The employer’s obligation

EQUAL RIGHTS FOR MEN AND WOMEN

The principle of (1) …………..(“All persons shall be equal before the (2) ………….”) laid down in the (3) …………. Law establishes for each individual person the (4) ……….. to equal (5) ………. in comparison to others against the State. The principle of equality is an extensive (6) …………… rule to treat equal (7) ………… or persons equally and unequal matters or persons unequally according to their specific nature and to apply the laws equally without distinction of person. However, this principle leaves the legislator a wide margin of discretion. The principle of equality is infringed only if there is no sensible reason that can be derived from the nature of the matter or is otherwise obvious for making the distinction, i.e. if the arrangement made is arbitrary.

The principle of equal rights for men and women (“Men and women shall have (8) ………… rights”) laid down in the Basic law and the (9) ………… of discriminatory or preferential treatment (“No-one may be prejucised or favoured because of his or her sex …”) (10) ………….. in the Basic Law (11) …………. any (12) ……… distinction between men and women. Thus, these stipulations far exceed the general principle of equality contained in the Basic Law and the principle of equal treatment in (13) …………. law. The employer’s liberty to make his own distinctions for factual reasons is excluded in so far as he intends to use the sex as (14) ……….. for making such distinctions. This means that on principle the biological and other differences of the sexes are to be disregarded unless in the very few cases where different (15) ………. require that these be taken into account.

Ex. 16. Read the following text. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words from the box.

status practice to grant meets treatment equal payments advantages grounds provides purpose benefits confirmation generalising employees

The employer’s obligation, on the (1) ……….. of the principal of equal (2) ……… of his employees, to pay pension (3) ……….., has the same legal (4) ……….. as company practice. If the employer (5) …….. pensions to his employees on the basis of individual (6) ………… he isn’t allowed to exclude individual (7) ………… without pertinent reasons. This also applies if the legal basis for the pension (8) ………….. doesn’t result from the employer’s express confirmation but merely from company (9) …………. In this case, protection of confidence and the principle of (10) ………… treatment overlap (11) ………….. the right to a pension to all employees of the company. It is true that freedom of contract allows the employer to give (12) ……….. to individual employees without this leading to a right to equal treatment for other employees. But this situation is different if the employer grants the pension benefits according to a recognisable and (13) ………… principle, i.e. if he specifies certain conditions or a certain (14) ………... Then he must abide by those and grant the benefits to everyone who (15) ………….. the criteria he has established. It is of no importance whether the favoured group is smaller than the disadvantaged group.

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