Das Recht kirchlicher Arbeitnehmer auf Streik

The German Federal Labour Court accepted severe limitations of trade unions to the right to strike against ecclesiastically affiliated employers, as long as the trade unions are ‘organisationally integrated’ in the ecclesiastical decision making process and the binding force of the results of those negotiations is guaranteed. However, the Court does not specify the circumstances under which those requirements are met. Moreover, the minimum level of protection guaranteed by Art. 11 para. 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights has not sufficiently been taken into consideration. This book questions the current conception of the collective religious autonomy granted by the German Federal Constitutional Court. It argues that the Court’s interpretation violates two fundamental constitutional principles: the principle of granting effective remedies and the constitutional duty to provide state neutrality in religious matters. Thus, it advances a new approach to solve this conflict.