As of: February 28, 2024, 2:49 p.m
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Many people work part-time.
Are they treated worse than full-time employees when it comes to overtime pay?
This will be one of the decisions of the Federal Labor Court this year.
Erfurt - Part-time employees can count on a fundamental decision by the Federal Labor Court this year on their entitlement to overtime pay.
The procedure, which is expected to be called at the end of April, is about the question of equal treatment of part-time and full-time employees in the case of overtime bonuses, said the President of the Federal Labor Court, Inken Gallner, on Wednesday in Erfurt when presenting the annual report.
“This affects many, many collective agreements,” said Gallner.
According to figures from the Federal Statistical Office, more than twelve million people in Germany work part-time - the proportion is particularly high among women.
Precedent for overtime ruling comes from airline
Many collective agreements stipulate that part-time workers only receive overtime bonuses when the number of overtime hours worked has exceeded the working hours of full-time employees - the so-called full-time quota.
For people in part-time jobs with a lot of overtime, the ruling by Germany's highest labor judges could also have an impact on their wallets.
According to Gallner, a case involving Lufthansa CityLine, which has already been dealt with by the European Court of Justice, is being heard at the Federal Labor Court.
In the specific case, the European judges saw unequal treatment in overtime bonuses due to the full-time quota.
When looking ahead to negotiations this year, the court president referred to a number of cases from the corona pandemic that have now reached the highest labor court instance.
In June, for example, the BAG was discussing the highly controversial facility-related vaccination requirement in the health sector and unvaccinated employees who were released at that time, said Gallner.
Number of cases increased only slightly
Last year, the Federal Labor Court received a total of 1,391 appeals, legal complaints and non-admission complaints.
That was 125 more than in 2022. The downward trend that has been going on for several years has not been fundamentally interrupted, said the President.
One reason for fewer labor disputes is the relatively good economy in recent years, says Gallner.
She also doesn't expect a significant increase in the foreseeable future.
“We have an employee market.” Young employees in particular would quickly find new jobs if they were laid off.
In 2023, the federal labor judges in Erfurt made fundamental rulings against, among other things, discrimination against women in terms of pay and night work surcharges in the German food and beverage industry.
But they also negotiated special cases - such as a yoga priest's demand for a minimum wage.
Gallner pointed out that constitutional complaints have now been filed against several decisions of the Federal Labor Court on night work surcharges, which are regulated differently in collective agreements.
There was a real flood of lawsuits in the German labor courts regarding night work bonuses.
The Federal Labor Court is 70 years old this year.
According to Gallner, this anniversary will be celebrated in June with, among other things, a symposium on European law.
dpa