Complaints against minimum wage in Yoga center before Federal Constitutional Court unsuccessful
The two, a lawyer and a art historian and Romanist, lived there for eight and three years respectively in the center. They performed regular services there for wages, insurance, and accommodation. For example, they worked in online marketing.
Later, they went to court, where they demanded the minimum wage retroactively. Their cases went as far as the Federal Labor Court (BAG) in Erfurt, which granted them the minimum wage. The BAG justified its decision, among other things, by stating that the association was not a religious or ideological community.
Unlike, for example, nuns or monks in a Christian monastery, employees who performed work in the yoga association were not determined and bound by instructions, so they were protected as employees. The association appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court with constitutional complaints.
The fact that the Federal Labor Court did not classify the association as a religious community played no role in its decision. Karlsruhe left open whether this was in line with the Basic Law. The activities of the two plaintiffs had served, however, the maintenance of the accommodation and seminar business of the association and the sale of yoga products.
The association had not shown that these activities were religiously motivated in themselves. This was also not apparent. However, it was only about the assessment of their labor law status, the Constitutional Court explained.
- Despite their victory at the Federal Labor Court in Erfurt, the Yoga Center decided to file constitutional complaints at the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe.
- The Yoga Center's complaint to the Federal Constitutional Court was based on the Minimum Wage law not being applied fairly to their association.
- In the course of the constitutional complaints, the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe did not condemn the Federal Labor Court's decision but left open whether it was in line with the Basic Law.
- The Yoga Center argued that their activities, such as maintaining the accommodation and seminar business, and selling yoga products, were religiously motivated.
- However, the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe focused solely on the assessment of their labor law status and did not find sufficient evidence to support the Yoga Center's claims of religious motivation.
