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Blessed appetite: lunch in a daycare center (archive image)
Photo: Patrick Pleul / picture alliance / dpa
The food for the children in a Protestant day-care center does not have to be prepared by a church-Protestant hand.
A Protestant day care center in Stuttgart fired a cook after he left the church.
This termination is ineffective, however, ruled the Baden-Württemberg State Labor Court in Stuttgart
(file number 4 Sa 27/20)
.
The defendant Evangelical Church Community of Stuttgart operates around 50 day-care centers with around 1900 children in the state capital.
The plaintiff has been employed as a cook in one of them since 1995.
In June 2019 he resigned from the Protestant regional church.
Thereupon the entire parish gave notice without notice.
The Protestant daycare centers are "shaped by the special image of the Christian service community".
By leaving the church, the plaintiff therefore seriously violated his contractual obligations of loyalty.
The cook defended himself by pointing out that he had hardly any contact with the children.
He only gives them drinks.
He only discusses purely organizational issues with the staff every two weeks.
Like the labor court in the lower instance, the LAG Stuttgart has now lifted the notice.
Remaining in the Protestant Church does not belong to the "essential and justified requirement for personal suitability" of the cook.
There are always similar cases.
For example, the case of a chief physician in a Catholic clinic was fought up to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
The doctor was divorced and then remarried, which is incompatible with the Catholic view of marriage as a sacrament;
that's why the clinic had given him notice.
ECJ ruling has an impact
The ECJ finally decided in 2018 that the churches may only require their employees to adhere to church principles of faith if this is "essential and justified" for the specific activity
(file number C-68/17)
.
The German labor courts then followed this legal opinion, after having been decided in favor of the churches for decades.
In essence, this means: Anyone who works close to the core of religious proclamation, that is, carries out an "proclamation-related activity" must also adhere to the proclaimed teaching - for example pastors or deacons.
This does not apply to other professions in church companies, such as nurses or caretakers.
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mamk / JurAgentur