• Germany edition
Society
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Women on contracts can keep pregnancy mum

Published: 7 Dec 12 12:28 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20121207-46629.html

A German court has strengthened the rights of pregnant women in the workplace - underlining the idea that asking a woman whether she is expecting constitutes discrimination.

The district labour court in Cologne ruled on Friday that if a woman employed on a limited contract to cover for the maternity leave of another woman, is herself pregnant, she does not have to tell her new employer.

This applies even if her pregnancy means she will not be able to complete the period for which she has been hired, the court said.

Pregnant women cannot be discriminated against in the German workplace, the judge said - and this applies to short-term or limited contracts as well.

"A pregnant woman therefore does not have to from her own volition, nor in answering questions, inform about a pregnancy," the court's verdict read.

An employer cannot therefore, cancel a maternity leave coverage contract awarded to a woman who fails to finish it due to her own pregnancy - even if she knew this would happen when she signed the contract.

DAPD/The Local/hc

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

13:14 December 7, 2012 by blackboot11
This is a step in the right direction.

The next item up should be age discrimination of employers requesting that you disclose your age on the application and on your CV.

Either you have the education and experience qualifications to do the job or you don't.
13:37 December 7, 2012 by wood artist
@blackboot11

While I generally agree with the idea, I do have some trouble with someone who signs a contract knowing they don't intend to fulfill it, regardless of the reasoning. It's no different than any other type of contractual fraud. How would you feel if you contracted with someone to perform a specific task for a specific period of time, and halfway through you discovered that they never intended to keep their half of the deal, leaving you with an unfinished product or job and the prospects of finding a new worker on short notice who would require training? What if you can no longer fulfill your own contract with your customer because of that?

It's one thing to not ask or not be required to tell, but it's quite another when you enter into a contract KNOWING you're not going to keep your half of the deal.

wa
16:29 December 7, 2012 by catjones
wa..it's a two-way street. Contracts are broken from both sides for many reasons. Ever hear of a company offering a contract of a longer duration just to entice a worker and then cancelling it before completion?

The article simply states that a woman does not have to volunteer personal information to a prospective employer. In germany that's a step into the 20th century.
10:01 December 8, 2012 by ChrisRea
@ wood artist

If you hire somebody with an unlimited contract, does that mean that you expect them to work for you forever? I guess not. The duration of a contract does not imply the obligation of the employee to work the whole respective period. The real obligation to work is during the notice period, to give the employer time to find a replacement.

Unfortunately, being pregnant does not always mean giving birth to a baby. The pregnancy can go wrong. So actually nobody can say 100% that the respective woman will not be able to work the whole period specified in the contract.

Let's suppose that I am looking for a specific job that is currently not on the market. In the meantime, I decide to apply to a limited-contract job (let's say 1.5 years). Is it my legal duty to inform the prospective employer about my willingness to jump ships when my I find my dream job? Of course, if that happens during the next 1.5 years, it means that I will not finish my contract.
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