Employee complaints management in Germany

How it runs

1. 1

   Channel inventory

   We count what currently receives employee complaints: mailboxes, hotlines, ombudspersons, intranet forms, the HR inbox, the address named in the last works agreement. In most companies there are more channels than the management board assumes, and at least one runs without any deadline logic. The output is a list with channel, owner, legal basis and the state of its documentation.

2. 2

   Fixing the routing

   For every route it is put in writing how it is recognised, who owns it and what has to come out at the end. Section 84 Para. 2 BetrVG ends in a decision communicated to the employee about how the complaint was handled, Section 13 Para. 1 sentence 2 AGG in an examination and a notified result, Section 17 HinSchG in feedback within the period it names. Accounts that carry two routes get an explicit rule rather than a judgement call at the moment of intake.

3. 3

   Co-determination and publication

   Where a works agreement exists or the works council has to be involved, the procedure is agreed with it. Section 85 Para. 1 BetrVG gives the council a remit of its own, which the procedure does not displace and which is mapped into it. Publication then differs by route: Section 12 Para. 5 AGG requires the Act, Section 61b of the Labour Courts Act and the competent bodies to be published within the establishment, whereas Section 8 Para. 2 LkSG requires rules of procedure that are publicly accessible. A procedure the workforce does not know about does not produce reports, it produces detours.

4. 4

   Switching over

   The old channels are redirected or closed and open cases are migrated into the new files. The people who receive complaints are briefed on routing, on deadlines and on the confidentiality duty in Section 8 Para. 1 HinSchG. From this point every complaint has a date of receipt, a route, a deadline and a name attached to it.

5. 5

   Running it and reviewing it

   In normal operation the workspace monitors the deadlines per route and shows where each case stands. Once a quarter the patterns are reviewed: which route is growing, which site reports conspicuously little, where deadlines are getting tight. Out of that comes training, an adjustment to the rule, or the decision to staff a single route from outside.

The legal frame

Four provisions determine how many routes an employer has to run and what stands at the end of each one. Each is quoted in the German original, because that is the wording that binds, with the effect stated underneath.

Section 84 Paras. 1 to 3 BetrVG

Jeder Arbeitnehmer hat das Recht, sich bei den zuständigen Stellen des Betriebs zu beschweren, wenn er sich vom Arbeitgeber oder von Arbeitnehmern des Betriebs benachteiligt oder ungerecht behandelt oder in sonstiger Weise beeinträchtigt fühlt. Der Arbeitgeber hat den Arbeitnehmer über die Behandlung der Beschwerde zu bescheiden und, soweit er die Beschwerde für berechtigt erachtet, ihr abzuhelfen. Wegen der Erhebung einer Beschwerde dürfen dem Arbeitnehmer keine Nachteile entstehen.

This is the widest of the routes: it requires no particular ground, it is enough that the employee feels disadvantaged, treated unfairly or otherwise impaired by the employer or by other employees of the establishment. In return the employer owes a decision on how the complaint was handled, plus redress where the employer considers the complaint justified, and the employee may suffer no detriment for having raised it. An inbox that collects submissions and reports nothing back fails Para. 2.

Section 13 Para. 1 AGG

Die Beschäftigten haben das Recht, sich bei den zuständigen Stellen des Betriebs, des Unternehmens oder der Dienststelle zu beschweren, wenn sie sich im Zusammenhang mit ihrem Beschäftigungsverhältnis vom Arbeitgeber, von Vorgesetzten, anderen Beschäftigten oder Dritten wegen eines in § 1 genannten Grundes benachteiligt fühlen. Die Beschwerde ist zu prüfen und das Ergebnis der oder dem beschwerdeführenden Beschäftigten mitzuteilen.

The second route is narrower in what triggers it and stricter in what follows: it attaches to one of the protected grounds in Section 1 AGG, but it expressly requires an examination and notification of the result. It is also not tied to the single establishment, because it names the establishment, the company and the public agency, so the competent body may sit above site level. Section 12 Para. 5 AGG then requires the workforce to be told which body that is.

Section 17 Para. 1 No. 1 and Para. 2 HinSchG

Die interne Meldestelle bestätigt der hinweisgebenden Person den Eingang einer Meldung spätestens nach sieben Tagen. Die interne Meldestelle gibt der hinweisgebenden Person innerhalb von drei Monaten nach der Bestätigung des Eingangs der Meldung oder, wenn der Eingang nicht bestätigt wurde, spätestens drei Monate und sieben Tage nach Eingang der Meldung eine Rückmeldung.

This is the only route with a clock on it: receipt has to be acknowledged at the latest after seven days, and feedback is due within three months of that acknowledgement, or at the latest three months and seven days after the report arrived. Both periods run from receipt, not from the day it is settled internally who owns the case, which is why a report under the HinSchG cannot be left sitting in a general complaints inbox. The duty to set up and operate an internal reporting office applies under Section 12 Paras. 1 and 2 HinSchG to employers with normally at least 50 employees, and under Section 12 Para. 3 HinSchG to certain financial sector firms regardless of headcount.

Section 8 Paras. 1 and 2 LkSG

Das Unternehmen hat dafür zu sorgen, dass ein angemessenes unternehmensinternes Beschwerdeverfahren nach den Absätzen 2 bis 4 eingerichtet ist. Das Beschwerdeverfahren ermöglicht Personen, auf menschenrechtliche und umweltbezogene Risiken sowie auf Verletzungen menschenrechtsbezogener oder umweltbezogener Pflichten hinzuweisen, die durch das wirtschaftliche Handeln eines Unternehmens im eigenen Geschäftsbereich oder eines unmittelbaren Zulieferers entstanden sind. Der Eingang des Hinweises ist den Hinweisgebern zu bestätigen. Das Unternehmen legt eine Verfahrensordnung in Textform fest, die öffentlich zugänglich ist.

Companies within the scope of Section 1 LkSG run a fourth route. Section 1 Para. 1 LkSG covers companies with their head office, principal place of business, administrative seat, statutory seat or a German branch office in Germany whose thresholds have stood at 1,000 employees each since 1 January 2024, and Section 1 Para. 3 LkSG attributes the German employees of all group companies to the parent. This route is also open to people outside the workforce, and it is the only one whose rules of procedure have to be publicly accessible. Where it hangs off procurement while the other routes hang off HR, a group ends up with two procedures that know nothing about each other.

How the price is built

The price has four components, each shown separately. Almost all of the effort sits in the first one: settling the routing is the actual work, running it afterwards is routine.

• How many channels exist today and how well each is documented.
• Number of sites, legal entities and languages.
• Whether a works agreement on the complaints procedure exists or still has to be negotiated.
• Whether the company falls under Section 12 HinSchG and under Section 1 LkSG, because each adds a route, its deadlines and its publication duties.
• Whether legacy cases are migrated or only new submissions run in the procedure.

You receive a fixed figure per component once the channel inventory and the scope are settled. The platform is EUR 49 per officer role per month and is shown separately in the offer.

Frequently asked

What does employee complaints management in Germany consist of?

It concerns complaints raised by employees, not customer complaints. In Germany that means at least three duties that arose separately. Section 84 Para. 1 BetrVG gives every employee the right to complain to the competent bodies of the establishment if they feel disadvantaged, treated unfairly or otherwise impaired, and Section 84 Para. 2 BetrVG requires the employer to communicate a decision on how the complaint was handled. Section 13 Para. 1 AGG covers complaints about discrimination on one of the grounds in Section 1 AGG and requires an examination and notification of the result. From normally at least 50 employees, Section 12 Paras. 1 and 2 HinSchG add the internal reporting office with the deadlines in Section 17 HinSchG. Within the scope of Section 1 LkSG the complaints procedure under Section 8 Para. 1 LkSG sits alongside. On top come routes that are not complaints bodies but stay open: the works council under Section 85 Para. 1 BetrVG and the competent authority under Section 17 Para. 2 ArbSchG.

Can we run every complaint through a single channel?

For intake yes, for handling no. A shared entry point is in fact the goal, because otherwise employees have to guess which address fits their matter and in case of doubt use none of them. After intake the routes have to separate, for four reasons. Deadlines: Section 17 HinSchG requires acknowledgement of receipt at the latest after seven days and feedback within three months of that acknowledgement, while Section 84 Para. 2 BetrVG and Section 13 Para. 1 sentence 2 AGG name no such day count. Confidentiality: Section 8 Para. 1 HinSchG protects the identity of the reporting person, of the persons a report concerns and of others named in it. Publicity: Section 8 Para. 2 LkSG requires publicly accessible rules of procedure, whereas Section 12 Para. 5 AGG requires publication inside the establishment. Consequences: the AGG contains no penalty provision, its consequences are civil through Section 15 AGG and Section 22 AGG, whereas failing to set up and operate an internal reporting office is an administrative offence under Section 40 Para. 2 No. 2 HinSchG, which Section 40 Para. 6 HinSchG penalises with a fine of up to twenty thousand euros.

Which deadlines apply to which complaint?

Only one route names days. Section 17 Para. 1 No. 1 HinSchG requires receipt to be acknowledged at the latest after seven days, and Section 17 Para. 2 HinSchG requires feedback within three months of that acknowledgement or, where receipt was not acknowledged, at the latest three months and seven days after the report arrived. Section 84 Para. 2 BetrVG and Section 13 Para. 1 sentence 2 AGG name no day count in their wording, but both require a result that is communicated to the complainant, and a procedure without an internal target time does not reliably deliver that. Section 8 Para. 1 LkSG requires acknowledgement of receipt on that route without naming a period for it. The usual answer is an internal target time for the first response across all routes, with the statutory deadlines of each route sitting above it.

From when do we have to operate an internal reporting office?

Section 12 Para. 1 HinSchG requires employers to ensure that at least one office for internal reports is set up and operated which employees can turn to. Section 12 Para. 2 HinSchG limits that duty to employers with normally at least 50 employees. For the firms listed in Section 12 Para. 3 HinSchG, among them institutions within the meaning of the German Banking Act, capital management companies and undertakings under the Insurance Supervision Act, the duty applies regardless of headcount. Under Section 16 Para. 3 HinSchG the channels must allow reports orally or in text form, and under Section 16 Para. 2 HinSchG only the people responsible for receiving and handling reports, and those supporting them, may have access to incoming reports. An employer who fails to set up and operate an internal reporting office contrary to Section 12 Para. 1 sentence 1 HinSchG commits an administrative offence under Section 40 Para. 2 No. 2 HinSchG.

What is the difference between Section 84 BetrVG and Section 13 AGG?

The trigger and what is owed at the end. Section 84 Para. 1 BetrVG requires no particular ground: it is enough that the employee feels disadvantaged, treated unfairly or otherwise impaired by the employer or by other employees of the establishment. What follows under Section 84 Para. 2 BetrVG is a decision communicated to the employee about how the complaint was handled and, where the employer considers it justified, redress. Section 13 Para. 1 AGG instead requires the alleged disadvantage to relate to one of the grounds in Section 1 AGG, and it expressly requires the complaint to be examined and the result to be notified. In practice the same account can carry both routes, and then it runs in both. That is why the rule for double classification is written into the procedure rather than decided afresh at each intake.

What role does the works council keep?

A role of its own that the procedure does not replace. Section 85 Para. 1 BetrVG obliges the works council to receive complaints from employees and, where it considers them justified, to press the employer for redress. If the works council and the employer disagree about whether a complaint is justified, Section 85 Para. 2 BetrVG allows the council to call the conciliation committee, whose award replaces agreement between employer and works council, except where the subject of the complaint is a legal entitlement. Two things follow for a complaints procedure: the works council route stays open alongside it and is mapped into it, and the design of the procedure is agreed with the council wherever co-determination rights are engaged. Under Section 84 Para. 3 BetrVG no employee may suffer detriment for having raised a complaint.

How is this different from an external complaints office?

This service builds the procedure, it does not staff a body. It answers where a complaint arrives, which route it is assigned to, which deadlines and confidentiality rules then apply, and how all of that is later evidenced. An employer who instead wants the body under Section 13 AGG staffed by people outside the company, because internally everybody knows everybody, will find that on the external complaints office page. An employer who wants the internal reporting office under Section 12 HinSchG and its deadlines handled outside the company will find that on the external reporting office page. The combination is the normal case: the procedure stays with the employer, individual routes are staffed externally, and both run in the same documentation.