßregelungsverbot, Sec. 612a BGB). In a small business, the courts also require a minimum of social consideration and review dismissals for good faith (Treu und Glauben, Sec. 242 BGB). Discriminatory dismissals, for example on grounds of origin, religion or disability, can be challenged.

The 3 grounds for an ordinary dismissal

If the KSchG applies, the employer may only give ordinary notice for three reasons: reasons relating to the person, to conduct or to urgent operational requirements (Sec. 1 (2) sentence 1 KSchG). For all three, the dismissal must be the last resort. If there is a vacant position in which you can continue to work, also after reasonable retraining or on changed terms, the dismissal is usually socially unjustified (Sec. 1 (2) sentences 2 and 3 KSchG).

Reason	Typical examples	What the employer must show	Formal warning beforehand?	More on this
personal	long or frequent illness, loss of a driving licence for professional drivers, missing work permit	you can no longer do the work in future, the business is considerably burdened, the balancing of interests goes against you	no	Dismissal during sick leave
conduct-related	repeated lateness, refusal to work, insults, unexcused absence	culpable breach of duty, risk of repetition, balancing of interests	usually yes	this guide, section below
operational	decline in orders, restructuring, closure of a department	job permanently ceases to exist, no other vacant position, correct social selection	no	Redundancy dismissal

Dismissal for personal reasons

Here the reason lies in you, but not in misconduct. You can no longer do your work even though you want to. The most common case is dismissal for illness. The courts examine it in three stages: a negative health prognosis, a considerable impairment of operational interests and a balancing of interests to your disadvantage. If you were unfit for work for more than 6 weeks within one year, the employer must offer you return-to-work management (betriebliches Eingliederungsmanagement, BEM) (Sec. 167 (2) SGB IX). How this works is explained in our guide on the return-to-work meeting. A missing BEM does not automatically make the dismissal invalid. However, if the employer failed to offer it although it was required to, it must set out and prove in court that a BEM could not have avoided the dismissal either (Federal Labour Court (BAG), judgment of 7 May 2026, 2 AZR 184/25).

Conduct-related dismissal

This concerns breaches of duty that you can control. As a rule, an ordinary dismissal is preceded by a formal warning (Abmahnung) for a similar breach. It is meant to show you what is objected to and to warn you that dismissal will follow if it happens again. Without a warning, dismissal is only possible if the breach is so serious that you could not expect it to be tolerated, or if it is clear that you will not change your conduct. No law specifies how many warnings are required.

Watch out for unemployment benefit: if you gave cause for the dismissal through conduct in breach of your employment contract, the employment agency (Agentur für Arbeit) may impose a benefit suspension (Sec. 159 (1) sentence 2 no. 1 SGB III).

Dismissal for operational reasons

Here the reason lies in the business. The employer makes a business decision as a result of which your job permanently ceases to exist. In addition, it must make a socially correct selection among comparable colleagues: by length of service, age, maintenance obligations and severe disability (Sec. 1 (3) sentence 1 KSchG). On request, it must tell you the reasons for its selection. The four stages of examination, social selection with a sample calculation and severance under Sec. 1a KSchG are covered in our guide on redundancy dismissal.

Form and content: what an ordinary dismissal must contain

Form is the most common source of errors, and it applies to both sides.

• Written form: The dismissal must be on paper and signed by hand. Electronic form is excluded (Sec. 623 BGB). Email, text message, WhatsApp, fax or an oral dismissal do not end the employment.
• Correct signature: The dismissal must be signed by the employer or by someone who is authorised to dismiss, such as a managing director, an authorised signatory (Prokurist) or the head of HR. If a representative signs and no original power of attorney is enclosed, you can reject the dismissal without delay. This is not possible if the employer has informed you of the authority beforehand (Sec. 174 BGB). You are also informed if you were notified that the signatory is an authorised signatory or head of the HR department. "Without delay" means without culpable hesitation (Sec. 121 (1) BGB); more than one week is too late without special circumstances (BAG, judgment of 8 December 2011, 6 AZR 354/10).
• Clear content: The letter must make it unambiguously clear that the employment is to end and on which date. "At the next possible date" is common and sufficient if the correct period can easily be determined for you.
• Receipt: The dismissal takes effect when you receive it (Sec. 130 (1) BGB). If handed over in person, that is immediately. If put in your letterbox, it is deemed received when the letterbox would normally be emptied. From that day, the notice period and the deadline for filing a claim run, even if you are ill or away.
• Statement of reasons: As a rule, an ordinary dismissal does not have to state the reason. Exceptions: the dismissal of a pregnant employee after official approval must state the reason (Sec. 17 (2) sentence 2 MuSchG), as must the dismissal of a trainee after probation (Sec. 22 (3) BBiG). A collective agreement, works agreement or employment contract may also require reasons to be given. In court, the employer must set out and prove the reason anyway.

Notice period for an ordinary dismissal

The basic statutory period is 4 weeks to the 15th or to the end of a calendar month (Sec. 622 (1) BGB). If the employer dismisses you, its period increases in stages with the length of the employment, up to 7 months to the end of the month after 20 years (Sec. 622 (2) BGB). During an agreed probationary period, 2 weeks apply (Sec. 622 (3) BGB). A collective agreement may differ (Sec. 622 (4) BGB), and a longer period must not apply to you as an employee than to the employer (Sec. 622 (6) BGB).

The full table of periods and sample calculations are in our guide on notice periods for employees. Special cases: notice periods under the TVöD and notice period for mini-jobs.

If the period has been calculated too short, the dismissal is usually not invalid as a whole. As a rule, it takes effect on the next permissible date. If the letter only states a fixed date, it may be necessary to assert the error by filing a claim within the 3 weeks.

When is an ordinary dismissal not permitted?

For certain persons and contracts, ordinary dismissal is excluded or only possible with the consent of a body. This protection applies regardless of the size of the business.

Who	Protection	Exception	Provision
Pregnant employees and women after childbirth	ban on dismissal during pregnancy, until the end of the protective period after childbirth, at least 4 months, and for 4 months after a miscarriage after the 12th week; the employer knows of it or is informed within 2 weeks of receipt	declaration of admissibility from the competent state authority in special cases	Sec. 17 MuSchG
Employees on parental leave	from the request, at the earliest 8 weeks (up to the child's 3rd birthday) or 14 weeks (thereafter) before the start, and during parental leave	declaration of admissibility from the state authority	Sec. 18 BEEG
Family carers	from the announcement, at most 12 weeks before the start, until the end of the short-term absence from work or care leave (Pflegezeit)	declaration of admissibility from the state authority	Sec. 5 PflegeZG
Severely disabled persons and persons with equivalent status	prior consent of the Integration Office (Integrationsamt, the authority responsible for severely disabled employees) required if the employment has existed for more than 6 months on receipt; also consultation of the representative body for severely disabled employees (Schwerbehindertenvertretung)	no consent in the first 6 months	Sec. 168, 173, 178 (2) SGB IX
Works council members, youth and trainee representatives, electoral board, election candidates	ordinary dismissal excluded; works council and youth and trainee representation also until 1 year after the term of office, electoral board and election candidates until 6 months after the election result is announced	dismissal for good cause (during the term of office only with the consent of the works council or a court decision replacing it); closure of the business	Sec. 15 KSchG
Trainees after probation	employer can only dismiss for good cause	none	Sec. 22 (2) BBiG
Fixed-term employees	ordinary dismissal only if agreed in the contract or the applicable collective agreement	none	Sec. 15 (4) TzBfG
Employees protected from dismissal by collective agreement	exclusion under the collective agreement, for example after long employment	depending on the collective agreement	collective agreement

In addition, there are procedural errors that make any ordinary dismissal invalid:

• Works council not consulted: If there is a works council, it must be consulted before every dismissal. The employer must inform it of the reasons. Without consultation, the dismissal is invalid (Sec. 102 (1) BetrVG). For an ordinary dismissal, the works council has one week to raise concerns (Sec. 102 (2) BetrVG). If it objects properly and in time and you file a claim, you can demand to continue to be employed until the end of the proceedings (Sec. 102 (5) BetrVG).
• Representative body for severely disabled employees not involved: If the employer dismisses a severely disabled person without involving the representative body for severely disabled employees, the dismissal is invalid (Sec. 178 (2) sentence 3 SGB IX).
• Collective redundancies not notified: If the employer dismisses many employees within 30 calendar days, for example more than 5 in businesses with more than 20 and fewer than 60 employees, it must notify the employment agency beforehand (notification of collective redundancies, Massenentlassungsanzeige, Sec. 17 (1) KSchG).

A dismissal during sick leave, on the other hand, is not prohibited. What applies then is explained in our guide on dismissal during sick leave.

Received an ordinary dismissal: what to do now

1. Note the day of receipt. Write down when and how you received the dismissal, and keep the envelope.
2. Enter the 3-week deadline. If you want to assert that the dismissal is invalid, your claim must reach the labour court within 3 weeks of receipt (Sec. 4 sentence 1 KSchG). If you miss the deadline, the dismissal is deemed valid from the outset (Sec. 7 KSchG). The court only admits a late claim if you were prevented from filing despite taking all reasonable care; you must make the application within 2 weeks after the obstacle has been removed (Sec. 5 KSchG). How to calculate the deadline is explained in our guide on the deadline for an unfair dismissal claim.
3. Register as a jobseeker. Register with the employment agency at the latest 3 months before the end of the employment. If there are fewer than 3 months between learning of the dismissal and the end, you have 3 days from learning of it (Sec. 38 (1) SGB III). This also applies if you challenge the dismissal in court. Anyone who registers too late risks a benefit suspension (Sec. 159 (1) sentence 2 no. 9 SGB III).
4. Check the power of attorney. If someone other than your employer signed and no original power of attorney is enclosed, a rejection under Sec. 174 BGB may be possible. It must be made without delay.
5. Do not sign anything. No termination agreement, no settlement receipt and no waiver of the right to bring a claim before your situation has been reviewed. What a termination agreement means for your unemployment benefit is explained in a separate guide.
6. Ask for the reasons. In the case of a dismissal for operational reasons, you can demand that the employer tells you the reasons for its social selection (Sec. 1 (3) sentence 1 KSchG).
7. Collect documents. Letter of dismissal, employment contract with amendments, formal warnings, evidence of pregnancy, parental leave or severe disability, and the number of employees, as far as you know it.

How the claim, the conciliation hearing and the costs work is explained in our guide on the unfair dismissal claim.

Severance for an ordinary dismissal

There is no general entitlement to severance. Nevertheless, three routes often lead to a payment:

• Severance offer under Sec. 1a KSchG: If the employer dismisses you for operational reasons and states in the letter of dismissal that you can claim severance if you let the deadline for a claim expire, you receive 0.5 monthly earnings per year of employment if you do not file a claim. A period of more than 6 months is rounded up to a full year (Sec. 1a (2) KSchG).
• Social plan: In the case of operational changes in companies that normally employ more than 20 employees entitled to vote, the employer and the works council can agree severance payments in a social plan (Sec. 111, 112 BetrVG).
• Settlement in unfair dismissal proceedings: Many proceedings end with an agreement in which you accept the termination in return for severance. The amount is a matter of negotiation and depends on how challengeable the dismissal is.

Guide values and sample calculations are in our guide on severance by years of service. Tax and social security on severance are briefly explained there.

Giving ordinary notice yourself: what to consider as an employee

As an employee, you do not need a reason for an ordinary resignation. However, you must observe the same form as your employer.

• Form: a letter on paper, signed by hand (Sec. 623 BGB). A resignation by email is invalid.
• Content: your declaration that you are terminating the employment with ordinary notice, the desired termination date or "at the next possible date", the date, your name and signature. No statement of reasons is required.
• Period: usually 4 weeks to the 15th or to the end of the month, unless the contract or a collective agreement provides otherwise. What counts is the day on which your employer receives the resignation.
• Proof of receipt: The safest way is to hand it over in person against a confirmation of receipt or in front of a witness.
• Fixed-term contract: You can only give ordinary notice if this has been agreed in the contract or the applicable collective agreement (Sec. 15 (4) TzBfG).
• Unemployment benefit: If you resign without good cause and are then unemployed, you face a benefit suspension of usually 12 weeks (Sec. 159 (1) sentence 2 no. 1, (3) SGB III). Whether there is good cause is decided by the employment agency in the individual case.

Unsure which period or which clause in your contract applies? Have it reviewed beforehand (€259 fixed price, review report within 24 hours, gross including VAT) or put your question to an employment lawyer (€169 fixed price, including VAT).

For employers: checklist before an ordinary dismissal

Most dismissals fail not because of the reason, but because of formalities. Check before giving notice:

Do you want to dismiss as an employer and make sure the dismissal holds? Written advice from an employment lawyer costs €169 fixed price, including VAT.