Im a lurker here, but I thought you guys would appreciate this.
My gf started working at this software startup last December. She only stayed there for 3 months, as they were absolutely crazy (you had to turn your phone in for no reason, boss would sign his mails with „#1“ instead of his name, insane unpaid overtime, etc.)
She had 4 days of holiday though (2 months out of 12, 24 days of holiday per year) and wanted to take them at the end of her employment. Her boss denied that, stating too much work due to her leaving. She would be compensated the 700€ in her last pay.
Last pay came and went, the 700€ were missing plus an additional 140€ were missing for no reason as well. She wrote emails, a formal written letter (this is crucial here in Germany), but apart from apologetic emails from HR „sorry we switched accounts“ (they didn’t, coworkers confirmed), nothing happened.
As the contract states a 3 months grace period, after that even just due payments forfeit, we had to act until June.
In Germany you can represent yourself at labour court and it’s actually very worker friendly. The lawsuit form is a single sheet of paper with all important details, they ask you to submit any proof you Have. We have email backups, holiday software screenshots, a wrong payment slip, a signed contract, bank deposit statements showing the missing regular 160€ and more.
I printed everything at work, prepared it for her, as I’m better with formal stuff and brought it home as a kind of gift. As she was very stressed out about this, it was great seeing her reaction. We drove to the courthouse and submitted it as a kind of celebratory act.
What happens now is a 15 minute meeting with a judge and her former boss is arranged to find justice. In her case there is no real room for Debate and he has done this before, so I think it will be over quick. I’ll join her for that of course. If he doesn’t appear, she automatically wins.
So yea, a short story about a shoddy tactic of a guy trying to save a few hundred bucks by scamming what he thinks is some girl who would just take it. Na, we’re getting it back including 5% interest for each month owed.
Here’s a photo of the paperwork I prepared for her, if that matters: https://i.ibb.co/94KwgDS/16-A3-F2-BA-EC7-A-44-FE-9-BFE-1333-A4-CFF78-D.jpg
