German Court Ruling Upends Employer Notices: Registered Letters Lose Legal Weight

Employers across Germany are scrambling to revise their notification procedures after the Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht) stripped registered letters of their presumed evidentiary value. The ruling, handed down on 7 May 2026 (Case No. 2 AZR 184/25), targets the Deutsche Post’s scanning process for Einwurf-Einschreiben — letters dropped into mailboxes with a confirmation of delivery.

At the heart of the dispute was a dismissal that hinged on a failed invitation to a company’s return-to-work management programme (betriebliches Eingliederungsmanagement, or bEM). The employer could not prove the letter had actually reached the employee. The court found that the scan-based confirmation system did not establish a prima facie case (Anscheinsbeweis) for delivery. The dismissal for health-related reasons was therefore invalid.

The problem stemmed from postal workers scanning letters as delivered before the envelope had physically entered the recipient’s mailbox. Deutsche Post has since adjusted its procedure, now recording delivery only after the letter is deposited. Whether this new method will withstand judicial scrutiny remains uncertain.

Legal experts are now advising companies to hand over time-critical documents — especially termination notices — in person with witnesses present, or to use a courier service that provides a signed receipt.

Sick Notes Under Growing Scrutiny

In a separate development, the Hamm Regional Labour Court (Landesarbeitsgericht Hamm) upheld the summary dismissal of a production assistant whose behaviour had undermined the credibility of his medical certificate. After his holiday request was denied, the employee announced he would see a doctor and promptly submitted a sick note covering the disputed period. The court ruled this constituted a severe breach of trust.

Meanwhile, the Baden-Württemberg State Social Court (Landessozialgericht Baden-Württemberg, Case No. L 10 U 135/25) clarified a point of law: partial incapacity for work does not exist under current legislation as long as the employee fulfils their contractual working hours. The case involved a junior doctor who could not perform on-call duties but completed her regular shifts. She was denied injury benefit for the lost overtime supplements.

Limits on Monitoring Sick Employees

Courts are also drawing boundaries around surveillance of workers on sick leave. In June 2025, a Spanish labour court in A Coruña declared the dismissal of a woman null and void. She had suffered a stroke and was later filmed shopping and walking during her recovery. The judges ruled that everyday activities do not prove fitness for work. She was awarded €5,000 in damages.

Germany’s Federal Labour Court reinforced this approach on 25 July 2024 (Case No. 8 AZR 225/23), tightening the rules for hiring private detectives to monitor ill employees. Such intrusions into personal privacy are only permissible when there is a concrete, fact-based suspicion of a serious breach of duty.

Handling employee health and absence is a delicate balance — and getting the documentation right is just as important as the legal framework. A free Health & Safety Toolkit gives you ready-to-use risk assessments, checklists, and templates that help UK employers stay compliant with the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974. Download the free Health & Safety Toolkit

Reform on the Horizon

Legislators are planning a fundamental overhaul for 2027: the introduction of a genuine partial-incapacity-for-work model. Under the proposed system, affected employees would be able to resume their duties gradually — in steps of 25, 50 or 75 percent of their usual hours. Until now, German law has maintained a rigid binary between full fitness and full unfitness for work, blocking any intermediate solution.

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