Because she received less money than her male successors, the former mayor of Müllheim in Baden-Württemberg is taking her to court. Now her lawsuit is successful: Astrid Siemens-Knoblich was disadvantaged because she is a woman, the judges say. The city, however, sees it very differently.
The Baden-Württemberg city of Müllheim has to pay its former mayor 50,000 euros in damages because she was paid less than her male colleagues. This was decided by the Administrative Court of Freiburg, as it recently announced. The judges ruled in favor of the plaintiff, ex-mayor Astrid Siemens-Knoblich. “The judgment is a milestone for equal pay in the area of ??public service and civil servants’ salaries,” she quoted the “Badische Zeitung” after the decision.
In March 2021, Siemens-Knoblich sued the city for damages on the basis of the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG). Her accusation: During her tenure from 2012 to 2020, the city had classified her at a lower salary level than her male successors. For a city like Muellheim with 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants, the salary law provides for either group B3 or B4. The municipal council decides which group the mayor falls into, according to the legal news portal “Legal Tribute Online” (LTO).
The court took the different classification of Siemens-Knoblich and her male colleagues as an indication of discrimination, writes the city of Müllheim. And since evidence is sufficient according to the law in this case, the former head of the town hall was right. She earned less than the male mayors because she is a woman, the court said.
The city of Müllheim has to pay her 50,000 euros in arrears and also adjust the future old-age allowance to the higher salary level. According to the “Badische Zeitung”, Siemens-Knoblich said after the verdict that she hoped that the framework conditions for the salary classification of women and men in the public sector would be clear in the future.
The city administration, however, is less satisfied with the verdict. It is currently being examined whether the court’s decision will be appealed, according to a statement. Because: The decision to classify Siemens-Knoblich in a lower salary group was made “not for reasons of gender discrimination”. Rather, the municipal council failed to take into account the particular difficulty of the office in Müllheim.
As a result, Siemens-Knoblich was “not comprehensibly rated too low,” the city continues. However, not because of their gender, but for factual reasons. It is not about discrimination. However, Müllheim would have to prove this in court in order to free himself from the accusation and the compensation.
