The recent terminations at Twitter have once again shown how different the protection against dismissal is in German and American labor law.
U.S. employees will probably receive continued pay for 60 days, or two months, under the WARN Act, and that’s it. If Elon Musk offers the dismissed employees (instead) a severance payment amounting to three months’ salary, that is considered quite fair by American standards. After all, Musk is paying 50% more than he has to.
In Germany, we would rather draw up a social plan that grants the dismissed employees (at least) 1 gross month’s salary per year of service as severance pay, in addition to compliance with the notice period.
Where do these differences come from, and which system is actually better?
