I was employed by a German company. They told me not to go to Germany on the first day of the contract, because they need time to find a project for me (they are selling developers to other companies). When I arrived, they told me to stay at home for a few days and accomplish all registrations required by German law (residence, tax, social security, bank account). So effectively I was not in the company for about 10 days.
However, they've counted that time as "minus hours". I was surprised because it's completely different to common practices, if the company orders employee not to go, they must pay him for that time, and not require from him doing overtime by client because they couldn't find any project for him. However, they've told me, the German labour law is working like that. However, I couldn't find out which regulations apply here.
I feel confused now. Does German labour law really allows companies to do something like that?