You have a clear right to a reference letter that is both truthful (wahr) and benevolently formulated (wohlwollend). If the Zeugnis your employer issued falls short, you can demand a corrected version — and, if the employer refuses, sue at the labor court.
What you can demand
- An accurate description of your duties. Vague or undersized duty descriptions for a senior role are themselves a coded downgrade. You can demand an accurate, specific description.
- The default Grade 3 wording as a minimum. If the summary line falls below “zu unserer vollen Zufriedenheit”, the burden is on the employer to prove that your performance was below average. Where the employer cannot, you are entitled to at least Grade 3.
- A Grade 2 or 1 with proof. If you can demonstrate above-average performance (positive performance reviews, bonus payouts, project successes), you can claim Grade 2 or higher.
- A standard closing formula. Regret, thanks, and good wishes. A missing closing formula is a defect.
- Removal of coded negative language. Phrases like “hat sich bemüht” or “kam zurecht” can be replaced with neutral or positive equivalents.
The process
- Written correction demand. We send the employer a detailed letter setting out each defect and proposing concrete revised wording. In most cases, this resolves the dispute — corrected references are less expensive for HR than litigation.
- Zeugnisberichtigungsklage. If the employer refuses, we file at the labor court. The court can order specific wording or — more commonly — order the employer to issue a corrected reference with specified content (e.g. “at least the summary ‘stets zu unserer vollen Zufriedenheit'”).
Deadlines
There is no statutory deadline for the claim, but two practical limits apply:
- The Ausschlussfrist in your employment contract may apply to Zeugnis claims (three months from end of employment) — though current case law often treats Zeugnis claims as exempt.
- The general statute of limitations is three years.
In practice: assert the claim within six months of receiving the reference. The longer you wait, the more an employer will argue you implicitly accepted the wording.
Negotiating the reference alongside a settlement
The most cost-effective time to fix a reference is during settlement of a dismissal claim. Most settlements include a clause requiring the employer to issue a reference with specified content — typically at least Grade 2, with a defined closing formula. Once the settlement is signed and the reference issued, future correction is much harder.
Drafting the correction demand
The demand should set out, paragraph by paragraph: (1) what the current reference says; (2) why it fails (specific code, missing element, factual inaccuracy); (3) the concrete revised wording requested. Generic “this Zeugnis is unfair” demands are weak. Specific “the performance summary should read ‘stets zu unserer vollen Zufriedenheit’ for the following reasons” demands are strong.
When the employer refuses
The Zeugnisberichtigungsklage at the labor court typically has a Streitwert of one monthly salary (case law). For a €5,000/month employee, the lawyer fee is modest (~€700 net on one side). The vast majority of these cases settle once the demand is on the court file, because the employer’s HR resources are usually cheaper to spend revising the Zeugnis than litigating it.
“At least Grade 3” as a fallback
Where the negotiation stalls on Grade 2 vs. Grade 3, courts will usually default to Grade 3 (“zu unserer vollen Zufriedenheit”) because the BAG has held this is the minimum the employer owes without specific proof of below-average performance. So if Grade 2 negotiation fails, the fallback is still a respectable reference.