The DHV – Die Berufsgewerkschaft eV condemns the decision of the State Labour Court Hamburg to withdraw its tariff eligibility as an unconstitutional interference in the freedom of association protected by Article 9 (3) of the Constitution. The DHV will file a legal complaint with the Federal Labour Court and is ready to go to the Federal Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.
Founded in 1893, dissolved during the 3rd Reich and re-established in 1950, the DHV is a trade union steeped in tradition and to date a firmly established trade union in the Federal Republic of Germany. For decades, the DHV has been successfully doing trade union work that is recognized by the employees. DHV has been an established tariff partner since the 1950s. The DHV repeatedly emphasizes the high level of acceptance among the workforce when it comes to elections for works councils, staff councils and supervisory boards. The most recent example of success are the staff council elections at DAK-Gesundheit, in which the DHV was able to successfully expand its position as the second-strongest trade union force. In addition, numerous DHV members are involved in the social security committees, as labour and social judges, as insured advisers and as members of opposition committees. This successful trade union work has been repeatedly proven by the DHV in the collective bargaining process that has been going on for over 6 years. The decision of the State Labour Court Hamburg is in stark contrast to the operational reality and the status of the DHV as a successful union recognized by many employees!
Withdrawal of the tariff eligibility would deprive the DHV of the basis on which it could continue to function as a union. Such a curtailment of tasks and rights would be a fundamental encroachment on the trade union rights guaranteed by the Constitution – not only for the DHV as a trade union organization, but also for its tens of thousands of members! Withal, in the six-year tariff eligibility process, the DGB unions Verdi, IG Metall and NGG, together with the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin, never assumed that the DHV had misused tariff autonomy!
Therefore, the DHV will file a legal complaint with the Federal Labour Court! This thus does not make the decision of the Hamburg State Labour Court legally binding! The DHV is ready to go to the very limits of the legal process and, if necessary, recourse the Federal Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights!
Source: https://www.dhv-cgb.de/informationen/presseportal/3394-200525-landesarbeitsgerichtsentscheidung-dhv (Original German)
