“The growing debate about religiously motivated discrimination in the workplace should be welcomed by all humanistically-minded people in Germany,” said Ulrike von Chossy from the executive committee of the Humanist Association of Germany on Friday in Nuremberg.
“We finally need a broad and honest discussion in society about why denominational institutions in our health, social and education system should be able to dictate their employees’ behavior to a very large extent and exclude other people.” The occasion is the nationwide “Day of Action against Religious Discrimination in the Workplace” announced for tomorrow, on which public attention will be drawn to abuses in German legislation in 15 cities. The fact that the large social associations of the Christian churches in particular are still allowed to discriminate against the large social group of non-denominational, non-religious or other faith-based employees due to considerable privileges and can even severely discipline members of their own denomination is an anachronism that is implausible from a humanist perspective and should be clearly rejected, von Chossy continued. “The dismantling of religiously motivated discrimination in the professional lives of people in Germany is necessary and overdue if our fundamental and human rights are to be enforced on the labor market and the foundations for fair competition in the health, social and education sectors are to be strengthened.” Ulrike von Chossy reminded the audience that it is possible to operate as an ideologically positioned organization without encroaching on the private lives of employees or imposing comprehensive regulations. “In many places in our facilities, it is clear that the employment of committed employees does not have to remain a question of faith. We not only value diversity and self-determination, we also live it. And we want to demand the same from others.” Ulrike von Chossy therefore called on humanists to work towards uncovering and reducing unjustified discrimination in the labor market in their everyday lives. “Ultimately, all people would benefit from this, both religious and non-religious.”
Further information
1. website of the “Campaign against religious discrimination in the workplace “: http://www.gerdia.de 2. key points of the HVD on labor law issues: https://www.humanismus.de/aktuelles/eckpunkte-hvd-arbeitsrechtlichen-fragen
