Send a demand for payment
If you do not receive your salary on your regular payday, you must send a demand letter to your employer. You may use our letter of demand form. In the letter, you must state what the claim concerns, the amount and the period for which the employer owes you money. Give your employer at least one week's notice to pay. You should send the letter by registered mail.
Send a bankruptcy notice
If your employer has not paid you four weeks after you sent the demand letter, you must write a bankruptcy notice. You may use our bankruptcy notice form. Give your employer a two-week payment deadline from when they receive the notice. The bankruptcy notice must be served. Therefore, send two copies to the Police/Chief Process Server at the employer's business address.
Submit a bankruptcy petition
When the deadline in the bankruptcy notice has expired, you must submit a bankruptcy petition to the district court where your employer has its business address. You may use our form for bankruptcy petitions for employees. The petition must be received by the district court within two weeks after the payment deadline in the bankruptcy notice has expired. If you wait longer, you must resubmit the bankruptcy notice to the Police/Chief Process Server.
Example of procedure
Nora has not received pay from her employer on the pay date. This is how she proceeds to file for bankruptcy against her employer:
Nora sends a demand of payment to her employer
Nora sends a registered letter of demand to her employer on Tuesday 15.10.2024. She gives her employer a one-week payment deadline. After one week, Nora has still not received her salary.
Nora sends a bankruptcy notice to her employer
Nora must wait at least four weeks from sending the letter of demand until she sends a bankruptcy notice. The bankruptcy notice must be served, and she must therefore send the notice to the Police/Chief Process Server, no earlier than Wednesday 13.11.2024. The Police/Chief Process Server serve the bankruptcy notice and note the date of service on the document. The notice is served on Wednesday 20.11.2024. In the bankruptcy notice, the employer was given two weeks from the date of service to pay. The payment deadline will then be Wednesday 04.12.2024.
Nora sends a bankruptcy petition to the district court
The employer does not pay, and Nora decides to file for bankruptcy. She files a bankruptcy petition with the district court, and makes sure that the bankruptcy petition is received by the court within the first two weeks after the payment deadline. This means that the petition must be received by the district court no later than Thursday 19.12.2024.
Do you have to pay in order to file a petition for bankruptcy?
Employees with claims covered by the Wage Guarantee Scheme do not, as a general rule, have to pay a fee.