If employees are to be promoted, employers often do not know whether they are up to this management role and have an interest in providing them with a fixed-term employment contract for the management role.
The Federal Labor Court (BAG) has dealt with the question of whether “acting as a manager” is a permissible reason for a fixed-term contract.
Basically, you need a legally regulated reason for the limitation of an employment contract, which justifies the limitation.
Permissible reasons are, for example, "representing another employee" or the special "peculiarity" of the work to be performed.
Recently, the BAG had to decide whether the activities of a manager have such special features that justify a time limit.
The BAG denied this and did not recognize the reason for the limitation of the "characteristic of the work performance" for the activities of a manager.
The required special features do not result from the prominent position of the manager, not from their powers and not from their extensive freedom from instructions.
In the future, employers must base the time limit on a manager on another reason for the time limit, unless a time limit of up to two years without a reason for a time limit is possible.