Status: 08/25/2022 5:41 p.m
The Federal Labor Court has clarified that over-indebted employees are allowed to keep their employer’s corona premiums in insolvency proceedings. The judges decided that the money was a hardship allowance and therefore non-seizable.
According to a decision by the Federal Labor Court, corona premiums may not be seized. In a case from Lower Saxony, the highest German labor court in Erfurt ruled that a voluntary special corona payment that employers transfer to their employees is a hardship allowance and is therefore protected.
However, the purpose of the corona premium must be “to compensate for an actual difficulty in performing work” and its amount must not exceed the usual scope, the judges explained. According to the legal rules, the payment of corona premiums up to an amount of 1500 euros was tax- and duty-free – but only until March 2022.
Kitchen help was in debt
Previously, the lower courts had already denied the attachment. In the specific case, a restaurant operator had voluntarily paid a corona bonus of 400 euros to a kitchen help in September 2020. However, the woman was indebted. Insolvency proceedings were opened on the debtor’s assets back in 2015.
When the insolvency administrator found out about the Corona premium, she added up the premium, the gross monthly salary of the employees in the amount of 1350 euros and 66.80 euros for Sunday bonuses – and then held out her hand. With the receipt of the Corona premium, there is now an attachable amount of 182.99 euros net. The insolvency administrator pointed out that the corona premium had been paid voluntarily and could therefore be attached.
So far many unregulated areas
But the Corona premium is “not part of the debtor’s attachable income,” the Federal Labor Court ruled. With the premium, the employer wanted to “compensate for an actual difficulty in the debtor’s work”. However, hardship allowances are not subject to attachment under the law. The premium also did not exceed the normal range.
So far, there has only been one definition for the care sector, in which the legislator had expressly stipulated that corona premiums could not be attached. For all other, previously unregulated areas, the Federal Labor Court has now provided clarity with its judgment. Dirt and hardship allowances paid by employers are fully or partially protected from attachment in the event of debt.
Az: 8 AZR 14/22