In the future, fixed-term employment contracts will no longer have to be printed out and signed by hand. Instead, the text form instead of the written form should also apply to them from January 1, 2027. The federal government would like to introduce this regulation as part of its latest labor market reform plans. For employers, this means: From 2027, fixed-term employment contracts can also be processed completely digitally.
It is currently unclear whether this actually applies to all areas. Until now, the written form – i.e. the necessary printing out and hand-signing of employment contracts – was mandatory, in addition to fixed-term contracts, for employees who work in economic sectors or sectors in accordance with Section 2a Paragraph 1 of the Act to Combat Undeclared Employment. This was the case, for example, with employees in the construction industry, in the catering industry and in the meat industry. There is nothing about this in the reform paper. Labor lawyer Dr. Alexander Bissels assumes that this regulation will continue to apply, as he announced on Linkedin.
HR and labor law: reactions to the reform project
Despite the exception, labor lawyers and HR professionals are reacting positively to the project. “This joyful jubilation of the HR soul cannot be understood by anyone who does not work in the HR department,” writes Jan Martin Schmidt, HR consultant and executive manager at Ellrich & Colleagues Software, on Linkedin about the reform project. Because this means that the “last bastion of ‘wet ink’” will disappear. “Uniform, completely digital hiring processes can now finally be created,” says Schmidt. This leads to relief in human resources departments.
Labor lawyers Benjamin Münnich and Henry Lambertz from the law firm CMS Law see the regulation as a contribution to digitalization and as an aid to the standardization of process flows. In a blog entry they write: “For internationally operating corporations, especially in matrix structures with disciplinary and signatory managers abroad, the change represents a helpful standardization step, because in many countries fixed-term agreements do not have to be concluded in writing.”
The planned reform – if implemented – would follow innovations in the Bureaucracy Relief Act that will come into force in 2025. Since then, employment contracts can be concluded in electronic form as long as the documents are accessible to the employee, can be saved and printed out. When transmitting the information, the employer must also ask the employee to provide proof of receipt. There are also special requirements for the digital signature. And: Employees can still request that their employer provide proof in writing.
As soon as the Federal Cabinet has approved a draft law on the topic, the Bundestag must also vote on the project.
Lena Onderka is editorially responsible for the Employee Experience & Retention area – which also includes, for example, the topics of BGM and employee surveys. She also looks after the topic of diversity. She is also the editorial contact for the German Human Resources Summit and the HR Forum Banking.
