Heinze women
The Heinze women were 29 employees of the Gelsenkirchen photography company Heinze, who in 1981 fought for the same pay as their male colleagues in a third instance before the Federal Labor Court in Kassel . The case attracted nationwide attention, triggered a flood of follow-up processes and is therefore considered to be groundbreaking for equal rights for women and men in professional life.
story
In 1979, female workers in the Federal Republic of Germany received a wage that was on average 27.4% lower than that of their male colleagues. In 1979, 16 men and 53 women were employed in the film development department of the Gelsenkirchen-based company Heinze. The men were hired in 1978 when the company introduced night work , which women were generally prohibited from doing during that time.
All were classified in wage group I. The women did the same work as their male colleagues. However, they received lower bonuses on top of their hourly wages. Their hammer price was between twelve pfennigs and 1.40 DM ; many of the women received no allowance at all. On average, the women received an allowance of 19 pfennigs. The men employed in the department received (in addition to their allowances for night work) allowances of at least DM 1.50. no men could be found on the labor market, but they were absolutely needed because of the night work.
29 women who were organized in the IG Druck und Papier were supported by the works council chairman Bodo Murach and received legal protection from their union . They sued the Gelsenkirchen labor court and retrospectively demanded the same surcharges as their male colleagues. They cited Article 3 of the Basic Law . The employer relied on the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of contract ; the allowances had already been agreed upon when they were hired. On May 10, 1979, the plaintiffs won the first instance at the Gelsenkirchen Labor Court. The company reorganized the work. Men now operated the machines, while the women only sorted and attached.
The employer appealed against the first instance judgment. In the second instance before the Hamm Regional Labor Court, the women were defeated on September 19, 1979.
The Heinze women then sued the Federal Labor Court. It decided on September 9, 1981 in the case of “Beate Berger and others against Heinze-Fotolabor Betriebe” that the labor law principle of equal treatment, which is based on the principle of equal rights in Article 3 (2) of the Basic Law and the prohibition of discrimination in Article 3 (3) GG is shaped, prohibits any differentiation by gender, even in the case of allowances above the tariff.
The Heinze company went bankrupt in 1983 with a debt of 100 million DM. The Heinze women, who were entitled to additional payments of around DM 100,000 according to the judgment, were therefore only able to partially meet their demands.
In September 2021, the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (Gelsenkirchen local section) published a review Forty Years Later .
Solidarity actions
The Heinze women's lawsuit was widely discussed in public. The women's struggle for equality was accompanied by solidarity campaigns organized by the full-time trade unionist Gisela Kessler . 45,000 supporters signed a list of signatures. Politicians like Willy Brandt , Herbert Wehner , Erhard Eppler and Annemarie Renger expressed their solidarity. Seminars on the struggle of women took place in the Gelsenkirchen adult education center .
On the occasion of the hearing before the Federal Labor Court, a union-organized solidarity event took place in front of the Kassel ice rink with 6,000 participants on September 6, 1981.
After the ruling by the Federal Labor Court, Gisela Kessler , deputy chairwoman of IG Medien, said: “Now our colleagues in the companies are challenged. The works councils must examine the excess tariffs from the point of view of equal treatment. If discrimination emerges, one must first fight in the company, but if necessary also with further processes. "
Heinze women in art
At the Ruhr Festival in Recklinghausen, the comedy was performed in six scenes Women are not Heinzelmänner of the mobile Rhein-Main-Theater, which thematized the struggle of the Heinze women.
In 2005 the Kunstverein Gelsenkirchen showed a video / audio installation by Dani Gal , Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, under the title Nobody pushes us away , which consisted of two parts. Interviews with the Heinze women were shown in a video film. The second part consisted of a silent film that showed the demonstrations in Kassel in 1981.
The events formed the basis of the 2018 television film Nobody Pushes Us Away from director Wolfgang Murnberger with Alwara Höfels , Imogen Kogge , Katharina Marie Schubert and Christoph Bach in the leading roles.
See also
literature
- Ilse Lenz : The new women's movement in Germany. Farewell to the small difference. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 3-531-14729-3 , pp. 175–177.
- Marianne Kaiser (Ed.): We want equal wages! Documentation on the fight of the 29 "Heinze" women. Rowohlt-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Reinbek 1980, ISBN 3-499-14623-1 ( Rororo. Rororo current. Women current 4623).
- Pure coincidence . In: Der Spiegel . No. 38 , 1981, pp. 46 ( online ).
Web links
- Isolde Haug: Women trigger a flood of processes ( Memento from July 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Hamburger Abendblatt from September 3, 1981, p. 18.
- Gisela Losseff-Tillmanns: And they organized themselves - ver.di-Publik 3/2016
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ursula Schumm-Garling: Women and precarious employment ( Memento of the original dated May 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: DGB Women 2008 (PDF file)
- ↑ ArbG Gelsenkirchen, judgment of May 10, 1979, Az. 3 Ca 58/79.
- ↑ LAG Hamm, judgment of September 19, 1979, Az. 12 Sa 767/79.
- ↑ BAG, judgment of September 9, 1981, Az. 5 AZR 1182/79.
- ↑ Heinze women on the page gelsenzentrum.de
- ↑ 40 years judgment on equal pay In: WAZ, September 8, 2021.
- ↑ Antje Dertinger : When Europe grabbed the bull by the horns - The beginnings of equal treatment of women and men in the workplace In: Welt der Arbeit (PDF file; 106 kB)
- ↑ From the history of the VHS Gelsenkirchen (PDF file)
- ↑ Women's archive of the Institute for Political Science at the University of Hanover ( Memento of the original from May 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file)
- ↑ Christine Becker: No one would have lasted alone p. 11. (PDF file)
- ↑ Gisela Kessler: Nobody pushes us away In: World of Work (PDF file; 88 kB)
- ↑ Women are not Heinzelmänner In: Dagmar Papula , Norbert Kentrup (Hrsg.): Frauen-Theater Politisches Theater Volume 9 . Offenbach 1982.
- ↑ Installation Nobody pushes us away , 2005 ( Memento of the original from March 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (with photos)
- ↑ Nobody pushes us away / No one shifts us away ( MS Word ; 21 kB)
- ^ No Big Deal, Städelschule Frankfurt
- ↑ Oliver Kaever: Dat must be fairer! Spiegel Online , November 13, 2018, accessed on the same day.
