Anti-Discrimination Law Fizzles in Germany, but There Is Hope - Building Gender Balanced Business

The 2006 Equal Treatment Act, pushed on Germany by the European Union, has not led to significant setbacks for discrimination in the work place. A recent court victory and hopes for another soon may change that, but so far, Der Spiegel reports, results “have not been encouraging”.

• While the law, known as AGG for its German abbreviation, was designed to simplify legal action to fight discrimination against working women, there has been only one significant victory using it — and more will be hard to come by.

• Germany trails most other EU countries in terms of women’s pay (the wage gap is 23% less than what men make) and the number of women in top management positions (5.5%).

• The law puts the burden of proof on the plaintiff, not requiring the company to prove that it avoided discriminating. As a result, building a successful case is quite difficult, as only after the plaintiff has proved significant and unreasonable difference in promotion or pay policy is the company even required to demonstrate that its actions are not the result of discrimination.

• Suits must be filed by, and paid for, the plaintiff; in many other EU countries, a state agency takes the lead in filing the complaint.

• One Berlin labor judge said that he knew of only 36 cases that had been filed under the law in the last 30 months … compared with the 25,000 cases the Berlin Labor Court handles a year. And he said that most of those cases were filed by men, not women.

• The recent victory was for Silke Kühne, who had the advantage of being the human resources director of music-rights company GEMA but had been passed over for a directorship. She was able to show, through statistical analysis as well as her knowledge of the company’s pay and promotion history, that the chances that not a single member of top management is female was almost certainly intentional. By court order, she is now paid the same as a director, but she does not have the title.

The Speigel article in English