The 28th is a Sunday this year. Banks in Germany don't work on weekends. This is perfectly normal.
In fact, there is no legal obligation to pay an employee before the end of the month (unless explicitly stated in the work contract). I've worked for employers that only paid in the first week of the next month.
If the money wasn't in their account by tonight, they may want to get worried. But at this point in time, this is just the press trying to spread some hysteria.
Edit: The problem with vacation: You lose track of time. the 28th of course was Monday.
It is usually the standard to pay on the 25th and if that ends up on a Saturday or Sunday then the day before a bank holiday which can be the 23rd or even the 22nd.
Not paying your workers in Europe especially Germany is a big no-no and will get you in huge trouble. Expect regulators to start taking Twitter through the ringer.
Meanwhile in the real world, salary has to be paid at the end of the month:
> BGB, Section 614
> Due date of remuneration
> Remuneration is to be paid after performance of the services. If remuneration is assessed by time periods, then it is to be paid at the end of the individual time periods.
I am fairly sure you mean 614 BGB - and that only defines that payment is due "after the service has been rendered", but not "immediately after the service has been rendered".
The German language, especially in legal texts, is a weapon.
>
Die Vergütung ist nach der Leistung der Dienste zu entrichten. Ist die Vergütung nach Zeitabschnitten bemessen, so ist sie nach dem Ablauf der einzelnen Zeitabschnitte zu entrichten.
translates to :
Remuneration shall be paid after the services have been rendered. If the remuneration is calculated according to time periods, it shall be paid after the expiry of the individual time periods.
"after the expiry" != "immediately after the expiry". It can be one second, or a year. 614 BGB clarifies that you are not entitled money BEFORE you have rendered your part of the contract.
> "after the expiry" != "immediately after the expiry"
That's actually exactly what it means. Immediately after the end of the time period, the employee is entitled to the money and the employer has to pay interest for each day after that.
I've been working in Germany for a while and weekends were always taken into account, I always got my money the last week of the month regardless of weekend/holidays
The article says that UK employees were due to be paid on 25th, which was Friday, but were told they would be paid on the 28th, Monday, instead.
So that's not normal but is an internal problem, even if a one off and not necessarily serious.
As an aside, and it might be different in Germany, if a payment due date falls on a weekend/bank holiday then usually the payment should be made before, not after, because payments are expected by due date, not later...
>So that's not normal but is an internal problem, even if a one off and not necessarily serious.
I've worked for the same firm (a medium-sized aerospace company) for 15 years.
Never once, for approximately all three hundred and ninety pay periods during that time, has my pay been even 1 femtosecond late, or the date of my pay been changed.
Is this really common and normal?
Personally, I consider it a gigantic, waving, red flag if payroll cannot push the button on time, every time, with no exceptions. That's the simplest and most fundamental business process there is: paying your employees.
I wonder if bankruptcy could be the result of all this.