Because he feels discriminated against: VW employees fight against gender language

Created: 08/05/2022, 05:00

"The BSM expert is a qualified technical expert": A VW employee feels discriminated against and his personal rights violated by such formulations in an Audi guide.

Ingolstadt – In March of last year, Audi introduced the gender guidelines with the slogan "Vorsprung begins in the head" and declared that "all genders and gender identities should be addressed equally and with respect".

The 46-year-old Alexander B., who works as a process manager at VW and who was also addressed in a gender-sensitive manner when contacting Audi, did not want to accept this.

VW employee fights against gender - and complains

Because Audi refused to sign a cease-and-desist declaration, he has filed a lawsuit.

In the oral hearing a month and a half ago, Alexander B. demanded that “he would like to be left alone with this gender language”.

He was clearly in favor of equality and against discrimination.

But the use prescribed in the guide leads to new discrimination.

The gender gap (“employees”) must therefore go.

"Would like to be left alone with this gender language": Alexander B. in the office of his lawyers.

© shrub / dpa

The lawsuit was supported by the German Language Association, which generally rejects gender and speaks of an "ideology".

At the hearing, the Audi representatives rejected the court's settlement proposal to communicate with the plaintiff without a gender gap, but otherwise to retain the guideline: This was not practicable.

The civil chamber had to make a judgment that the presiding judge Christoph Hellerbrand only briefly justified on Friday.

The judge found that the plaintiff does have a need for legal protection because he is confronted with gender language.

VW employee sues against gender language in Audi guidelines - judgment made

As a VW employee, however, he is not obliged to actively use it.

The guidelines are only aimed at employees of Audi AG.

The mere “right to be left alone” cannot justify a claim for injunctive relief either under the General Equal Treatment Act or under civil law regulations.

Without Hellerbrand having addressed this, it can be assumed that the court weighed the plaintiff's personality rights against the entrepreneurial freedom of Audi AG, which is also protected by fundamental rights.

.

Lawsuits in which the plaintiff asserts that the mere confrontation with something he does not like violates his general personality rights are seldom successful.

Only recently did the Federal Court of Justice dismiss the injunctive relief brought by a man who wanted the “Judensau” relief on the Wittenberg town church to be removed.

Equally unsuccessful was the lawsuit brought before the administrative court against the Bavarian Prime Minister's decree on the cross.

By the way: Our Bayern newsletter informs you about all the important stories from Bavaria.

Sign up here.

also read

Biker gets into the oncoming lane and crashes head-on into a van - he dies on the spot

Whether the verdict would have been different if an Audi employee had filed a complaint or if the guidelines had obligated VW employees to actively use gender formulations remains an open question.

Alexander B. did not want to commit himself to whether he would appeal.

However, he "expressly reserves the right to take further legal action" as soon as the full reasoning for the judgment is available, he said after the verdict was announced.

The first instance may have cost him around 4500 euros.

If he appeals, the Munich Higher Regional Court will have to deal with the case again.