There are certain formal requirements for a letter of resignation. This serves to create legal certainty and to facilitate evidence in a legal dispute.
If a notice of termination is not properly signed, it may be invalid. Because an effective termination also includes a real signature. This written form requirement is not satisfied by someone signing a written termination with an initial. The Labor Law Working Group of the German Lawyers’ Association (DAV) refers to a decision by the Hamm Regional Labor Court of June 28, 2022 (AZ: 17 Sa 1400/21).
The case concerned the effectiveness of two letters of termination. These contained typewritten names in the signature line. Above this name was a handwritten sign, which consisted of an almost vertical line and a short wavy tail. The dismissed employee brought an action for protection against unfair dismissal and asserted that there had been a breach of the written form of dismissal letters.
With success. The court declared the dismissals invalid. As a result, the plaintiff remains employed until a possible new proper termination.
The written form requirement means that a letter of termination must be properly signed. A full signature must therefore be provided. The external appearance is decisive for the distinction between signature and initials.
A vertical line and a short wavy run-out, as in the present case, is not enough. At best, this could have been a single letter, but not the rendering of a twelve-letter name. The character was only 1 – 1.5 cm long. However, the actual signature on other documents was 3 – 3.5 cm in length. It was clear to the court that this was a paraphrase, even if one were to apply a generous standard.
