The German equality body (FADA)

A few months ago the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency (FADA) announced a change at top-level staff. In February 2010  Christine Lüders, expert in integration, public relations and communication, has been appointed as Head of the German equality body. Previously, Mrs Lüders has been working as an assistant to the board of directors and head of a directorate-general at the Deutsche Lufthansa, then as a head of division at the Ministry for Intergenerational Affairs, Family, Women and Integration of the Land North Rhine-Westphalia, and as commissioner for foundations at the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Land Hesse.

In her new capacity as head of the FADA, Mrs Lüders kindly accepted to present the FADA new initiatives and direction for the future.

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1) How aware are citizens in your country about the role of your equality body? What actions are you taking to build this awareness?

2) Approximately how many complaints concerning discrimination do you receive each year? Please tell us about the most interesting/significant cases you’ve had (both success stories and more difficult ones).

3) How would you describe the main impacts of your work?

4) What do you think are the most urgent discrimination issues in Germany that your institution is facing nowadays? Racism, xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, or other?

5) How does the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency build its relations with civil society groups?

6) What activities do you undertake to promote and support good practice in equality by employers and service providers?

7) Do you have special needs and/or requirements to be addressed to Equinet? Can you assess to which extent and how Equinet is helping your equality body? Is it giving an added value to your functioning?

8) What will be your major projects and initiatives in 2010?

1) How aware are citizens in your country about the role of your equality body? What actions are you taking to build this awareness?

We intend to start a variety of activities in the years to come. Thus, we want to boost the counselling of victims of discrimination and make it the core business of our agency. People who feel they have been treated in discriminatory way and are in need of help should receive quick and competent support. However, the FADA cannot and does not want to achieve this goal all on its own, but in co-operation with the Federal Laender, local authorities and non-governmental organisations. After all, the counselling landscape in Germany is very heterogeneous.
We would therefore like to start an 'offensive in support of a non-discriminatory society'. As part of this focus we are planning to start a national network. It should serve as a platform for all organisations, persons and alliances, who or which are committed to combat discrimination in Germany. A second pillar of our 'offensive in support of a non-discriminatory society' will be the promotion of networks of local counselling centres fighting discrimination in the Federal Laender.

Finally, our public relations contribute to making the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency and the General Equal Treatment Act known to a larger public. Equal rights may only be enforced when knowledge about the right to non-discrimination, forms of discrimination, and specialised counselling centres and persons providing support in cases of discrimination is widespread.

In future, we also want to publicize concrete cases of counselling to a larger extent – of course, on the basis of anonymous records. Currently, we are also seeking to improve the level of knowledge about discrimination and its fight. Within the scope of a series of research studies, we therefore are calling for up to 15 expert opinions on this issue including, for example, one about the topics of 'Discrimination against Trans Persons, in particular at the Workplace' and one about 'Multidimensional and Multiple Discriminations'.
 
Moreover, we have commissioned a research project on the topic of 'Non-Discriminatory Universities'. This study will examine how and in what circumstances discrimination takes place at universities. The project aims to support universities in their endeavours to eliminate discrimination.

Additionally the issue of the survey and aggregated collection of data on discrimination is currently being examined within the scope of a study commissioned by the FADA and in close coordination with counselling centres and non-governmental organisations.

Furthermore, we intend to critically review our own counselling.

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2) Approximately how many complaints concerning discrimination do you receive each year? Please tell us about the most interesting/significant cases you’ve had (both success stories and more difficult ones).

Since the foundation of the FADA in August 2006 until the end of February 2010 we have received 9,238 enquiries from persons seeking advice.

In nearly 8 percent of those cases, multiple discrimination had occurred. Many other enquiries could not be associated with the scope of the General Equal Treatment Act (German abbreviation: AGG). The number of 2,818 new enquiries submitted merely in the year 2009 emphasizes the fact that there is persistent interest in the FADA and the AGG. The majority of those enquiries refers to the sphere of employment and profession and consequently questions relating to labour law. Counselling practice shows very clearly that it is not in the interest of affected individuals to lodge an action, especially not in case of labour law enquiries and petitions. Therefore, the FADA tries to outline methods for an amicable settlement, as for example in-plant opportunities for arbitration or mediation talks.

A significant part of our counselling is also given to employers as well as to employers' and/or employees' associations or their organisations or interests sections, such as the Equal Opportunities Commissioners or Commissioners for Matters relating to Disabled Persons.

Here are a few examples from our counselling practice:

• A pregnant woman had turned to the FADA, because her fixed-term employment contract was to be not extended. She considered her pregnancy being the reason for that, since all other female employees, who had been employed at the same time were granted an extension of their working contracts. In the employer's opinion requested by the FADA, it was stated that this matter had meanwhile been settled with the concerned employee by mutual agreement. In fact she was also given the opportunity of extending her employment contract.

• A trainee from Asia employed at an enterprise had turned to the FADA and reported discrimination in connection with his ethnic origin. His employment was not to be continued, because the enterprise rather wanted to have "German staff members". Further to a first counselling by the FADA, the affected trainee turned to the complaints unit of the enterprise. Afterwards he was given notice of termination. Subsequently the FADA requested the enterprise to provide an opinion. Finally, the concerned trainee and the enterprise eventually found an amicable settlement within the scope of conciliation.

• The FADA was informed about a strategy of an airline, where the prices for flight tickets booked online depended on the passenger's age, the indication of which was mandatory. Persons older than 60 years had to pay more for a ticket than younger ones. Subsequently the FADA requested the airline to deliver an opinion on this issue. In its answer the airline reported about technical problems connected with the presentation of its website which were solved immediately. From now on, the tickets booked online will be calculated at uniform prices, irrespective of the passenger's age. Finally, the airline offered compensation to the person affected.

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3) How would you describe the main impacts of your work?

In particular, the FADA may in particular provide information on claims, outline possibilities of taking legal action, provide referrals to counselling by other agencies and seek an amicable settlement between the parties involved. The FADA may request third parties to submit their opinion, as long as the affected individuals have agreed to it. If other commissioners of the German Bundestag or the German Federal Government are responsible, the FADA will pass on the requests from affected individuals after having obtained their consent. At regular intervals (every four years), the FADA provides the German Bundestag with reports on discrimination, including recommendations on how to avoid and abolish discrimination. The reports are submitted by the FADA in co-operation with the Commissioners of the German Federal Government and the German Bundestag who are responsible for these issues.

At the final count, we were able to help in many cases by our counselling, we reached an amicable settlement between the parties to the dispute, and discrimination have been eliminated. The clear signal that is sent out to society by the General Equal Treatment Act cannot be rated sufficiently high. Since its entry into force in August 2006, a lot of changes in the awareness of society have occurred in Germany, although they are not yet satisfactory.

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4) What do you think are the most urgent discrimination issues in Germany that your institution is facing nowadays? Racism, xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, or other?

During our consultancy the majority of people turning to us feel discriminated against on grounds of disability or gender. Each of these two grounds of discrimination are the basis of approximately one quarter of the requests sent to our agency.

However, we are well aware of the fact that discriminations on other grounds are widespread as well and that the individuals affected may turn to a multitude of specialised points of contact – in addition to our Agency. Frequent discriminatory behaviour in Germany includes, as also in many of our neighbouring countries, discrimination on grounds of a name or appearance which seems to be of foreign origin, discrimination against women at their workplace or worse educational opportunities for children with a migrant background.

However, the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency categorically opposes the creation of a hierarchy of grounds of discrimination. In the General Equal Treatment Act a horizontal approach has been anchored. It means that any discrimination is equally bad – whether it occurs on the grounds of race or ethnic origin, gender, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual identity.

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5) How does the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency build its relations with civil society groups?

Ever since the FADA came into existence, it has been co-operating with civil-society organizations. Further to a general exchange of information and expert knowledge which is implemented on a large variety of levels, we co-operate with civil-society organizations, also via the advisory board of the FADA. On the whole, we want to intensify our co-operation in the future, in particular with the Federal Laender, local authorities and non-governmental organizations.

During the past few years, there have been a lot of changes in the awareness of society in Germany, however, they are evidently not sufficient yet. We must and we are going to incorporate the issues of diversity and anti-discrimination into society at an even larger scale. We want to do this in co-operation with the Federal Laender, local authorities and non-governmental organisations. I will meet with all associations of affected individuals at a round table to find solutions to those specific problems. All in all we are striving to achieve an improved networking of all relevant stakeholders in this field.

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6) What activities do you undertake to promote and support good practice in equality by employers and service providers?

We want to make examples of best practice more known via the Internet, in booklets and flyers as well as by means of ideas competitions. For this purpose, we are also looking for "ambassadors" - public figures who stand up for the fight against discrimination. In future, we also want to publicize concrete cases of counselling to a larger audience than before – on the basis of anonymious records. The purpose of that is to outline which problems emerge particularly frequently and which kinds of discrimination occur particularly often. To this end, we are currently also working on a book project where the most important cases from our counselling activity are to be described.

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7) Do you have special needs and/or requirements to be addressed to Equinet? Can you assess to which extent and how Equinet is helping your equality body? Is it giving an added value to your functioning?

The membership of Equinet offers us an important platform for exchanging experiences and for networking with the other European equality bodies. By exchanging our experiences and by networking we can only learn from one another, for example, how successful public relations for protection against discrimination and effective research work are done and, last but not least, how efficient help for those affected is provided.

When we are launching an initiative calling for anonymous curricula vitae in Germany, in our capacity as Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency, we are, of course, also interested in experiences gained in other European countries, some of which are certainly more advanced in this sector. Equinet should therefore continue to actively facilitate an exchange of experiences and a formation of networks between equality bodies and also promote joint initiatives.

Equinet should also continue to serve as a connecting link between equality bodies and the European Commission, so that their specific concerns, for example with a view to possible further European legislative acts, may gain attention. In this respect, I am expecting transparent coordination procedures in future, with the participation of all bodies in due time.

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8) What will be your other major projects and initiatives planned in 2010?

Recently we launched an initiative for the adoption of anonymous CVs. We want anonymous curricula vitae to become standard in application procedures. For this purpose, we think of CVs where neither a photo is shown nor the name, address, birth date or family status of an applicant can be identified. In this way we seek to achieve greater equality of opportunities in application procedures. Studies have proved that the applicants' chances of employment are considerably reduced, for example, when they have Turkish surnames. Prejudices and lack of experience on the part of the personnel managers are the reasons for this.

For the purpose of a trial with anonymous applications we are also looking for enterprises willing to start a pilot project in co-operation with us. What is also important to me is the promotion of networks between local counselling centres to improve the access for affected individuals. At the moment I am discussing – first of all with my team – which initiatives would be most appropriate in this field.

Moreover, we are working on the presentation of cases of counselling in a book – as I had already mentioned. An external newsletter aimed at counselling centres and stakeholders in anti-discrimination policy as well as the interested general public has recently been published. In addition, we have elaborated a survey of the most important trends in the protection against discrimination. It has been produced in the form of an annual review for the year 2009 and is uploaded in German language on our website. Furthermore, counselling publications geared to specific target groups have been planned for the future.

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Thank you Mrs. Lüders for your contribution.

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