Termination rules for employers of Caritas
The state labor laws and dismissal rules also apply to Caritas employers. As an employee, however, you are subject to special duties of loyalty. These can lead to the fact that a certain behavior can be terminated without notice.
The Dismissal Protection Act protects you as an employee from unjustified termination. The rules on personal, behavioral and operational dismissal also apply to a Caritas employer. In addition, there are special features that result from special canonical regulations.
Cancellation rules of the AVR-Caritas
The "AVR-Caritas" are generally used for employers of Caritas. These are the employment contract guidelines that have been adopted by the Labor Law Commission. With a few exceptions, they apply to all employment contracts.
- § 14 para. 1 ARV-Caritas regulates that in addition to open-ended employment relationships, temporary employment relationships can also be terminated. If you have a fixed-term contract, you can terminate it properly before the end of the contract period. However, you are bound by the notice period.
- In § 14 para. 2 AVR-Caritas defines the notice periods. In the first twelve months of the employment relationship, your employer must give one month's notice to the end of the month; the longer the employment relationship, the longer the notice period. In the case of twelve years, it is six months to the end of the quarter.
Special features of extraordinary termination
- In § 16 para. 1 sentence 1 AVR-Caritas, reference is made to the regulation of the BGB: There must be an important reason for an extraordinary termination. If there is such a reason, the terminating party is not bound by the notice period.
- Section 16 of the church regulation also contains more detailed provisions on when an important reason is present. This includes e.g. B. "Gross violations of respect" towards the institutions of the Catholic Church and serious violations of the moral laws of the Church. These are therefore grounds for termination that are only relevant in the context of a church employment relationship.
- According to the Catholic understanding, a serious violation of morals occurs, for example, when a divorced person remarries. In the Catholic Church marriage is considered a sacrament and indissoluble. If you remarry after a divorce, you are, so to speak, publicly questioning it.
As an employee, it is often not only the employment contract that is relevant for you. Collective agreements ...
Not every moral violation justifies a dismissal
- However, not every moral violation legitimizes the Catholic employer to dismiss. Rather, it may be that the right to terminate is "forfeited".
- Here is an example: After your divorce, you have been living with a new partner for years without being married. Your employer knows this too and tacitly tolerates it. Then you marry your partner and you are promptly given notice. Here the Catholic employer would not have a good hand at the labor court. Because he would have to be accused of having tolerated the previous behavior, which also did not correspond to his moral law.
Special duties of loyalty apply to employees in Catholic institutions. These are often difficult to reconcile with life models that are widespread nowadays. (Status of the legal information: August 2014)
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