Let`s talk about money - oder - Die Vorgaben des Entgelttransparenzgesetzes

I. Introduction
In October 2009, the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Labor Court ruled that a clause in the employment contract that requires employees to keep the amount of their salary confidential and also to maintain secrecy about it from other company employees is ineffective.

Because this puts the workforce at an unreasonable disadvantage. In particular, employees are deprived of the opportunity to check whether the employer pays comparable employees a comparable salary and thus the principle of equal treatment is upheld in the company (LAG Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania of October 21, 2009 - 2 Sa 237/09).
Eight years ago, the State Labor Court emphasized that employees must be able to communicate with each other about salary levels.
II. Introduction of the Pay Transparency Act in July 2017
The legislature has now also decided to regulate such employee verification options by law. Corresponding regulations can be found in the new Pay Transparency Act, which came into force on July 6, 2017.
1. Aim of the law
The aim of this law is to ensure equal pay for women and men for the same work or work of equal value. This results in particular from the requirements in Sections 3 and 7 of the Pay Transparency Act.
2. Individual right to information as a core instrument
In order to enforce the legislative goal, individual employees are granted an individual right to information in accordance with Sections 10 ff. of the Pay Transparency Act. This right is certainly the core of the new law and is structured as follows:

Subject of information/scope

As part of the request for information, employees can inquire about the criteria and procedure for determining their own remuneration as well as the remuneration of comparable employees. You can even query up to two individual remuneration components that employees of the opposite sex receive for the same or comparable work.
This should allow every employee to check whether comparable employees of the opposite sex receive different – and possibly higher – remuneration for the same work.

Prerequisite for the individual right to information

However, only employees in companies with more than 200 employees with the same employer can assert the right to information (Section 12 Paragraph 1 of the Pay Transparency Act). In addition, at least six people of the opposite gender must work in the company (Section 12 Paragraph 3 of the Pay Transparency Act). The request for information must be made in text form (e.g. letter, fax, email) and can generally only be requested by the same person every two years.

Fulfillment of the request for information

The works council is responsible for fulfilling the right to information, if available. However, the employer can assume responsibility in such cases. In companies without a works council, however, the employer is always obliged to provide the information.
He must comply with this obligation within three months of receiving the request for information in text form. If the request for information is not fulfilled - despite the legal obligation - the employer must prove in possible court proceedings that there is no violation of the equal pay requirement in the company.
III. Conclusion
The Pay Transparency Act now gives employees in companies with more than 200 employees very extensive rights, for which the affected companies must prepare. So that employers can create or adapt internal processes, the law provides for a transition period of six calendar months. Employers should use this time to obtain appropriate legal advice.