Freiburg/Müllheim (dpa/lsw) – Muellheim’s ex-mayor Astrid Siemes-Knoblich (independent) is subsequently entitled to the same remuneration as her male predecessor and her male successor. The city of Müllheim therefore had to pay the former head of town hall the difference of around 50,000 euros, the Freiburg Administrative Court decided, according to a statement on Tuesday. Siemes-Knoblich had claimed damages on the basis of the Anti-Discrimination Act. (Case 5 K 664/21)
The press spokesman for the court confirmed on Monday that the ex-mayor’s lawsuit was upheld. The amount of the payment initially remained open.
The court ruled that the city must also pay the difference for the future old-age benefit of the former town hall chief of the municipality in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district. The former local politician, who was in office from 2011 to 2019, had seen a case of gender discrimination. Both her predecessor and her successor were classified in a higher salary bracket.
For its part, the city of Müllheim announced that it would examine whether the decision would be contested after the written judgment had been received. The city administration is still convinced that the decision of the municipal council from 2011 to classify “not for reasons of gender discrimination” was made. “An appeal would lead to the VGH Baden-Württemberg reviewing the factual and legal situation completely again,” said Mayor Martin Löffler (SPD).
Siemes-Knoblich said last year that there had been settlement talks with the city. However, these were unsatisfactory.
The salary law of the civil service provides that mayors in municipalities with 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants can be classified in two salary groups: either in the lower group B3 or in the higher B4, as the “Badische Zeitung” reported at the time. The municipal council decides on this. And he decided that Siemes-Knoblich would be classified in B3 – and thus different from its predecessor and also its successor.
As the city of Müllheim announced, the municipal council classified the mayor’s position in the lower salary group, contrary to the recommendation of the administration. The committee thus ignored the particular difficulty of the office in the municipality south of Freiburg – the position was therefore classified too low.
