Clara Lissek

In its judgement of 16 April 2025 (case reference: 10 AZR 80/24), the Federal Labour Court ruled for the first time that a contractually agreed commission claim can also be fulfilled in the cryptocurrency Ether, provided this is objectively in the employee's interest. It should be noted that the part of the salary that is within the garnishment-free limit is excluded from this. This non-garnishable amount of pay must continue to be paid out in euros.

The Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Regional Labour Court (LAG) clarified in its ruling of 28 January 2025 (Ref.: 5 SLa 159/24) that different remuneration for employees performing the same job does not automatically violate the principle of equal treatment under labour law or the equal pay requirement pursuant to Section 7 of the German Pay Transparency Act (EntgTranspG). In the case on which the judgement was based, a personnel manager sued for a significantly higher salary after colleagues who were subsequently hired received significantly higher remuneration. The court denied the plaintiff's claim to payment of the differential remuneration because better professional qualifications and longer, more relevant professional experience constitute objectively justified reasons that allow for unequal treatment.