4 ms·

IANAL, and from what I understand the laws about pay schedule vary by state, so I'm not going to make some claim I can't substantiate. But my guess is if you're

IANAL, and from what I understand the laws about pay schedule vary by state, so I'm not going to make some claim I can't substantiate. But my guess is if you're 5 weeks late paying your employees you're most likely committing wage theft (probably also not paying payroll taxes on time). You have to liquidate assets, conduct layoffs, or close the business from what I understand. Crytek is also German, right? So I have no idea how that works there.

vidarh 10y ago
I like the Norwegian approach: If you are not paid on time, you can sent a letter by recorded delivery, demanding payment. If you have not been paid within 4 weeks, you can have your employer served with a bankruptcy notice with two weeks warning. If they have not paid within that time, you can start bankruptcy proceedings, which will effectively put an administrator in charge. When the person starting bankruptcy proceedings is an employee with outstanding salary payments, said person can start proceedings with no money down, and the state covers all costs of the proceedings that can't be recovered from the company. On top of that, as long as your demand is timely, your salary up to a certain limit can be recovered from a government insurance system if the company is truly insolvent and the money can't be recovered from the estate. This strongly incentivises employees to not put up with any nonsense over unpaid salaries, as there are few costs involved, and while it will take some time to get your salary paid, you will get it eventually (and Norwegian unemployment benefits are substantial enough that getting them is certainly far better than waiting for an insolvent employer to drip-feed you payment). And as a result it strongly incentivises employers to prioritise salary payments or otherwise negotiate a suitable agreement with staff rather than just stringing people along, and quickly weed out insolvent companies that often would otherwise be able to drag things out by sweet-talking creditors - it's harder to string staff along when they can demand you bankrupt if you don't treat them properly.
- merb 10y ago
  In germany it's different, you need to send a adhortatory letter and set a deadline, you can also require additional intereset and damages after 2-3 month you can actually stop working but still getting paid ("right of retention"). you can also go to court or resign without further notice and demand a compensation. Also if the employer is actually in a bankruptcy prceeding you can get social money up to a certain degree.
  - Pica_soO 10y ago
    Also the invsolvency-administrators can be thief's. As in Lawyer-chambers, that win no matter how hard they run the company into the ground, by simply having it in as many legal battles as possible and billing it by the hour for those very legal battles they caused- bills which override the claims to the bankruptcy assets of all other Creditors. Yes, the norwegian system is superior. PS: The german legal system is full of those laws that cause extensive legal-battles, shipping the money of the cause to the laws soldiers of fortune. To navigate around these black holes of law is quite a art. Take the outrageous concept of the "Erbengemeinschaft" as example. If a companys owner does not have a last will, the company ownership gets by default split up on all descendants and their descendants, making it basically impossible to continue such a company- as this creates a hostage situation with anyone, who is unwilling to get paid out.
matt4077 10y ago
See https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stgb/englisch_stgb.html#p2245 https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stgb/englisch_st.... Up to five years in jail if you fail to pay wages. This is in addition to the more generic criminal bankruptcy that could apply here – usually you're required to notify the courts if you're out of money.

vidarh 10y ago

I like the Norwegian approach: If you are not paid on time, you can sent a letter by recorded delivery, demanding payment. If you have not been paid within 4 weeks, you can have your employer served with a bankruptcy notice with two weeks warning. If they have not paid within that time, you can start bankruptcy proceedings, which will effectively put an administrator in charge. When the person starting bankruptcy proceedings is an employee with outstanding salary payments, said person can start proceedings with no money down, and the state covers all costs of the proceedings that can't be recovered from the company. On top of that, as long as your demand is timely, your salary up to a certain limit can be recovered from a government insurance system if the company is truly insolvent and the money can't be recovered from the estate. This strongly incentivises employees to not put up with any nonsense over unpaid salaries, as there are few costs involved, and while it will take some time to get your salary paid, you will get it eventually (and Norwegian unemployment benefits are substantial enough that getting them is certainly far better than waiting for an insolvent employer to drip-feed you payment). And as a result it strongly incentivises employers to prioritise salary payments or otherwise negotiate a suitable agreement with staff rather than just stringing people along, and quickly weed out insolvent companies that often would otherwise be able to drag things out by sweet-talking creditors - it's harder to string staff along when they can demand you bankrupt if you don't treat them properly.

merb 10y ago
In germany it's different, you need to send a adhortatory letter and set a deadline, you can also require additional intereset and damages after 2-3 month you can actually stop working but still getting paid ("right of retention"). you can also go to court or resign without further notice and demand a compensation. Also if the employer is actually in a bankruptcy prceeding you can get social money up to a certain degree.
- Pica_soO 10y ago
  Also the invsolvency-administrators can be thief's. As in Lawyer-chambers, that win no matter how hard they run the company into the ground, by simply having it in as many legal battles as possible and billing it by the hour for those very legal battles they caused- bills which override the claims to the bankruptcy assets of all other Creditors. Yes, the norwegian system is superior. PS: The german legal system is full of those laws that cause extensive legal-battles, shipping the money of the cause to the laws soldiers of fortune. To navigate around these black holes of law is quite a art. Take the outrageous concept of the "Erbengemeinschaft" as example. If a companys owner does not have a last will, the company ownership gets by default split up on all descendants and their descendants, making it basically impossible to continue such a company- as this creates a hostage situation with anyone, who is unwilling to get paid out.

matt4077 10y ago

See https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stgb/englisch_stgb.html#p2245 https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stgb/englisch_st.... Up to five years in jail if you fail to pay wages. This is in addition to the more generic criminal bankruptcy that could apply here – usually you're required to notify the courts if you're out of money.