WPR_keyword

Employees can reduce their working hours from a certain age until they retire. During partial retirement, higher remuneration is paid than for "normal" part-time employment. Partial retirement gives employees the option of a smooth transition from working life to retirement (part-time model) or offers employees a form of early retirement (block model).

Since 2010, only civil servants with a recognized severe disability have been able to take advantage of partial retirement. Details can be found on the LBV website.

See also

Keyword Pension

In accordance with the NRW State Staff Representation Act, the administration submits contract amendments for academic staff to the Staff Council.
As an academic employee, you are entitled to extension periods in accordance with the WissZeitVG, as some circumstances can lead to automatic contract extensions, such as maternity leave and parental leave or a reduction in working hours due to childcare or caring for relatives(Section 2 (5) WissZeitVG). However, your contract will only be (automatically) extended if the department has received an express declaration of consent from you. However, you should communicate this consent as early as possible, as otherwise any entitlements will be forfeited, e.g. due to a new contract resulting from a change in working hours or funding.

Official communication from the university management on the introduction of BEM dated 17.07.2019

"[...] it is the common goal of the university management, the staff councils and the Disabled Persons Representative to maintain and promote the ability of employees to work.
In order to continue to meet this goal in the future, the University of Siegen has introduced a company integration management system (BEM for short).

Key points of BEM

The aim of BEM is to

to maintain and promote employees' ability to work
prevent renewed incapacity for work,
avoid chronic illnesses and disabilities through parameters that can be influenced by the company,
prevent premature retirement from working life due to illness and
to reduce absences and the costs of incapacity to work that can be influenced by the company.

In future, employees who are unfit for work for more than 6 weeks within a 12-month period - either continuously or repeatedly - will be offered the opportunity to take part in a BEM.
The BEM will be accompanied by trained contact persons who are selected from a list by the employees themselves.
The entire procedure is voluntary and is subject to strict confidentiality and data security.
For details, please refer to the service agreement on the introduction of a BEM.
You can find it here.

This service agreement applies directly to all employees to whom the State Staff Representation Act applies:

scientific employees
Teaching staff for special tasks
scientific assistants Assistants (WHK)
academic assistants Assistants with a Bachelor's degree (WHB)
Technical and administrative staff
regardless of whether they are employed under collective agreements or as civil servants
Lecturers with a teaching load of at least four teaching hours

Persons who do not fall within the scope of application are free to contact the contact persons outside the BEM.

Information on notification and verification obligations in the event of incapacity for work

In order to be able to offer BEM to all entitled persons in future, we are dependent on complete and up-to-date data on incapacity for work.
We therefore ask you to take note of the following information on your reporting and verification obligations in the event of incapacity for work:

According to legal requirements, all employees are obliged to notify their employer / employer of their incapacity for work and its expected duration without delay.
In this context, "without delay" means that employees must inform the employer/principal as quickly as is possible in the circumstances of the individual case.
As a rule, the aim is to provide information by telephone or with comparable speed at the beginning of working hours on the first day of illness.

All sickness notifications must be made at the beginning of the first day of absence to the line manager or another person designated for this purpose in the department.
The supervisor or other person designated for this purpose in the department shall notify the HR department in writing of the incapacity for work (the responsible administrator in Dept. 4.2, 4.3
or 4.4).

If the incapacity for work lasts longer than three calendar days (for civil servants: longer than three working days), employees must submit a medical certificate confirming the existence of the incapacity for work and its expected duration on the following working day at the latest. It is important to note that "calendar days" are all days in any given year. For example, if you are ill for the first day on a Friday and are unable to return to work on the following Monday, Sunday is the third calendar day and you must submit a certificate of incapacity for work on Monday.

Originalcertificates of incapacity for work must be sent directly and exclusively to the HR department.
At the same time, employees who are ill must inform their line manager or other designated person in the department of the expected duration of their incapacity to work.

Information on the subject of incapacity for work can also be found in detail in the university's internal personnel service portal under Illness / Incapacity for work.

Transfer from SHK to WHB

Display BA completion of the service
Application for termination SHK
Application for employment WHB

Information from the university

Guidelines SHK / WHK
(internal only)
Guidelines of the Tarifgemeinschaft deutscher Länder on the working conditions of academic and student assistants
dated March 30, 2026

Further information

Guide for student and research assistants at universities,
published by the German Education and Science Union (GEW), 2018 edition (retrieved: 04.2026)

All important information on the topic of "flexible working" at the University of Siegen can be found on the homepage Homeoffice and Situational mobile working
of the university administration.

In the case of terminations, a distinction must be made between ordinary termination with notice (1) and extraordinary termination without notice (2).

(1)
Termination by the employer with due notice can generally be for operational, personal or behavioral reasons. Dismissal for operational reasons can be practically ruled out at universities as state institutions. Dismissal for personal reasons can be given if the employee is no longer able to perform the work owed or can no longer perform it in full; the reasons for this dismissal must be objective and the employee cannot be held responsible. The most common case of dismissal for personal reasons is dismissal due to illness, but this has hardly ever been pronounced to date, as the burden of proof for the employer is subject to very strict standards. Finally, dismissal for conduct-related reasons is considered if the employee breaches a contractual obligation and, as a result, the continuation of the employment relationship, even at another workplace, appears unreasonable. In contrast to dismissal for personal reasons, this type of dismissal is based on the assumption that the employee could have behaved differently. The prerequisite for a dismissal for conduct-related reasons is at least one prior warning.

The length of the notice period depends on the period of employment and whether the employment relationship is fixed-term or indefinite.

If the operational circumstances permit, a termination agreement is possible at a time agreed by both parties, but there is no legal entitlement.

The notice period (for both employers and employees) for an open-ended employment contract (§ 34 TV-L) and for a fixed-term employment contract in accordance with the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz (WissZeitVG) for a period of employment of:

up to 6 months	2 weeks to the end of the month
up to one year	one month to the end of the month
of more than one year	6 weeks at the end of a calendar quarter
of at least 5 years	3 months at the end of a calendar quarter
of at least 8 years	4 months at the end of a calendar quarter
of at least 10 years	5 months at the end of a calendar quarter
of at least 12 years	6 months at the end of a calendar quarter

Employment relationships of employees who have reached the age of 40 can only be terminated by the employer for good cause after a period of employment of more than 15 years.

Employees who could not be dismissed under the collective bargaining regulations in force up to October 31, 2006, cannot be dismissed.

The period of notice for other fixed-term employment relationships (§ 30 TV-L) for a period of employment of

up to 6 months	2 weeks to the end of the month
more than 6 months	4 weeks to the end of the month
more than one year	6 weeks to the end of the month
more than 2 years	3 months at the end of a calendar quarter
more than 3 years	4 months to the end of a calendar quarter

In the event of termination by the employee, depending on the reason for termination, unemployment benefit may be suspended in the event of subsequent unemployment.

(2)
In the case of termination without notice, which in most cases is termination due to particularly serious conduct on the part of the employee, there is naturally no notice period. The employer can decide that the employee may no longer enter his workplace with immediate effect, but is subject to a notice period of two weeks to state his reasons for dismissal.

The staff council must always be involved in dismissals (ordinary and extraordinary).

Bullying means that someone is systematically harassed, bullied, disadvantaged and ostracized in the workplace over a longer period of time. It works in all hierarchical directions, occurs in all companies and is "classless". This behavior is perceived by those affected as an attack, devaluation and violation of their person and can lead to serious mental and physical illness.

Further information and offers of help can be found on the corresponding page of the University's Equal Opportunities Office.

Employees covered by the TV-L collective agreement:

Employees must notify their employer in writing of any secondary employment in good time in advance. The nature, content and scope of the secondary employment must be stated in the notification. The employer may prohibit the secondary employment or impose conditions on it if it is likely to impair the employee's fulfillment of their contractual obligations or the employer's legitimate interests. This is the case, for example, if the scope of the secondary employment exceeds 8 hours per week or if the secondary employment impairs work performance or work quality.

There is some leeway in the interpretation of the term "in good time". However, a period of 2 weeks should be sufficient in any case. If there are no objections from the Rectorate within this period, you can take up the secondary employment.

Civil servants:

For civil servants, a distinction is made between

those requiring approval in individual cases,
generally approved but subject to notification
and secondary employment not subject to approval but also subject to notification.

The secondary employment requiring approval must be applied for in good time in advance and may only be taken up once it has been approved by the Rectorate.

For details and application forms, please refer to the page on secondary employment
of the University Administration

Old-agepension for women
The old-age pension for women can be claimed with deductions from the age of 60 at the earliest. If the pension does not start until the age of 65, it is free of deductions.

Mothers' pension
As a result of Mothers' Pension II, which came into force on January 1, 2019, 2 1/2 years of child-raising periods are now taken into account in the pension for every child born before 1992. The additional half year of child-raising periods currently corresponds to an increase in the monthly pension entitlement of up to 16.02 euros per child (West) and 15.35 euros per child (East).

Insured persons and pensioners generally do not have to take any action to receive the additional child-raising periods. For mothers and fathers whose pension started before January 2019, pensions will be gradually recalculated from mid-March 2019. An application is generally not necessary for this. The additional child-raising periods will also be automatically saved in the insurance accounts of mothers and fathers who are not yet drawing a pension in the middle of this year without the need for an application. The prerequisite for this is that the child-raising periods have already been applied for and saved under the old law.
cf: Fachinfo 2/2019 of the German Pension Insurance (retrieved: 03.2021)

Here: (Paid) special leave for volunteer employees

At the University of Siegen, there is no independent regulation for granting special and/or educational leave. The legal basis for such a decision is therefore the existing laws such as the "Law on the Granting of Special Leave for Volunteers in Youth Welfare" (Sonderurlaubsgesetz).

The prerequisite for the granting of special leave, e.g. for further training in the context of voluntary work, is that the further training measure is carried out by an institution recognized in accordance with Section 75 SGB VIII
is carried out by a recognized provider. This is stipulated in § 2 Para. 1 of the Special Leave Act.

If this requirement is met and you would like to take special leave, you must apply for this in accordance with § 3 Para. 1 of the Special Leave Act. It states:

"Special leave must be applied for by the entitled person with the consent of the institution responsible for the measures specified in § 1. The application must be submitted to the employer at least six weeks before the intended start of the leave; a decision on the application must be made within a reasonable period of time."

Please submit the following documents to the personnel department:

Letter from the training provider containing the following points:
- Confirmation that the provider is recognized in accordance with § 75 SGB VIII
- Confirmation that the provider has checked and approved your suitability and qualifications for the training course
Application for vacation/work release, signed by you and your supervisor.

" Inter-company grouping and advance granting of steps".

Civil servants:

In the case of civil servants, a distinction is made between: secondary employment requiring approval in individual cases, generally approved secondary employment requiring notification and secondary employment not requiring approval but also requiring notification. The secondary employment requiring approval must be applied for in good time in advance and may only be taken up once it has been approved by the Rectorate. For details, please refer to the University Administration's page on secondary employment and the information sheet on secondary employment law.

Overview of the collective agreement for the public service of the federal states

The job description defines the content and proportion of the activities to be performed. It is dependent on instructions and can therefore be changed unilaterally by the employer.

Employees at the University of Siegen can reduce their contractually agreed working hours for family or other reasons.

For more information, please refer to the "Part-time employment information sheet".

Statutory accident insurance cover at universities

Information brochure of the German Social Accident Insurance DGUV (issue 4/2008, under revision)

[09.02.2021] When working from home, professional and private activities merge seamlessly. If an accident then happens at home, there is often uncertainty about insurance cover as the accident did not occur in a work environment.
In principle, an accident resulting from an insured activity is an accident at work and is therefore covered by statutory accident insurance. However, it is not always clear to those affected which activities in the home office can lead to a work or commuting accident and which activities are not covered by insurance.

Insured activities in the home office

In the home office, all activities that are carried out with the aim (so-called objective action tendency) of serving the company or fulfilling operational tasks are insured. Activities that are not carried out with the intention of serving the company's interests are not insured.

In detail:
Journeys in the home office
Journeys within the home that are closely related to work tasks are insured. This means, for example, that if an insured person falls down the stairs and injures themselves because they want to check the interrupted internet connection on the first floor, which they need for business communication, this accident would be insured. A trip to a printer used for business purposes would also be covered.
If, on the other hand, an employee falls down the stairs because they want to receive a private parcel, this would not be a risk against which statutory accident insurance would provide cover. This is because personal economic - i.e. private - activities are not covered by statutory accident insurance, even in the office. Therefore, trips to the home office to get something to eat or drink or trips to the toilet are also not covered by accident insurance (according to the ruling of the Federal Social Court, for example (see 05.07.2016, case reference: B 2 U 5/15 R). If something should happen here, the protection of statutory health insurance applies.

Journeys from thehome office to kindergarten and back
Journeys from the home office and back are not insured under the current legal situation if they are made in order to entrust children to the care of others due to the professional activity in the home office, e.g. to take them to kindergarten.

Journeys from the home office and back
Journeys from the home office and back that are made to get food from outside (supermarket, bakery, takeaway, etc.) are also not covered by accident insurance. Health insurance cover also applies in this respect.

(Source: Unfallkasse Nordrhein-Westfalen, retrieved 10.03.2021)

The Versorgungsanstalt des Bundes und der Länder (VBL)
is Germany's largest supplementary pension fund for company pensions in the public sector. In addition to the compulsory VBLklassik insurance, it also offers other products on a voluntary basis, which employees can use to top up their pension, such as VBLextra, e.g. in the form of deferred compensation (see also: VBL supplementary old-age and survivors' pensions.

Example: If an employee regularly conducts research - in the general interest - one day a week at an institute outside the university because the requirements for the field of research are met there, the procedure for obtaining insurance cover for travel to the external place of work is as follows:
The employee submits an informal application (if necessary via the supervising professor) to the business travel office for a necessary business trip, stating the regularity, purpose of the business trip, times and location of the research project.
A written agreement between the employee and the supervising professor is also advisable.

The statutory residence insurance for children of students at universities in NRW has been extended to children of university employees (amendments to the statutory insurance in the form of the 11th amendment to the statutes of the Unfallkasse Nordrhein-Westfalen in the North Rhine-Westphalia Law and Ordinance Gazette of 10.08.2016).

Since August 11, 2016, accident insurance cover has therefore been provided for the children of employees of universities in NRW under the following conditions:

There is no insurance cover in the statutory accident insurance according to other regulations, such as in the context of regular (university) kindergarten attendance. The statutory insurance is subordinate in this respect.
The Unfallkasse NRW is the responsible accident insurance provider for the university or for the responsible Studierendenwerk.
Children are natural persons who are not yet 14 years old (§ 7 Para. 1 No. 1 SGB VIII).
The child is permitted to stay on the premises of the university or the responsible Studierendenwerk. The statutory insurance is a residence insurance (§ 3 No. 2 SGB VII), so that the insurance cover is always limited to these premises.
The university/students' union has agreed to the specific care before it begins. Children who are only on the university campus by chance, independently of the specific childcare services offered or without the knowledge of the university/student services are not insured.
The stay takes place because the children of the employees are looked after by the university, the employees/students themselves, the student self-administration or the Studierendenwerk. Only the care provided by these persons/institutions closely associated with the university is insured.
The care enables or facilitates the professional activities of university employees. Insurance cover does not exist, for example, during private appointments of legal guardians.
Participation in university/student services programs with a health, social or personal development focus (e.g. university sports) is excluded from the insurance cover.

The reason for a fixed-term contract for wiss. In the first qualification phase, the reason for a fixed term for academic staff is usually the doctorate. Emeritus professors generally retain the right to award doctorates long enough to enable their own doctoral candidates to complete their degree. Continuing the contract of WiMis beyond the retirement of a professorship not only enables them to complete their qualification project, but also supports the maintenance of teaching and research activities.
The retirement of a professor means that he/she goes into retirement and is released from his/her official duties. Rarely do the duties previously assumed by the professorship become obsolete as a result. WiMis in any qualification phase can help to maintain the teaching and research activities of a vacant chair and make it easier for a successor to settle in. It is therefore advisable to continue to employ academic staff even after the retirement of a professor if their work is important for the teaching and/or research institution and the financial resources are available.

Keyword...

Keyword

Partial retirement

Attachment times

See also

Working conditions of academic and artistic staff at the University of Siegen

Workplace university and research (GEW guidebook)

Incapacity for work | illness | sick note

See also

Working time recording (currently: spring 2026)

Fixed-term contract | Fixed-term employment relationship

See also

Aid

BEM - Company integration management

Official communication from the university management on the introduction of BEM dated 17.07.2019

Key points of BEM

Information on notification and verification obligations in the event of incapacity for work

See also

Classification | Pay scale

See also

Parental leave

Flexible working time (GLAZ)

Auxiliary staff (SHK - WHB - WHK) (currently: spring 2026)

Transfer from SHK to WHB

Information from the university

Further information

Home office and flexible working

Termination (TV-L §§ 30+34)

Bullying

Secondary employment (TV-L § 3, para. 4 and § 40, no. 2, para. 4; LBG-BW § 83)

Pension

Special leave

Advance granting of steps | Inter-company grouping

Collective agreement

Job description

Part-time

Accident insurance cover at universities

Accident insurance cover when working from home

VBL - Federal and State Pension Institution

Insurance cover for research positions outside the university

Insurance cover for the children of employees and students at universities in NRW

Continued employment of academic and artistic staff after retirement of the professorship