AGG (Germany)
The Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz (AGG) is Germany’s General Equal Treatment Act. It protects against discrimination on specified grounds, including in job advertising, recruitment and employment.
Protection begins before employment
The AGG covers discrimination connected with race or ethnic origin, sex, religion or belief, disability, age and sexual identity. Its employment protections include job candidates. Both direct unequal treatment and apparently neutral requirements that disadvantage a protected group can raise issues under the law.
A requirement such as “young team member wanted” therefore needs more scrutiny than a description of the work the person will perform. Occupational exceptions exist, but they depend on the legal conditions and the actual job; an employer’s preference is not enough.
Review the requirements and the reasons for decisions
Section 11 requires non-discriminatory job advertising. The familiar German suffix “m/w/d” signals that a vacancy is open to different genders. It does not cure discriminatory wording elsewhere in the advertisement, and the statute does not prescribe that exact suffix for every title.
Define selection criteria around the work, use relevant evidence and record the basis of decisions. For example, an interview scorecard can capture how someone demonstrated a required skill. Join’s scorecards provide notes alongside attribute ratings. The hiring team supplies the reasoning; the software does not determine whether it is lawful.
Written assertion and court proceedings have different deadlines
Under AGG Section 15(4), compensation or damages claims generally must be asserted in writing within two months, unless the collective bargaining parties have agreed otherwise. For an application, the statutory period begins with receipt of the rejection.
A compensation lawsuit has a separate rule: ArbGG Section 61b(1) generally requires filing within three months after the claim was asserted in writing. The two-month period is therefore not simply the deadline to sue.
These provisions do not establish a universal deletion date for recruitment records. Retention requires its own purpose, legal basis and assessment of any dispute, alongside candidate-data retention rules. An actual claim should be handled with qualified advice on the applicable facts and deadlines.