The General Act on Equal Treatment (AGG) does not schedule an extensive association action. Nevertheless a special form of an association action can be found in § 17 II AGG in conjunction with § 23 III S. 1 BetrVG. It is called “small” association action. Collective legal injunctive reliefs and removals can be established. The employer can also be urged to tolerate or take actions.

Preconditions for this kind of lawsuit are the entitlement of the complainant and a gross infringement against the regulations of the second section of the AGG.

Those entitled are unions that are represented in a company as well as in works councils. A union is represented in a company if at least one of their members is an employee of the company without being an executive. Affected parties can only appear as witnesses. The union and the works council also does not need the authority from those affected to be authorized to take legal actions.

Furthermore, there has to be a gross infringement against the regulations of the second section of the AGG. This includes the discrimination ban in accordance with § 7 I AGG, organisational duties according to §§ 11, 12 AGG and the ban on disciplinary treatment in accordance with 16 AGG. In the case of a violation of the duties, it is generally not a question of fault and not a question of whether they were violated by action or omission.

Whether an employer is at fault for a violation of the duties, is to be considered within the limits of a gross violation. The breach of duty must already have taken place during the suit. A breach of duty is gross if it is objectively significant and also obviously serious. The relevance can result out of repeated breaches of duty or the serious nature of the individual breaches of duty. It needs to be given objectively.

An example of a small association action is the unequal payment between male and female employees. Within the logistics company „Süderelbe GmbH“ women got paid 300 Euros less for the same work because they were paid through an employee collective agreement. Men who did the same work did get paid through an appreciably higher collective wage agreement. Therefore, the workers council submitted a request to take legal action against the gender discrimination. After the case became known through the press and also key customers found out about the discrimination, the management agreed to a settlement. The outcome was only partially satisfactory because the settlement only clarified the situation of the last six months even though a few women were employed even longer than that.