Labor Law: Protection Against Dismissal Prior to Parental Leave (BAG, June 18, 2026 – 2 AZR 213/25)
Employees who take parental leave in multiple consecutive blocks are protected against dismissal before each individual block — even if all blocks were requested in a single letter. Germany’s Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG) made this clear on 18 June 2026, closing a loophole that some employers had been keen to exploit.
The Facts
Barely a month into his new job, the claimant applied for parental leave across four separate periods stretching to mid-2027 — all in one letter dated 23 July 2024. The employer approved the leave, bided its time, and then issued notice of termination in early October 2024, at a point when the claimant was not yet on parental leave but his second block was due to begin on 11 November 2024. Crucially, the employer had not obtained the mandatory approval from the competent state authority required under § 18(1) sentence 4 BEEG.
That was the fatal mistake.
The Ruling
The Second Senate left no room for doubt: the dismissal is void. The anticipatory protection against dismissal under § 18(1) sentence 2 no. 1 BEEG does not apply just once — it is triggered anew before each parental leave block. A fresh protective window opens eight weeks before the start of every block. How many separate letters the employee used to request the leave is entirely beside the point.
The court’s reasoning is as straightforward as it is compelling: if an employer could dismiss an employee immediately before each new block, the protection that applies during parental leave itself would be rendered meaningless. That cannot be what the legislature intended.
A practical note worth highlighting: unlike the German Unfair Dismissal Act (KSchG), the BEEG contains no six-month qualifying period. The claimant had been employed for just four weeks — and was protected nonetheless.
What This Means for Employers
Before dismissing an employee who has applied for parental leave in multiple blocks, employers must examine every individual block. If the dismissal falls within the eight-week protective period before any of the upcoming blocks, it will be invalid without the required state authority approval — no exceptions.
A single comprehensive application can generate a chain of overlapping protective windows that, depending on the intervals between blocks, may run back-to-back for years.
Takeaway
A clear message from Federal Court: parental leave protection cannot be circumvented by clever timing. Before issuing any notice of termination, employers should map out an employee’s entire parental leave plan in full — and when in doubt, seek legal advice sooner rather than later.
