Employment Law2026-10-02

Cutting Your Hours to 50% Instead of Dismissal – Is It Worth It at 60?

Your employer offers to halve your working hours instead of dismissing you, at 60 and with 15 years of service. What lies behind this legally and what really matters when you decide.

Your boss sits you down. Your role, he says, is “no longer needed to the same extent”. Rather than dismissing you, he suggests halving your working hours. You have been with the company for 15 years, you are in your mid-sixties – and he would like you to decide on the spot. Pause right there. This offer affects more than just your next pay packet. It also has consequences for any later severance payment, for your unemployment benefit and for your pension.

In brief

Halving your working hours to 50% is a contractual offer. You do not have to accept it – your employer cannot simply order a change to your hours. If you say no, his only option is a dismissal with the offer of altered terms (a “change-of-terms dismissal”), with all the notice periods and the full obligation to show social justification under the Protection Against Dismissal Act (KSchG). Whether the reduction is worth it for you does not come down to the percentage. What matters is whether you negotiate a right to return, the basis for any severance, and your retirement provision. Do not sign anything in the meeting. Ask for the offer in writing and have me review it.

How I can help you

Assessing whether the specific offer is favourable or risky for you
Reviewing your employment contract and, where relevant, any collective agreement for special protection against dismissal
Negotiating a time limit, a right to return, and financial compensation
Responding to a change-of-terms dismissal, including the declaration of reservation and keeping track of the deadlines
Working through how the reduction affects any later severance payment, your unemployment benefit and your pension

Your right: you do not have to agree – the employer’s alternative is a change-of-terms dismissal

Fewer hours means an altered contract. A change to the contract needs two signatures. Your employer cannot halve your hours by instruction, even if he considers it commercially sensible. If you turn the offer down, he has only one tool left: the change-of-terms dismissal under § 2 KSchG. In practice this means he dismisses your existing employment relationship and, at the same time, offers to continue it on the altered – that is, reduced – terms.

This dismissal must be socially justified (§ 1 KSchG). That applies not only in principle, but also to the specific change being offered. Your employer has to show that this particular reduction is necessary and proportionate. It is not enough that some saving or other would be sensible. With 15 years of service, the notice period under § 622 (2) sentence 1 no. 6 BGB is six months to the end of a calendar month. A change-of-terms dismissal has to observe that period too. You should also check whether a collective agreement rules out ordinary dismissal altogether – for instance for employees with long service or of a certain age. If so, even a change-of-terms dismissal would be considerably harder to justify.

What saying no can trigger – and how much time you really have

Saying no to a voluntary offer is not an affront. It is your right. It may, however, prompt your employer to actually issue a change-of-terms dismissal. Reckon with that. But it is no reason to rush in the meeting itself. There is no statutory period for reflection on the original, voluntary offer. Ask for time – and use it. Do not sign anything at the meeting.

If it does come to a change-of-terms dismissal, a deadline of its own starts to run. You can accept the altered terms subject to the reservation that the change is not socially unjustified. You must declare this reservation to your employer – within the notice period, but at the latest within three weeks of receiving the dismissal (§ 2 KSchG). Let that deadline pass unused and you lose an important option. You can then no longer have the change reviewed by a court without putting the entire employment relationship at risk. At this point at the very latest you need legal advice – and ideally well before, when the first voluntary offer lands.

The consequences that usually go unmentioned in the meeting

No automatic return to full-time. If you agree to the reduction without an additional agreement, “temporary” quickly becomes “permanent”. There is no general right to return as a matter of course. Under § 9 TzBfG your employer need only give you preferential consideration for a suitable vacant full-time post – and even then only if you have given notice of your wish in good time. That is a long way from a guaranteed right to return. The so-called bridging part-time arrangement under § 9a TzBfG is no help here either. It applies only where you yourself request a time-limited reduction, and it presupposes a business with, as a rule, more than 45 employees. It is not designed for the reverse situation, where the employer proposes the reduction. Without your own time limit coupled with a contractual right to return, the halving is, in practice, final.

The severance basis shrinks if you are dismissed later after all. If you are dismissed for operational reasons years later, severance is usually calculated on your current monthly earnings (§ 1a (2) KSchG in conjunction with § 10 (3) KSchG). What counts is the pay actually due in the month employment ends. Anyone who has already reduced to 50% has thereby also halved the calculation basis for a later severance payment.

Unemployment benefit: not automatically protected. The Federal Employment Agency assesses unemployment benefit, as a rule, on your most recent earnings (§ 150 SGB III). There is a protective rule: part-time phases with less than 80% of your previous working hours can be disregarded under certain conditions. This applies where, within the last three and a half years, there were at least six months on higher hours (§ 150 (2) sentence 1 no. 5 SGB III). That can help in an individual case. But it is tied to tight time conditions and is no guarantee. If, when the claim arises, the reduction already lies more than three and a half years in the past, the protective rule no longer applies.

Pension points fall for the reduced years. For the period of the halving you build up fewer earnings points in the statutory pension scheme. The qualifying periods, by contrast, continue to run in full regardless of your hours – these are the periods that count towards the pension entitlement as such. If you have an occupational pension linked to your final salary, take a look at the pension rules as well. A permanently halved salary can directly depress the later company pension there.

What you should negotiate instead

Rather than simply accepting or rejecting the offer outright, my advice is to negotiate the terms:

A time limit coupled with a right to return: cap the reduction in time and secure, in the contract, your return to your previous hours, instead of pinning your hopes on § 9 TzBfG.
Financial compensation for the loss, for example a part-payment benchmarked against the severance that would otherwise be due.
A top-up as with partial retirement: if the employer voluntarily pays a top-up on the reduced salary, this can remain tax-free under the conditions of the Partial Retirement Act (AltTZG) pursuant to § 3 no. 28 EStG. State funding for such arrangements no longer exists, so the employer has to come on board voluntarily.
Protecting your occupational pension, so that the reduced salary does not retroactively diminish the entire occupational-pension calculation.
A clear description of duties, so you do not end up doing full-time work for a part-time salary.
Written form for every agreement reached – verbal assurances from the meeting are, in case of doubt, impossible to prove.

As an alternative to a one-sided reduction, genuine partial retirement may also be an option at the right age. Here the employer pays a top-up and makes additional pension contributions. That does, however, presuppose that the employer, or a collective agreement, offers such a model at all. Since the reform of the additional-earnings limits, you can also earn alongside an early old-age pension without incurring deductions. That can be a further building block if a partial pension is a possibility.

An example from practice: A client of mine, in his mid-sixties and with the company for 15 years, received a verbal offer to reduce his full-time role to 50%. The employer’s reason: the workload had fallen. He was asked to agree “ideally this week”. In our consultation it emerged that there was nothing in writing, no right to return and no compensation for the halving. After negotiation, the reduction was limited to two years. We also agreed a contractual right to return to his previous hours and a one-off compensation payment for the transitional period. Only with these additions did the original proposal become a workable solution for the client.

Common mistakes

Agreeing or signing on the spot in the meeting, because it feels as though there is no other choice.
Treating the reduction as a purely formal pay question and overlooking its impact on a possible later severance payment, on unemployment benefit and on your pension.
Not asking for a right to return, on the assumption that you “can always go back up later” – without a contractual clause there is no entitlement to that.
Letting the three-week deadline for the reservation lapse in the event of an actual change-of-terms dismissal, thinking there was still time until the end of the notice period.
Not having an existing collective agreement checked, even though it may rule out ordinary dismissal where there is long service and a higher age. That strengthens your negotiating position considerably.

Your next step

If the voluntary offer turns into a change-of-terms dismissal, the three-week deadline for your reservation runs from the moment it is received. Now is not the time to keep waiting. Read how acceptance subject to reservation works in detail in the case of a change-of-terms dismissal. There you will also find which steps make sense now.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to accept the offer if my employer says I will otherwise be dismissed?

No. The offer is a change to your contract. It only takes effect with your agreement. If you refuse, the employer can only respond with a change-of-terms dismissal. That, too, must be socially justified and must observe the notice period.

How long do I have to think the offer over?

There is no statutory deadline for the original voluntary offer. Actively ask for time to consider it. If it turns into a change-of-terms dismissal, you must declare a reservation – within the notice period, but at the latest within three weeks of receiving it.

Will I automatically get my full-time role back if things pick up commercially?

No, there is no automatic entitlement. Without a contractual right to return, the best you can rely on is § 9 TzBfG. Under that you need only be given preferential consideration for vacant full-time posts – which is considerably weaker than a guaranteed right to return.

Does the reduction affect a later severance payment?

Yes. The severance for a later dismissal on operational grounds is calculated on your then-current monthly earnings. If you have already halved your hours, the calculation basis falls accordingly.

Will the reduction cost me unemployment benefit if I later become unemployed?

Not necessarily, but you are not automatically protected either. A statutory exception can take into account earlier, higher working hours within the last three and a half years. Whether it applies in your case depends on the exact timing and shape of the reduction. Have it checked beforehand.

This article provides general information and is no substitute for legal advice in an individual case. Last updated: 2026-10-02.

Christian Czirnich, Rechtsanwalt (attorney at law), Kirchseeon near Munich

Tell me exactly what your employer has offered – I will take a look.

I read every message myself and usually reply on the next working day. What you write to me is covered by legal professional privilege from the first word, even if no engagement comes about. The initial assessment is free of charge.