Food and lodging for seasonal workers

Seasonal workers are employees who are employed by a resident employer in Germany for a limited period of time due to a recurrent seasonal event or a recurrent sequence of seasonal events, during which the labor demand is required by the activities normally carried out Demand substantially exceeds that required. These are in particular employees

• in tourism, esp. in restaurants and hotels (eg waiters, kitchen staff and chambermaids) and in companies or parts of establishments that are not open all year round (eg beer gardens, ski huts) or which cover peak hours and increased labor demand during certain limited periods need (eg excursion restaurants)
• in the show business (eg escort staff of rides), who perform activities that occur at folk festivals, fairs and similar events that are not held throughout the year by nature
• in the agriculture and forestry as well as in the horticulture (eg harvest helpers in special culture enterprises such as fruit, vegetable or wine cultivation).

For the consideration of food and lodging, it is therefore to be used for seasonal workers for controlling the minimum wage § 107 (2) GewO.

• Agreement:
  The credit can not be made unilaterally by the employer; it requires a corresponding agreement between employer and employee.
  Since this concerns the composition of the remuneration, the content of the agreement must be laid down in the employment contract, § 2 (1) no. 6 of the Detective Act (NachwG).
  
• General requirements:
  The crediting must correspond to the interest of the employee or the nature of the employment relationship.
  This can usually be assumed in a seasonal work relationship.
  
• Maximum amounts:
  The crediting of benefits in kind may in all cases not exceed the amount of the attachable part of the remuneration (§ 107 (2) sentence 5 GewO, attachment exemption limit); it shall be based on the amount applicable to a single person who is not dependent. The non-disturbed amount for a single, non-dependent person is given in the Annex to the Notice on Sections 850c and 850f of the Code of Civil Procedure (distraint release notice). The appendix should be based on the highest value of the column "Net monthly salary". This means that by offsetting the benefits in kind, the employee must at least have the net amount stated there. Also in cases where the employment relationship starts or ends in the current month, the highest value of the "net monthly salary" column is to be used as the basis for the employment contract, if no payment method deviating from the monthly payment method has been agreed.
  With regard to individual services, the following additional limits apply in addition to this limit:

• The crediting of meals provided by the employer may not exceed the amount of 258euros per month. This value is made up of the value for

1. Breakfast 54 euros, 1,80 €/day
2. Lunch 102 euros and 3,40 €/day
3. Dinner 102 euros. 3,40 €/day

• The crediting of accommodation made available as a purchase in kind is permissible - up to the amount of 235 Euro per month. 
  The value of the accommodation is reduced

1. if the employee is included in the employer's household or if they stay in a shared accommodation by 15%,
2. for young people up to the age of 18 by 15 percent and
3. at the occupancy

• with two employees by 40 percent,
• with three employees by 50 percent and
• with more than three employees by 60 percent.