Federal Labour Courts - Germany

Problems of Equal Employment Opportunity are regulated under the jurisdiction of the Labour Courts (Arbeitsgerichte). The legislation governing Labour Courts is the Labour Courts Act, 1953 (Arbeitsgerichtsgesetz).

Labour law comes under the jurisdiction of labour courts, the highest of which is the Federal Labour Court, (Article 95 (1) Chapter 9 Basic Law). Labour law is judged by the Labour Courts at a local, Länder and Federal level.

The three-tiered court system consists of the courts of first instance (Labour Courts) at the commune level, followed by appellate courts (Länder/provincial Labour Courts) and lastly Federal Labour Courts. By drawing on labour law at the Länder and Federal level, labour courts base their judgements on a case-law approach.

In the courts of first instance and the appellate courts, there is one professional judge and two lay judges that are representatives of the employees and employer's associations. The Federal Labour Courts are administered by the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs in conjunction with the Minister of Justice. On the board of judges sit three professional judges and two honorary judges.

Sexual discrimination cases in working life are within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Labour Courts. Labour Courts are increasingly developing a distinction between direct discrimination, where the sex of the employee is taken as the decisive criterion for unequal treatment, and indirect discrimination, whereby the basis for unequal treatment is founded on an ostensibly neutral factor but where detrimental effects are disproportionately felt by one sex.