According to a ruling by the Federal Labor Court, a job reference may not be designed like a school report.
The Federal Labor Court in Erfurt ruled in a judgment published on Wednesday that the appropriate assessment of an employee cannot be shown in tabular form, but regularly only through “a job reference formulated in the running text”.
(AZ: 9 AZR 262/20)
The plaintiff, an electrician, was not satisfied with the job reference issued by the employer.
The certificate had individually assessed individual work performances such as work economy, specialist knowledge in general, cleanliness in the work area, punctuality or willingness to work, similar to a school report in tabular form.
The electrician received a “satisfactory” rating as an “overall performance assessment”.
According to the judgment, a job reference must “meet the requirements that are placed on a job reference in business life and that the reader expects as a matter of course”.
The job reference represents an “assessment that is individually tailored to the employee”.
Individual highlighting and differentiations could not be appropriately represented in tabular form, but only in the running text.
Testimony must be formulated benevolently
The Federal Labor Court referred the dispute back to the Hamm Regional Labor Court, which has to re-examine the wording in the job reference.
What the boss has to pay attention to when issuing certificates results from paragraph 109 of the trade regulations.
In addition, there have been some requirements from the courts in recent years.
The job reference must correspond to the truth and at the same time be formulated benevolently.
The supervisor must sign the certificate and it must be dated on the last day of the employment relationship.
From this day on, the employee is also entitled to the issue.