dismissal protection
noun · Kündigungsschutz
Kündigungsschutz, the statutory protection of the KSchG, but it works differently from UK unfair dismissal in the way that matters most: where it applies, a dismissal that is not socially justified does not take effect and the employment simply continues, so the primary outcome is keeping the job, not a compensation award.
Which translation, when
Why
Dismissal protection is Kündigungsschutz, and the danger is to read it through UK unfair dismissal. The Kündigungsschutzgesetz protects employees who have been more than six months in the establishment, § 1 Abs. 1 KSchG, but only where the establishment has more than ten employees, § 23 KSchG; a dismissal is then valid only if socially justified, that is, based on the employee’s person or conduct or on urgent operational requirements. The decisive difference is the consequence. A socially unjustified dismissal is not compensated, it is ineffective, rechtsunwirksam, so the employment relationship continues; the German system centres on keeping the job, not on a payout. There is no automatic right to severance: an Abfindung arises only exceptionally, where on an Auflösungsantrag the court finds continuation unreasonable and dissolves the relationship against payment, §§ 9, 10 KSchG, and in practice many parties settle for a sum to avoid litigation. The employee must bring a Kündigungsschutzklage within three weeks of receiving the dismissal, § 4 KSchG, or it is treated as valid, § 7 KSchG. UK unfair dismissal, by contrast, generally needs two years of service and leads mainly to compensation, reinstatement being rare. So rendering the words as Kündigungsschutz is right, but importing the assumption of a compensation-first regime misstates a protection whose default is continued employment.
Typical mistakes
- A socially unjustified dismissal under the KSchG is ineffective, so the default is that the employment continues; presenting the outcome as a compensation award imports the UK model and misstates the remedy.
- The general protection applies only above the thresholds (more than six months, more than ten employees), so assuming every employee is covered overstates its reach.
- The employee must sue within three weeks, § 4 KSchG, or the dismissal is deemed valid, so treating the protection as available without a strict deadline is wrong.
What matters
Advising on a German dismissal, the translation should render dismissal protection as Kündigungsschutz, mark that a socially unjustified dismissal is ineffective so the employment continues rather than converting into a compensation claim, and flag the three-week deadline of § 4 KSchG. Presenting it as UK-style unfair dismissal misstates both remedy and reach.
What the machine misses
Machine output renders dismissal protection as Kündigungsschutz, then describes it as a compensation regime like UK unfair dismissal. It loses that under the KSchG a socially unjustified dismissal is ineffective so the employment continues, that there is no automatic severance, and that the general protection applies only above the six-month and ten-employee thresholds with a three-week deadline to sue. The rendering swaps a job-keeping remedy for a payout.
Examples
| statutory dismissal protection | der gesetzliche Kündigungsschutz |
| a socially unjustified dismissal | eine sozial ungerechtfertigte Kündigung |
| the action for protection against dismissal | die Kündigungsschutzklage |
| special protection against dismissal | der besondere Kündigungsschutz |
More notes on these sections
employee Arbeitnehmer
redundancy betriebsbedingte Kündigung