Rights in case of Salary Change: What to Do?

Questioner

My husband has had a fixed gross salary for 1.5 years. Now as of January 1, 2013, his gross salary has been reduced by 66 euros. His net has remained the same. Asked this to the employer and she came up with a vague story that his salary would have been indexed. We suspect that the employer wants to keep the tax benefit of 2013 (tax changes) for himself. Can an employer change your gross salary without consultation?

Lawyer

No, that is definitely not allowed. The gross salary is namely the agreed salary (unless a net salary has been explicitly agreed). Kind regards,

Questioner

so the refuting that he is indexing his salary is nonsense?

Lawyer

That seems nonsense to me. Unless your husband's employer can come up with a good, legally sound explanation for this, the rule simply applies: 'an agreement is an agreement': your husband is entitled to a certain, agreed gross salary and how much of that he ultimately receives net is of no importance to the employer. I advise you to present this to the employer and see how he reacts. If you wish, you can then ask that reaction here in a follow-up question. Kind regards,