Need for reform in church labor law remains high

“I can’t really see any real progress in the area of tension between the Catholic Church and the labor market,” said Frieder Otto Wolf, President of the Humanist Association of Germany, on Wednesday regarding a recent ruling by the Bavarian Administrative Court in Augsburg. Yesterday, Tuesday, the court ruled that even for employees of a Catholic parish church foundation, entering into a civil partnership is not a reason for dismissal during parental leave (Ref. Au 3 K 12.266). “I am of course delighted with this decision by the Augsburg Administrative Court, as it at least averted the dismissal of the mother involved in this case during her parental leave,” Wolf continued. As a result, the court had only secured a provisional humane minimum for the mother concerned in accordance with the current legal situation, thus making it clear that the Catholic Church cannot simply ignore the rights of homosexual employees. However, countless people in similar situations are still at risk of losing their jobs, Wolf reminded us. “From our humanist perspective, even after the ruling, the outrageous grievance remains that large groups of employees in Germany are still being unjustifiably disadvantaged.” Wolf explained that the laws clearly privilege the Catholic Church and make it possible, without plausible justification, to make the subordination of private life to Catholic-defined morals and beliefs a condition for hundreds of thousands of employment relationships in countless social, cultural and educational institutions, where the church is ultimately largely funded by the state. A reform of these laws is therefore urgently needed. For employees with a homosexual identity, as well as for non-denominational and many employees of other faiths in the country, this step is long overdue in order to reduce disadvantages and unjustifiable discrimination and to safeguard human rights. “Furthermore, it is necessary that existing monopolies in the social, cultural and educational sectors are dissolved in order to meet the demand for the fundamental right to a labour market free from illegitimate discrimination,” emphasized Wolf.