The amendment to the “Basic Regulations for Church Service within the Framework of Church Employment Relationships” adopted by the General Assembly of the Association of German Dioceses on April 27, 2015 has met with clear criticism from the Humanist Association of Germany. Frieder Otto Wolf, President of the association, said on Wednesday in Berlin: “The revision falls well short of the standards that many other organizations in the independent welfare sector and in education and culture have to meet.” In the amended version, a greater distinction is made than before between the loyalty requirements for Catholic and other employees, priests and pastoral staff as well as other employees without a special mission to preach. In future, remarriage or entering into a civil partnership will no longer necessarily lead to dismissal. Trade unions are to be given better opportunities to participate in church workplaces. However, the new constitution will only come into force once it has been published in the respective church gazette of the dioceses. “The revision merely reflects the political constraints that have arisen as a result of broad social criticism in recent years and changes in case law, legislation and society,” continued Frieder Otto Wolf on the amendment. “It is not suitable for invalidating our fundamental criticism of church labor law.” As justification, he pointed out that many church-run institutions are predominantly or completely financed by the general public, but that general law and legislation do not apply in these institutions. This makes it possible to put non-denominational employees at a disadvantage compared to church-affiliated employees without there being any good reason to do so. “Non-denominational workers in the social, health, care, cultural and education sectors remain second-class employees. They are still excluded from applying for non-denominational jobs. Church-affiliated applicants may also be given preference where there is no legitimate and reasonable argument for this in view of the nature of the job and the financial background,” stated Frieder Otto Wolf. There is also clear criticism of the loyalty obligations of the basic regulations, which determine the conduct obligations of employees in both their professional and private lives. For example, all employees are required to refrain from “anti-clerical behavior” and not to “jeopardize the credibility of the church and the institution in which they are employed” in their personal lives. In view of an ideologically pluralized society in which more than a third of the population does not belong to any church, these are highly questionable legal standards. “Due to our critical stance on some issues that also affect the Catholic or Protestant churches, our association has repeatedly been classified as anti-church by church representatives, even though we have only represented divergent ethical or political viewpoints, as every person has the right to do in a modern and open community,” says Wolf.
The wording of the loyalty obligations therefore gives rise to fears that, for example, a non-denominational employee of a Caritas canteen who volunteers for the Humanist Association in her free time could face consequences under employment law for this reason alone. This is unacceptable for a liberal state, said Frieder Otto Wolf. As a second case of an encroaching loyalty requirement, he cited the general prohibition of employees from participating in public activities to promote women’s right to self-determination: Article 5 para. 2 no. 1 letter a of the constitution prohibits “the propagation of abortion”, which the church already understands to mean any activity that takes a stand for the right to the timely termination of an unwanted pregnancy. “Such a restriction of autonomy outside of office hours contradicts the general human and fundamental right to freedom of conscience,” said Frieder Otto Wolf. On the other hand, he described it as understandable that employees should not dispute or denigrate Christian doctrines during working hours or within church institutions. “However, these loyalty obligations could also be enforced within the framework of general rules for the protection of tendencies,” emphasized Wolf. Because of all this, the amendment proves to be inadequate from a humanist point of view. “And this will remain the case as long as the Catholic Church attempts not only to take on tasks of general interest as an independent provider, but also to enforce specific moral ideas at the same time. This amendment is a fig leaf that neither non-denominational nor church-affiliated employees should be satisfied with.” Further information:
Key points on labor law issues in relation to the special position of the HVD as a worldview community
Church self-determination and individual labor rights. A human rights assessment (German Institute for Human Rights)
