AÜG Fine Proceeding in Germany: Protect Your Business

A notice from the Ger­man Fed­er­al Employ­ment Agency (Bun­de­sagen­tur für Arbeit) can be the start of an AÜG fine pro­ceed­ing or a wider inves­ti­ga­tion into your staff leas­ing oper­a­tions. What begins as a rou­tine query or audit can devel­op into a seri­ous legal mat­ter — with finan­cial con­se­quences and poten­tial risks to your AÜG licence.

AMETHYST Recht­san­wälte advis­es staffing com­pa­nies and oth­er busi­ness­es fac­ing alle­ga­tions of vio­la­tions of the Ger­man Tem­po­rary Employ­ment Act (Arbeit­nehmerüber­las­sungs­ge­setz – AÜG). Ear­ly legal assess­ment can help clar­i­fy the alle­ga­tions, pro­tect your posi­tion and iden­ti­fy the appro­pri­ate response.

When Can an AÜG Investigation Begin?

Pro­ceed­ings may fol­low an audit, a request for infor­ma­tion or con­cerns raised by the Fed­er­al Employ­ment Agency. Depend­ing on the cir­cum­stances, oth­er author­i­ties — includ­ing cus­toms author­i­ties, the police or the pub­lic prosecutor’s office — may also become involved.

Com­mon trig­gers include:

• Alleged staff leas­ing with­out the required AÜG licence
• Defi­cien­cies in licens­ing doc­u­men­ta­tion or com­pli­ance records
• Alleged breach­es of equal pay or equal treat­ment require­ments
• Con­trac­tu­al arrange­ments that do not reflect the actu­al work­ing practices
• Sus­pect­ed vio­la­tions iden­ti­fied dur­ing an inspec­tion
• Fail­ure to meet applic­a­ble noti­fi­ca­tion, record-keep­ing or coop­er­a­tion obligations

A for­mal alle­ga­tion does not auto­mat­i­cal­ly mean that a vio­la­tion has occurred. The facts, avail­able evi­dence and applic­a­ble legal pro­vi­sions must be exam­ined before a response is determined.

What Could an AÜG Fine Mean for Your Business?

The con­se­quences of an AÜG fine pro­ceed­ing depend on the alleged offence and the cir­cum­stances of the case. Poten­tial expo­sure includes:

• Admin­is­tra­tive fines: The statu­to­ry max­i­mum varies by offence. Cer­tain vio­la­tions involv­ing unau­tho­rised staff leas­ing car­ry a max­i­mum fine of €30,000, while some oth­er AÜG offences can car­ry statu­to­ry max­i­mums of up to €500,000.
• Addi­tion­al finan­cial expo­sure: Depend­ing on the case, fur­ther claims, pay­ments or finan­cial adjust­ments may arise.
• Man­age­ment lia­bil­i­ty: Poten­tial per­son­al con­se­quences must be assessed in light of the indi­vid­u­al’s role and the applic­a­ble legal requirements.
• Licence risks: Seri­ous or rel­e­vant com­pli­ance fail­ures may affect the com­pa­ny’s AÜG authorisation.
• Fur­ther inves­ti­ga­tions: In some cas­es, sus­pect­ed con­duct may also raise issues under oth­er areas of law.

These are poten­tial con­se­quences, not auto­mat­ic out­comes. The applic­a­ble max­i­mum fine and oth­er legal effects depend on the spe­cif­ic pro­vi­sion and facts involved.

How AMETHYST Rechtsanwälte Defends Your Interests

Labour leas­ing has been a cen­tral focus of our prac­tice for many years. AMETHYST Recht­san­wälte advis­es com­pa­nies nation­wide on AÜG com­pli­ance, licens­ing and reg­u­la­to­ry pro­ceed­ings involv­ing the Fed­er­al Employ­ment Agency.

Our expe­ri­ence includes over 1,000 AÜG cas­es and more than 25 years of pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ence. We com­bine spe­cialised legal knowl­edge with prac­ti­cal under­stand­ing of the oper­a­tional and reg­u­la­to­ry chal­lenges faced by staffing companies.

Our ser­vices include:

• Ini­tial legal assess­ment: Review­ing the alle­ga­tions, pro­ce­dur­al posi­tion and poten­tial exposure.
• Defence in fine pro­ceed­ings: Prepar­ing legal sub­mis­sions and chal­leng­ing alle­ga­tions where the facts and law sup­port doing so.
• Author­i­ty com­mu­ni­ca­tion: Advis­ing on cor­re­spon­dence, infor­ma­tion requests and respons­es to offi­cial notices.
• Licence pro­tec­tion: Assess­ing pos­si­ble impli­ca­tions for your AÜG licence and advis­ing on relat­ed proceedings.
• Com­pli­ance improve­ments: Iden­ti­fy­ing struc­tur­al weak­ness­es in con­tracts, doc­u­men­ta­tion and inter­nal pro­ce­dures to reduce future risks.

Our advice is tai­lored to the indi­vid­ual case. We assess the avail­able options and help you devel­op a clear, prac­ti­cal strategy.

Received a Notice from the Authority? Act Strategically.

If your com­pa­ny receives a request for infor­ma­tion, a hear­ing notice or a fine notice, the response should be care­ful­ly considered.

Unco­or­di­nat­ed com­mu­ni­ca­tion or incom­plete infor­ma­tion may com­pli­cate the mat­ter. The appro­pri­ate approach depends on the pro­ce­dur­al stage, the alle­ga­tions and the avail­able documents.

AMETHYST Recht­san­wälte can help you:

• Assess the alle­ga­tions and the cur­rent stage of the proceedings
• Review rel­e­vant con­tracts, records and correspondence
• Iden­ti­fy legal risks and pos­si­ble lines of defence
• Pre­pare appro­pri­ate respons­es and submissions
• Man­age com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the com­pe­tent authorities
• Eval­u­ate the impli­ca­tions for your exist­ing AÜG licence

If you have already received a notice, obtain legal advice prompt­ly before decid­ing how to respond.

Prevent Future Proceedings Through AÜG Compliance

A legal review can also help iden­ti­fy issues before they lead to fur­ther reg­u­la­to­ry action. Review­ing per­son­nel struc­tures, con­tracts, doc­u­men­ta­tion and inter­nal process­es may reveal weak­ness­es that can be addressed proactively.

Depend­ing on your sit­u­a­tion, our lawyers can also advise on AÜG Audit Pro­ce­dures, Labour Leas­ing With­out an AÜG Licence and AÜG Licence Denial or Revo­ca­tion.

Facing an AÜG Fine or Investigation? Get Legal Advice.

If the Fed­er­al Employ­ment Agency has raised con­cerns about your staff leas­ing activ­i­ties, or your com­pa­ny is fac­ing a fine or inves­ti­ga­tion, ear­ly spe­cial­ist advice can help you under­stand the alle­ga­tions and eval­u­ate your options.

Con­tact AMETHYST Recht­san­wälte to dis­cuss your case and deter­mine the appro­pri­ate next steps.

In Detail: List of Fines for Violation of the German Law on Temporary Employment 

In recent years, AÜG fine pro­ceed­ings have become increas­ing­ly impor­tant. Since denial of the license is often not pro­por­tion­ate, the Fed­er­al Employ­ment Agency (Bun­de­sagen­tur für Arbeit) has start­ed to impose fines for vio­la­tion of the Ger­man Law on Tem­po­rary Employ­ment (AÜG, Arbeit­nehmerüber­las­sungs­ge­setz).

The fines are some­times quite high. The fine for fail­ure to cor­rect­ly apply the col­lec­tive agree­ments can be as high as €500,000 (see sec. 16 (1) no. 7a in con­junc­tion with sec. 10 (4), sec. 16 (2) AÜG).

The list below shows sev­er­al offences sub­ject to fine (pur­suant to sec. 16 (1) AÜG). This applies to every per­son who, inten­tion­al­ly or through neg­li­gence,

 

Sec.  16 (1) no.	Offence	Fine in EUR
1	assigns a tem­po­rary employ­ee to a third par­ty with­out a licence in vio­la­tion of sec. 1	30,000
1a	allows a tem­po­rary employ­ee received from a tem­po­rary employ­ment agency with­out a license to work for them	30,000
1b	assigns a tem­po­rary employ­ee or allows a tem­po­rary employ­ee to work in vio­la­tion of sec. 1 (1) sen­tence 3	30,000
1c	fails to iden­ti­fy an assign­ment of a tem­po­rary employ­ee at all, cor­rect­ly or in time in vio­la­tion of sec. 1 (1) sen­tence 5	30,000
1d	fails to con­cre­tise the per­son at all, cor­rect­ly or in time in vio­la­tion of sec. 1 (1) sen­tence 6	30,000
1e	assigns a tem­po­rary employ­ee in vio­la­tion of sec. 1 (1b) sen­tence 1	30,000
1f	assigns a tem­po­rary employ­ee or allows a tem­po­rary employ­ee to work in vio­la­tion of sec. 1b sen­tence 1	30,000
2	allows a for­eign tem­po­rary employ­ee assigned to him to work if such employ­ee does not have the required res­i­dence title pur­suant to sec. 4 (3) of the  Act on the Res­i­dence, Eco­nom­ic Activ­i­ty and Inte­gra­tion of For­eign­ers in the Fed­er­al Ter­ri­to­ry (Aufen­thG, Gesetz über den Aufen­thalt, die Erwerb­stätigkeit und die Inte­gra­tion von Aus­län­dern im Bun­des­ge­biet), per­mis­sion to remain or tem­po­rary sus­pen­sion of depor­ta­tion (Dul­dung) or a per­mit pur­suant to sec. 284 (3) of the Third Book of the Code of Social Law (SGB III, Sozialge­set­zbuch (SGB) Drittes Buch (III))	500,000
2a	fails to sub­mit noti­fi­ca­tion pur­suant to sec. 1a at all, cor­rect­ly or in time	2500
3	fails to com­ply with a require­ment pur­suant to sec. 2 (2) at all, cor­rect­ly or in time	2500
4	fails to sub­mit noti­fi­ca­tion pur­suant to sec. 7 (1) at all, cor­rect­ly, com­plete­ly or in time	1000
5	fails to pro­vide infor­ma­tion pur­suant to sec. 7 (2) sen­tence 1 at all, cor­rect­ly, com­plete­ly or in time	1000
6	fails to ful­fil their record-keep­ing oblig­a­tion pur­suant to sec. 7 (2) sen­tence 4	30,000
6a	fails to accept a mea­sure as con­tem­plat­ed in sec. 7 (3) sen­tence 2 in vio­la­tion thereof	1000
7a	fails to pro­vide a work­ing con­di­tion in vio­la­tion of sec. 8 (1) sen­tence 1 or (2) sen­tence 2 or 4	500,000
7b	fails, in vio­la­tion of sec. 8 (5) in con­junc­tion with a leg­isla­tive act pur­suant to sec. 3a (2) sen­tence 1, to pay the min­i­mum hourly wage as pro­vid­ed for there­in at all or in time	500,000
8	fails to ful­fil an oblig­a­tion pur­suant to sec. 11 (1) or (2)	1000
8a	allows a tem­po­rary employ­ee to work in vio­la­tion of sec. 11 (5) sen­tence 1	500,000
9	fails to inform the tem­po­rary employ­ee at all, cor­rect­ly or com­plete­ly in vio­la­tion of sec. 13a sen­tence 1	2500
10	fails to grant access in vio­la­tion of sec. 13b sen­tence 1	2500
11	fails to tol­er­ate an audit or to co-oper­ate dur­ing such audit in vio­la­tion of sec. 17a in con­junc­tion with sec. 5 (1) sen­tence 1 of the Act to Com­bat Clan­des­tine Employ­ment (SchwarzArbG, Gesetz zur Bekämp­fung der Schwarzarbeit und ille­galen Beschäf­ti­gung)	30,000
12	fails to grant access to a prop­er­ty or busi­ness premis­es in vio­la­tion of sec. 17a in con­junc­tion with sec. 5 (1) sen­tence 2 SchwarzArbG	30,000
13	fails to trans­fer data at all, cor­rect­ly, com­plete­ly, in the required man­ner or in time in vio­la­tion of sec. 17a in con­junc­tion with sec. 5 (3) sen­tence 1 SchwarzArbG	30,000
14	fails to sub­mit reg­is­tra­tion at all, cor­rect­ly, com­plete­ly, in the required man­ner or in time in vio­la­tion of sec. 17b (1) sen­tence 1 AÜG	30,000
15	fails to sub­mit a change report at all, cor­rect­ly, com­plete­ly, in the required man­ner or in time in vio­la­tion of sec. 17b (1) sen­tence 2 AÜG	30,000
16	fails to attach a dec­la­ra­tion in vio­la­tion of sec. 17b (2) AÜG	30,000
17	fails to pre­pare a record at all, cor­rect­ly, com­plete­ly or in time in vio­la­tion of sec. 17c (1) AÜG or fails to archive such record for a min­i­mum peri­od of two years or	30,000
18	fails to make a doc­u­ment avail­able at all, cor­rect­ly, com­plete­ly or in the required man­ner in vio­la­tion of sec. 17c (2) AÜG	30,000