Ukraine – Arbeitsaufnahme für geflüchtete Menschen

Refugees from Ukraine are allowed to work in Germany. However, employment must first be permitted by the foreigners authority. Information on the topic of taking up employment for refugees can be found on the website of the Bremen-Bremerhaven Employment Agency at https://www.arbeitsagentur.de/ukraine

Yes, this is possible. However, gainful employment must first be permitted by the foreigners authority.

The foreigners authority will enter in the residence title that the gainful employment is permitted if the requirements are met. Already when an application is filed, the foreigners authorities will issue so-called fictitious certificates. The foreigners authority will also enter "gainful employment permitted" in the fictitious certificate if the person can foreseeably obtain a residence permit in accordance with Section 24 of the Residence Act. This means that no further work permit from another authority is required: you may therefore work in Germany on a self-employed basis or as an employee.

Depending on the type of activity, there may be further requirements in addition to the question of the work permit, e.g. access restrictions under professional law. Questions about this can be answered free of charge by the Bremen Advisory Service for Foreign Professional Qualifications: anerkennung@wae.bremen.de, phone: +49 421 36301 954.

City of Bremen:

If you live in the city of Bremen, please fill out the Application for a Residence Permit Ukraine - Stay in Germany (bremen.de) and send it by mail to the Migration Office Bremen (ukraine@migrationsamt.bremen.de ). You must scan and send copies of passport or other identity documents for each person.

The Migration Office Bremen will then certify your application and send a letter (fictitious certificate) allowing you to take up gainful employment if you can foreseeably obtain a residence permit in accordance with Section 24 of the Residence Act. From this point on, gainful employment is permitted.

Later, you will receive an appointment to have your biometric data recorded. This is necessary so that the Migration Office can subsequently issue a residence permit.

City of Bremerhaven:

If you live in the city of Bremerhaven, you can informally apply for a residence permit according to §24 Residence Act at the Foreigners' Registration Office of the Municipality of Bremerhaven. Copy of Ukrainian passport / ID is to be enclosed (Auslaenderbehörde@magistrat.bremerhaven.de).

The Magistrate Bremerhaven sends a letter (fictitious certificate), with which the admission of gainful employment is permitted. From this moment the gainful employment is allowed.

If you are looking for a job or training position in Germany, please contact the Employment Agency. The Employment Agency will support and advise you in your search for a suitable job and arrange concrete job offers for you.

Contact the Employment Agency in Bremen and Bremerhaven: Ukraine Hilfe - Agentur für Arbeit Bremen-Bremerhaven (arbeitsagentur.de).

Important notice. As of June 1, 2022, the Bremen and Bremerhaven Job Centers will be responsible for granting subsistence benefits as well as placement in the labor market (previously the Federal Employment Agency).

Under "Further information" you will find a customer flyer of the Employment Agency in German and Ukrainian.

The Employment Agency supports you on your way to work in Germany, e.g. with application training, the assumption of application costs and informs you about funding opportunities for coaching and training courses.

If you live in Bremen or Bremerhaven, please contact the Bremen-Bremerhaven Employment Agency: Ukraine Hilfe - Agentur für Arbeit Bremen-Bremerhaven (arbeitsagentur.de).

Important notice. As of June 1, 2022, the Bremen and Bremerhaven Job Centers will be responsible for providing subsistence benefits and placement in the labor market (previously the Federal Employment Agency).

There is a statutory minimum wage in Germany. This means that every employee has the right to demand that the employer pays at least this wage (but may also pay more).

Agreements that fall below the minimum wage or restrict it are invalid!

The statutory minimum wage is currently 9.82 euros gross per hour worked; it will increase to 10.45 euros gross per hour worked on July 1, 2022 and to 12.00 euros gross per hour worked on October 1, 2022.

However, collective agreements often also apply to employment relationships in Germany. In these, employee representatives have negotiated and agreed certain working conditions with employers in a particular sector. If an employment relationship is covered by a collective agreement, wages are usually paid that are higher than the statutory minimum wage. An employment relationship is always covered by a collective agreement if a collective agreement has been declared generally binding or if the following 3 conditions are met:

• You are a member of a trade union and
• your employer is a member of an employers' association and
• this association has concluded a collective agreement with the trade union.

You can find out which collective agreement applies to you by contacting the Bremen Chamber of Employees Home - Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen (Bremen: phone +49 421 36301 11; Bremerhaven: phone +49 471 92235 11) or the Senator for Economics, Labor and Europe Home - Die Senatorin für Wirtschaft, Arbeit und Europa (bremen.de).

Yes, this is also bindingly regulated in the Working Hours Act. In Germany, employees are not allowed to work longer than 6 hours at a stretch without a rest break.

The break times are at least:

• 30 minutes for a working time of more than 6 and up to 9 hours
• 45 minutes for a working time of more than 9 and up to 10 hours.

After the end of the daily work, employees are entitled to an uninterrupted rest period of at least 11 hours. In the case of certain activities, this rest period may exceptionally be reduced to 10 hours if this reduction is compensated for within a calendar month or within 4 weeks by an increase in the rest period on other days.

For reasons of proof, it is recommended to always conclude a written employment contract. In Germany, employment contracts can initially also be effectively concluded orally, but if the employment relationship lasts longer than one month, the employer is required by law to draw up the essential contractual terms in writing, sign them and hand them over to the employee. Details result from § 2 Nachweisgesetz, cf. § 2 NachwG - Einzelelnorm (gesetze-im-internet.de).

The duration of the daily working time is specified in the employment contract. However, there are legal limits which the employer must observe and which are regulated in the Working Hours Act. Per working day (Monday to Saturday), the working time - without adding a break - may not exceed eight hours. In exceptional cases, i.e. on individual days, ten hours per working day may be worked. However, the average working time may not exceed eight hours per working day within a period of six calendar months or 24 weeks.

Yes, employers can in principle terminate the employment contract (as can the employee, by the way). However, employers must adhere to certain conditions:

• It is very important that the notice of termination must always and exclusively be in writing, i.e. a verbal notice of termination is not effective and the employee may continue to go to work and also continues to have a wage claim
• a distinction must be made between an "extraordinary" notice of termination and an "ordinary" notice of termination - the difference is that an extraordinary notice of termination is effective immediately upon announcement of the notice of termination and an ordinary notice of termination is effective only after the expiration of a certain period of time, i.e. only later
• extraordinary dismissal may be declared only if there are special and very important reasons, such as theft of employer's property by the employee, fraud during working hours, serious insult, repeated unexcused absence from work
• For ordinary termination of employment, certain periods of notice apply, i.e. the termination is not effective immediately, but only after the expiry of a certain period of notice, which is at least 2 weeks (= case of termination during the so-called probationary period) and varies depending on the employee's age. The exact length of the notice period can be determined by law, by a collective agreement or by the employment contract itself. The Bremen Chamber of Employees offers expert advice free of charge: Home - Bremen Chamber of Employees (Bremen: phone +49 421 36301 11
• Bremerhaven: phone +49 471 92235 11).
• If you have been working in a medium-sized or larger company for at least 6 months, i.e. if there are more than 10 employees in total, an ordinary termination must also be "socially justified". This means that the dismissal must either be justified by reasons that lie in your person or in your behavior at the workplace or be in the urgent operational interest of the employer - more details on this are regulated by the Dismissal Protection Act KSchG - Kündigungsschutzgesetz (gesetze-im-internet.de), Expert and free advice is offered by the Bremen Chamber of Employees: Home - Bremen Chamber of Employees (Bremen: phone +49 421 36301 11
• Bremerhaven: phone +49 471 92235 11).

According to the Minimum Vacation Act for Employees, every employee in Germany is entitled to paid vacation. The vacation entitlement per calendar year is at least 24 working days (= all calendar days that are not Sundays or public holidays). Vacation may be taken for the first time after 6 months of employment.

You must inform your employer as soon as possible of any illness that prevents you from working (= incapacity for work). The employer must also be informed of the expected duration of your incapacity for work due to illness. You do not need to specify the type of illness.

At the latest after 3 days of incapacity for work, you must provide your employer with a medical certificate stating the existence of the incapacity for work as well as its expected duration, depending on the employment contract possibly already from the first day of the incapacity for work.

As a rule, your employer must continue to pay you during the period of incapacity for work up to a period of 6 weeks. If the illness/incapacity to work lasts longer than 6 weeks, contact the health insurance fund with which you are insured. There you can apply for sick pay.

Unfortunately not! Even if the vast majority of job offers comply with the law, there are also isolated cases of exploitative and/or immoral job offers, and there is even a risk of human trafficking. The Bremen Chamber of Employees offers expert advice free of charge: Home - Bremen Chamber of Employees (Bremen: phone +49 421 36301 11; Bremerhaven: phone +49 471 92235 11).

Therefore, be careful which offer of employment you accept and it is better to refuse if you have a bad feeling!

• Never give your passport or cell phone to other people for safekeeping
• Inform your family or friends where you are going or staying
• Leave your accommodation or home if you do not feel safe
• Be careful if someone demands money from you, harasses or threatens you
• Do not work without a written employment contract.

Advice and assistance in dealing with residence or social law issues are free of charge.

The Bremen and Bremerhaven advice center for mobile workers offers free advice on the subject of labor exploitation in the state of Bremen: https://www.moba-beratung.de/

In the event of acute danger or suspicion, contact the police and dial 110!

There are various contact points where you can get help and advice. Here is an overview of the existing advice services, all of which are free of charge:

• if you would like advice on your rights as an employee, please contact the Bremen Chamber of Employees Home - Bremen Chamber of Employees (Bremen: Phone +49 421 36301 11,
• Bremerhaven: Telephone +49 471 92235 11
• For general questions about work, you can make use of the anonymous and multilingual advice provided by MoBA (advice center for mobile workers and victims of labor exploitation): https://www.moba-beratung.de/
• The BBMez counseling center (counseling for victims of human trafficking and forced prostitution) is available specifically for women who have been victims of human trafficking and/or forced into prostitution: https://www.bremen.de/visitenkarte/bbmez---beratung-fuer-betroffene-von-menschenhandel-und-zwangsprostitution-2007992

Yes. If you have a legally regulated education from abroad, which is proven by documents, it is possible for the profession to be recognized. The same applies to degrees from state-recognized universities.

This depends on whether the profession is regulated or not. For degrees in regulated professions, recognition of the professional qualification is mandatory. This applies, for example, to doctors, nurses, teachers and engineers. Other professions, such as carpenters and bankers, are not regulated. Therefore, recognition is not required for such degrees. However, it is still recommended because it makes it easier to find a job and, as a rule, the jobs are better paid.

For many professions, recognition costs a fee, often several hundred euros. Translations or certifications of documents also cost money. However, there is support for refugees. Under certain circumstances, the employment agency can cover the costs. If that is not possible, a grant of up to €600 can be applied for. This can be done through the Recognition Advisory Service of the State of Bremen, anerkennung@wae.bremen.de. As a rule, no refugee has to pay for recognition out of his or her own pocket.

For professional recognition, an application must be submitted to the respective office responsible for the profession. In the recognition procedure, the equivalence of the foreign training with the current German training is checked on the basis of the training certificates. If there are no significant differences, the equivalence is certified. For recognition in regulated professions, certain German language skills must also be proven as a rule. As soon as this is the case, the profession can be practiced. If there are significant differences, these can be compensated for by an adaptation measure (which varies depending on the occupational field).

It is therefore very important to have documents with you that prove the respective professional training.

The duration of the procedure depends on the profession, also on whether all the necessary documents are available and whether there are other requirements. It is important to have documents proving the respective professional training.

In regulated professions (health professions, pedagogical professions, legal professions) certain language skills are the additional requirement for recognition. Therefore, the duration also depends on when a person achieves these language skills.

Often in these professions there are also qualifications to be made, which also take a longer time. Therefore, the recognition of a profession can take between 3 months and several years.

Finding the office responsible for the respective profession, compiling and translating the necessary documents, clarifying the financing of the procedure, understanding a decision from the responsible office, possibly planning adaptation measures - all of this can quickly overwhelm newly arrived refugees. That is why the recognition advice service of the state of Bremen provides support during the procedure and helps with all these questions: anerkennung@wae.bremen.de

The IQ network in Bremen also offers many projects for the integration of immigrants into the labor market: https://iq-netzwerk-bremen.de/

Under "Further information" - "Where can I find out more?" you can download the Recognition Advice flyer in German and Ukrainian.