AVR-Caritas explained at a glance
As an employee, it is often not only the employment contract that is relevant for you. Collective agreements also play a major role in regulating the employment relationship. Most church employers apply so-called employment contract guidelines (AVR) instead of collective agreements. The AVR-Caritas apply to your employment relationship if you work for an employer within the German Caritas Association.
After the public service, the churches, together with Diakonie and Caritas, are the second largest employer in Germany. However, this is not a single employer, but rather numerous individual employers. On the Catholic side, AVR-Caritas can be decisive for these employers - and for you as Employees, for example if you work in a Catholic hospital or kindergarten work.
What the AVR-Caritas regulate
- If you as an employee take a look at your employment contract throw, you may be amazed: Often only a few things are regulated in the employment contract. Instead of extensive individual regulations, there is a reference to the applicable collective agreement or the AVR.
- The AVR-Caritas contain numerous regulations for all employment relationships to which they apply - regardless of the individual employee. The regulations include, among other things, the areas of basic principles, recruitment, working time and vacation, Salaries and termination.
AVR are not a collective agreement
- It should be noted that the AVR-Caritas - like the AVR-Diakonie - do not come about like a collective agreement. It is not trade unions and employers who negotiate with each other, but rather the members of the responsible labor law committee sit down together and agree on the outcome of the negotiations.
- This practice is known as the "Third Way". The employer does not set the conditions unilaterally ("first way"), nor are collective bargaining and there are no strikes ("second way"). The "Third Way" is the special way of the churches and church works.
- As a result, the AVR-Caritas are not considered a collective agreement. This is important when labor law standards allow a deviation due to a collective agreement. Because this "opening clause" does not automatically apply to the AVR. And your employer may then not be able to deviate from what the state law prescribes due to the AVR.
As an employee of a Caritas institution, your salary is based on ...
How the regulations are structured
- The AVR-Caritas consist of a general part and numerous annexes. The general part contains the essential regulations on the employment relationship in 24 paragraphs. Section 14 Para. 1 AVR-Caritas the regulation that fixed-term employment contracts can be properly terminated. If this were neither regulated in the AVR nor in the employment contract, your fixed-term contract would not be subject to ordinary termination.
- You will find references to the annexes in many paragraphs of the general part. The 33 enclosures of AVR-Caritas contain, among other things, detailed regulations on the remuneration of individual groups of employees, certain working time regulations and regulations on partial retirement. Appendices 2 and 30-33 are particularly important. The grouping of employees is based on these annexes.
The AVR-Caritas represent a complex set of rules. They apply to all facilities that are affiliated with the DCV (German Caritas Association).
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