German judgment:

More money for overtime in part-time jobs

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/(C)QUALITYSTOCKARTS)

According to a landmark ruling, part-time employees in Germany may no longer be treated less favorably than full-time employees when it comes to overtime pay. This was decided by the Federal Labor Court in Erfurt.

According to the ruling, collective bargaining rules according to which part-time employees only receive overtime bonuses once they have exceeded the number of overtime hours worked by full-time employees violate the ban on discrimination.

More than twelve million Germans work part-time
An exception would only be possible if the unequal treatment was justified by objective reasons. According to figures from the Federal Statistical Office, more than twelve million people in Germany work part-time - the proportion of women is particularly high.

Women often disadvantaged
The federal labor court judges also ruled that the lack of objective reasons for the previous supplementary regulation for part-time work also regularly violates the principle of equal treatment. There is "indirect discrimination on the grounds of (female) gender if there are significantly more women than men in the affected group of part-time employees", they explained.

According to labor lawyers, the so-called full-time quota for overtime pay is included in many collective agreements. The precedent for the landmark ruling comes from Hesse.