Labor Code (GDR)

The labor code of the German Democratic Republic is a fundamental legal regulation of labor law for employees and companies in the GDR , whereby the rights and obligations were defined uniformly. The General Terms and Conditions were adopted by the People's Chamber on June 16, 1977 (Journal of Laws I p. 185 f) and came into force on January 1, 1978 . Forerunners were the law of work to promote and care for the workforce, to increase labor productivity and to further improve the material and cultural situation of workers and employees , which came into force on May 1, 1950, and the Labor Code of the German Democratic Republic dated April 12, 1961.

structure

The AGB originally comprised 17 chapters:

Principles of socialist labor law
Management of the companies and participation of the working people
Conclusion, modification and termination of the employment contract
Work organization and socialist work discipline
Wages and bonuses
Vocational training
Initial and continuing education
working time
Relaxing vacation
Health and safety at work
Spiritual, cultural and sporting life
Special rights of working women and mothers
Labor law responsibility of the working people
Compensation payments by the company
Social security for workers and employees
Control of compliance with labor law
Resolving labor disputes and disputes in the field of social security for workers and employees.

application

The GTC applied to all workers and employees, including homeworkers and apprentices in state- owned companies and combines , socialist cooperatives, state bodies and institutions as well as social organizations. It was also applied to the labor law relationships of employees in companies with other forms of ownership and to labor law relationships established between citizens, insofar as no special legal provisions existed (Section 15 (2) of the General Terms and Conditions and the Ordinance (VO) on the application of the General Terms and Conditions in the skilled trades) - and commercial enterprises and institutions of November 3, 1977 (Journal of Laws I 1997 No. 34 p. 370)).

It also applied to the employment law relationships of the group of people named under Section 15 (3) of the General Terms and Conditions, for whom, however, special features could be regulated. The ABG was supplemented by a number of subordinate legal provisions, which above all specified the basic regulations or regulated details for the implementation of the standards contained in it. These legal provisions were partly issued after the General Terms and Conditions came into force. For others, the continued validity was declared when it came into force.

The following legal provisions

The following legal provisions existed primarily as ordinances and implementing provisions (DB) for these (e.g. in the areas of the granting of bonuses, vocational training, recreation permits, health and safety at work, social insurance for workers and employees including voluntary supplementary pension insurance, the formation and activity of the conflict commissions and the application of the general terms and conditions in craft and commercial enterprises and institutions), as an order (AO) of the ministers and heads of other central state organs (e.g. in the labor legal capacity on the voluntary productive activity of the students during the holidays , securing the right to work for rehabilitants, the conclusion of individual contracts, the granting of special bonuses for material savings and the development of economic reserves, the compensation payments for business trips, etc.) and as framework collective agreements and supplements for the individual Zwe ige and areas of the economy and for certain groups of people.

Some of the legal provisions have been supplemented and further specified in normative company regulations, such as the company collective agreement , work regulations, wage form agreements and the like . a.

Today (2019) the terms and conditions are only partially valid.

literature

materials

Ministry of Labor: Ordinance on the protection of workers of October 25, 1951. With the Labor Act of April 19, 1950. Deutscher Zentralverlag, Berlin.
Federal Executive of the FDGB: GDR Labor Code of April 12, 1961. Tribüne publishing house, Berlin 1961.
State Planning Commission Commission for Work and Wages (Ed.): Code of Labor and other selected legal provisions of labor law content. State Publishing House of the GDR, Berlin 1964.
State Secretariat for Labor and Wages (Ed.): Labor Code of the GDR with introductory law. Text edition with subject index, Verlag Tribüne / Staatsverlag der GDR, 1977.
State Secretariat for Labor and Wages (Hrsg.): Our Labor Code - An introduction from the Federal Board of the FDGB. Verlag Tribüne / Staatsverlag der GDR, 1977.

Introductions

Ulrich Lohmann: The new labor code of the GDR . In: Law of Work 1978, pp. 356–362.