My employment contract is expiring

Questioner

My contract expires on February 20th, but I did not receive any message about extending or canceling. Now I have found a new job and I have handed in my resignation on February 1st. Now my employer wants me to stay until April 1st. What are my rights? Can I leave on February 20th?

Lawyer

If you had a temporary contract with a specific end date, that contract will in principle expire automatically and you do not have to cancel it. This is different if you have made other agreements about this in your employment contract. The employer on the other hand must let you know a month in advance whether or not he wants to continue the contract (this is not necessary if it was a contract for less than 6 months). If he does not do this, you are usually entitled to an extra month's salary. So it is important to know exactly what was in your contract and what kind of contract you have. Then a more concrete advice is possible. But at first it does not seem that the employer can oblige you to stay until April 1. Please feel free to contact me via my profile if you have any questions or require legal assistance.