In this article
Key takeaways
Since 1 January 2025 the agency work contract in Germany only needs text form, so an email or a PDF is enough. The contract calls the arrangement labour leasing, names each worker before the assignment and contains the agency's statement on its permit; you supply the job, the qualification and the pay of your comparable employees. If the label, the naming or the permit is missing, the worker is deemed to be your employee, and you can be fined up to €30,000 yourself.
The agency work contract (Arbeitnehmerüberlassungsvertrag) is the contract between the staffing agency and your company as the user company. Since 1 January 2025, the AÜG (Arbeitnehmerüberlassungsgesetz, Germany's Temporary Agency Work Act) only requires text form for it, so an email is enough (§ 12(1) AÜG).
The contract must expressly call the arrangement labour leasing (Arbeitnehmerüberlassung) and name each worker before the assignment starts. The agency states in it whether it holds the German permit. You state the job, the qualification it needs and the pay of your comparable employees.
If the label or the name is missing, the worker's employment contract with the agency is void and the worker is deemed to be your employee. You can also be fined up to €30,000 yourself. These rules apply in the same way when the agency is based in Slovenia. How labour leasing works overall is explained on our page labour leasing explained.
What form does the contract need after the 2025 change?
Since 1 January 2025, § 12(1) AÜG requires text form instead of written form. The change came with the Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act (Viertes Bürokratieentlastungsgesetz, Article 55, BGBl. 2024 I No. 323). Before that, the contract needed original handwritten signatures; a scan was not enough.
Text form means, under § 126b of the German Civil Code (BGB), a readable statement that names the sender, on a durable medium. An email or a PDF meets this. Many templates and guides online still say the contract must be "in writing". That has been out of date since 2025.
Store the contract and every later naming of a worker so that they stay readable and unchanged. If the contract and the way the assignment actually runs differ, the actual practice decides (§ 12(1) AÜG). A clean contract only protects you if the assignment also runs that way.
What must the agency work contract contain?
The AÜG requires five items. The table shows who supplies each one and what happens if it is missing.
| Required item | Who supplies it | Legal basis | If it is missing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Express label as labour leasing (Arbeitnehmerüberlassung) | Agency and user company | § 1(1) sentence 5 AÜG | Employment contract with the agency void, employment relationship with you (§ 9(1) no. 1a, § 10(1) AÜG); fine up to €30,000 |
| Name of each worker, before the assignment and with reference to the contract | Agency and user company | § 1(1) sentence 6 AÜG | As above; fine up to €30,000 |
| Statement whether the agency holds the permit | Agency | § 12(1) sentence 3 AÜG | If only the statement is missing: no fine of its own. If the permit itself is missing, the contracts are void (§ 9(1) no. 1 AÜG) and you can be fined up to €30,000 (§ 16(1) no. 1a AÜG) |
| Particular features of the job and the professional qualification it requires | User company | § 12(1) sentence 4 AÜG | No fine of its own; the agency cannot plan pay and the assignment reliably |
| Essential working conditions, pay included, of comparable employees | User company | § 12(1) sentence 4 AÜG | No fine of its own; without it the agency cannot calculate equal pay correctly |
There is one exception: if the worker declares in writing, within one month of the planned start, that they keep their employment contract with the agency, that contract stays valid (§ 9(1) nos. 1 and 1a AÜG). Before handing the declaration to the agency or to you, the worker must present it in person at a local office of the Federal Employment Agency (Agentur für Arbeit) (§ 9(2) AÜG).
The contract names the person, not a number or a trade. "Two welders from Monday" is not enough. Each worker must be named, with reference to the contract, before their first working day with you (§ 1(1) sentence 6 AÜG).
In practice many companies sign a framework contract. The agency and the user company then name each person in a short assignment confirmation in text form that refers to the framework contract. A replacement worker needs a naming of their own before they start. A contract for work or for services that is in fact labour leasing does not meet these duties.
What applies to an agency based in Slovenia?
A staffing agency from another EU state also needs the permit of the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) for assignments in Germany (§ 1(1) AÜG). It gets the permit on the same conditions as a German company (§ 3(4) AÜG). Ask to see the permit decision (Erlaubnisbescheid) and note the date until which it is valid.
If the permit ends, the agency must inform you without delay (§ 12(2) AÜG). If it is not renewed, withdrawn or revoked, the agency also tells you the expected end of the wind-down and the statutory wind-down period. Wind-down means that contracts concluded under the permit may still be completed for a limited time (§ 2(4) AÜG).
Evroproces d.o.o. has held the German permit since 30 April 2025, extended to 29 April 2027. Which other documents to check is set out in our checklist for a Slovenian staffing partner.
- No leasing into construction: workers may generally not be leased into construction businesses for work usually done by manual workers (§ 1b AÜG). That is why we always carry out construction projects in Germany as project work by EP Montaža d.o.o. under a contract for work (Werkvertrag). The difference is explained in our article labour leasing or contract for work.
- Employer and A1: the workers stay employed by Evroproces d.o.o. and are posted under the EU rules for posted workers with an A1 certificate. The A1 certificate shows that they remain insured in Slovenia during the assignment.
- Customs registration: for labour leasing, Evroproces files the registration with German customs through the Meldeportal-Mindestlohn itself.
Which details do you supply as the user company?
You supply three details for the contract (§ 12(1) sentence 4 AÜG):
- the particular features of the job, for example the welding process, the materials or shift work,
- the professional qualification the job requires, for example a valid welder certificate to EN ISO 9606-1,
- the essential working conditions, pay included, that apply to a comparable employee in your business.
You can leave out the third detail only where a collective agreement for agency work lawfully deviates from equal treatment (§ 8(2) and (4) AÜG). The reason for the duty is simple: the agency pays the wage but does not know your pay scale. So give the agency your pay scale and the supplements before it quotes.
When equal pay applies and how the 18-month cap is counted is explained in our article equal pay and the 18-month cap.
Safety at work and strikes: what else to settle
Leased workers are covered by the occupational safety rules of your business, and the employer duties under those rules are yours (§ 11(6) AÜG). Before work starts and whenever the work area changes, you instruct the workers on hazards and protective measures. This includes any special qualifications, special medical monitoring and increased hazards at the workplace.
Write down in the contract who does what. At Evroproces the split is as follows:
- Evroproces: the medical examination before the assignment and the general occupational safety training.
- You as the user company: the training for the specific workplace and the introduction to how work is done at your site.
- Personal protective equipment: who supplies it is agreed with you for each assignment.
If your business is directly affected by a strike, you may not use leased workers (§ 11(5) AÜG). The ban does not apply if you make sure they do not take over tasks of striking employees. A breach can cost a fine of up to €500,000 (§ 16 AÜG).
Which clauses are void?
§ 9(1) AÜG makes several agreements void. A template from the internet may still contain them:
- working conditions for the worker that are worse than those due under § 8 AÜG (no. 2),
- restrictions on the worker's access to shared facilities at your site, such as the canteen, childcare or transport (no. 2a with § 13b AÜG),
- a ban on you hiring the worker once their employment with the agency has ended (no. 3), or a ban on the worker joining you at that point (no. 4),
- a placement fee the worker is to pay to the agency (no. 5).
Checklist before you sign
Check these nine points before the first assignment:
- The contract exists in text form and is stored, as an email or a PDF.
- The word Arbeitnehmerüberlassung (labour leasing) appears expressly in the contract.
- You have seen the permit decision and noted its expiry date.
- The job, the qualification and the pay of comparable employees have been sent, or the applicable collective agreement is named.
- Each person is named before their first working day, every replacement included.
- The medical examination, the safety training and the protective equipment are assigned.
- The assignment is not construction work within § 1b AÜG, and, if your business is on strike, the leased workers do not take over strikers' tasks.
- It is clear who counts the months of assignment per person.
- None of the void clauses under § 9 AÜG is in the text.
Next step
With your enquiry, send us the trade and the certificates required, the number of workers, the place of work, the start date and duration, and your pay scale for comparable work. Then your details under § 12 AÜG go straight into the contract. We reply to enquiries within 24 hours. You can send your request on the page hire workers.
This article describes the law as of 23 October 2026. It is not legal advice for an individual case.
Sources & further reading
- 01Arbeitnehmerüberlassungsgesetz (AÜG) § 12 — Rechtsbeziehungen zwischen Verleiher und Entleiher (gesetze-im-internet.de, read 23 October 2026)gesetze-im-internet.de
- 02AÜG § 1 — Erlaubnispflicht, Bezeichnung und Konkretisierung, Überlassungshöchstdauer (gesetze-im-internet.de, read 23 October 2026)gesetze-im-internet.de
- 03AÜG § 1b — Einschränkungen im Baugewerbe (gesetze-im-internet.de, read 23 October 2026)gesetze-im-internet.de
- 04AÜG § 2 — Erteilung und Erlöschen der Erlaubnis (gesetze-im-internet.de, read 23 October 2026)gesetze-im-internet.de
- 05AÜG § 3 — Versagung; Abs. 4 EU/EWR-Unternehmen (gesetze-im-internet.de, read 23 October 2026)gesetze-im-internet.de
- 06AÜG § 9 — Unwirksamkeit (gesetze-im-internet.de, read 23 October 2026)gesetze-im-internet.de
- 07AÜG § 10 — Rechtsfolgen bei Unwirksamkeit (gesetze-im-internet.de, read 23 October 2026)gesetze-im-internet.de
- 08AÜG § 11 — Arbeitskampf und Arbeitsschutz, Abs. 5 und 6 (gesetze-im-internet.de, read 23 October 2026)gesetze-im-internet.de
- 09AÜG § 16 — Ordnungswidrigkeiten (gesetze-im-internet.de, read 23 October 2026)gesetze-im-internet.de
- 10BGB § 126b — Textform (gesetze-im-internet.de, read 23 October 2026)gesetze-im-internet.de
- 11Viertes Bürokratieentlastungsgesetz, BGBl. 2024 I Nr. 323 of 29 October 2024 (recht.bund.de, read 23 October 2026)recht.bund.de
- 12BEG IV Artikel 55 — Änderung des AÜG: Textform statt Schriftform ab 1 January 2025 (buzer.de, read 23 October 2026)buzer.de
