Overview
- The court prohibited Verdi from calling warning strikes at the Sophien- und Hufeland Klinikum and threatened a €250,000 fine for violations.
- The ruling follows 2024 emergency bans and replaces them with a full judgment after detailed examination.
- Judges applied a 2012 BAG precedent, finding that unions need only have the chance to participate through "argumentative" input in church-run pay commissions.
- Verdi says it has only a token role in the commission, labeled the decision a setback for staff, and plans to appeal to the state labor court with a possible constitutional complaint.
- Diakonie leaders say the case reaches beyond Weimar and could affect about 35,000 employees across roughly 200 facilities, with recent BVerfG jurisprudence reinforcing church autonomy.