Be careful with the job description

Employment relationships are often defined by a job description. It is advisable to describe the intended duties in meticulous detail. This is because, if the actual work deviates from the description, the employer could even face a lawsuit.

The Hessian Regional Labor Court had to rule on an employer’s appeal. The employer had previously been involved in a legal dispute with an employee regarding the validity of a notice of change. The purpose of the notice of change was to assign the employee to a position that was likely lower-level and therefore unacceptable to him. The employee prevailed, and the employer was required to continue employing him as an Account Director, as before.

Problem: Job Description

In the court settlement reached in this matter, the parties had agreed on a job description. However, contrary to this job description, the employee was no longer permitted to manage and advise selected key account clients as he had previously done. The new focus of his work was active sales. As part of his new role, he was required to acquire new customers for previously neglected service offerings and could no longer work with his existing client base.

Court Confirms Penalty Payment

Since the employer did not change the employee’s job description even after the employee’s complaint, the employee successfully petitioned the labor court to impose a penalty payment on the employer. However, the state labor court dismissed the appeal filed against this decision in its entirety.

Conclusion: The work environment is certainly already severely strained when an employee initiates penalty payment proceedings against his boss. This could have been avoided if the employer had taken greater care in drafting the job description that would apply in the future.