Commissions for the regulation of diocesan employment contract law
Commissions for the regulation of employment contract law in the church sector (KODA) are associations of employer and employee representatives from the working world of the Catholic Church in Germany for the design and further development of church labor law . For all 27 dioceses in the Federal Republic of Germany there is either a “Commission for the Order of Diocesan Employment Contract Law” (Diocesan KODA), or several dioceses have merged regionally and created a joint commission (Regional-KODA) for their areas. In order to ensure the unity of church labor law in the supra-diocesan area, a “Central Commission for the Regulation of Employment Contract Law in the Church Service” (Zentral-KODA) was formed for the dioceses in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Caritas Association. The commissions draw up regulations similar to collective agreements , so-called employment contracts, which describe legal norms on the content, conclusion and termination of employment relationships. Different majorities are required in accordance with the individual KODA regulations to pass resolutions. After the decision-making in the commissions, the decisions are presented to the diocesan bishops, who then put them into effect as ecclesiastical law through an episcopal, i.e. internal church legislative act. The church institutions are then required by canon law to base their individual employment relationships on these regulations.
In terms of canon law, the commissions are thus advisory bodies for the bishops who comply with the provisions of c. 127 CIC . In state law, the regulations that have come about in this way apply as general terms and conditions according to the established case law of the Federal Labor Court (see e.g. BAG, judgment of November 17, 2005 - 6 AZR 160/05).
