Labour law: no adjustment of a compensation for lawyer’s fees
The LSG (Regional social Court) Essen has decided to suspend the entitlement to unemployment benefit that the lawyer’s fees for the agreement of a settlement amount in the labour court proceedings after a behaviour-related termination without notice are not to be reduced.
Following a behavior-related termination without notice, the plaintiff and his employer reached a settlement in the dismissal protection action before the labor court in which they agreed to terminate the employment relationship as of October 31, 2017 and to grant a severance payment in the total amount of 30,150 Euro. On its request the deplored federal agency for work granted unemployment pay to the plaintiff, at the same time however the resting of the requirement for 108 days determined. The employment relationship had been terminated without observance of the ordinary period of notice, so that the claim according to § 158 SGB III was resting with pro rata consideration of the dismissal compensation paid. The plaintiff countered that the rest period was only 98 days. The costs of his authorised lawyer in the labour court proceedings were to be deducted from the compensation sum. These had been included in the compensation.
The SG Köln had dismissed the complaint. The plaintiff appealed against the judgment.
LSG Essen dismissed the appeal.
In the opinion of the Regional Social Court, there is no legal basis for the plaintiff’s demanded deduction of lawyer’s fees. Rather, the law regulates the crediting of dismissal compensation in a lump-sum and typified form by means of graduated allowances depending on the age of the employee and the duration of the employment relationship. At the same time, certain hardships were to be tolerated – constitutionally unobjectionable. In contrast to tax law, employment promotion law does not contain a legal basis for taking into account the costs associated with labour court proceedings in order to reduce the settlement amount. The plaintiff also failed to include an express provision on these costs in the settlement.
22.05.2019