Legal Advice on Dismissal and Employment Contracts

Questioner

I have been working in a café since 2008, where I worked full time for 5 years, after which I worked for 1.5 years at another café (with the same owner), which closed in 2014 and then I went back to working part time at the first café. On 23 August I was told that the café was being closed immediately because the permit had been revoked. I had a verbal employment contract with my employer in 2008 (as far as I know, this has now automatically become an indefinite contract after so many years). Now it is quite a complicated situation and I will try to describe it as clearly as possible: The owner on paper is not the real owner. This is someone the owner knows. The real owner lives in Germany, and has the café more for fun on the side. I see the last person as my boss and he also profiles himself as such. He pays my salary and gets the turnover. (while he is not on paper anywhere). On August 23rd the café suddenly closed and I had to wait and see what would happen. I still have 40 hours of work outstanding that I have not yet been paid. I called that I want a termination contract so that I could apply for benefits and I received them a few days ago. This termination contract contains things that I have my doubts about. For example, I am not entitled to anything, except payment of my saved holiday pay (which was paid per hour, because I work part-time). There is no termination date (only ..... September, so to be filled in later). There is nothing about me still being entitled to two months' salary after termination of the contract (notice period) and nothing about severance pay. Nor does it say that I can ask a lawyer for advice or something (which I believe is mandatory to mention in such a termination contract). I do not know exactly how many hours per week I was on paper for, because I had to report my hours every month and I was paid for this (that was usually around 90 hours per month, I usually received between 800-900 euros per month). My question is: what am I entitled to and what can I say to my employer? I do not want to agree to this.

Lawyer

That does sound like a complicated situation. You need to be very careful not to get mangled. I can help you, if you wish, to try to come to a good termination agreement.