Complaints Office pursuant to Art. 13 General Act on Equal Treatment

The AGG Complaint Office advises individuals who make contact about the legal options available under the AGG for persons affected by discrimination and outlines the complaint office’s procedure. The advice can be provided in person, by telephone, or in writing. Upon request, the advice can be confidential; please let us know when you get in touch.

The contact persons at the AGG Complaint Office then ask for a description of the facts. If follow-up questions are necessary, these are discussed with the person seeking advice. This is followed by an assessment of whether the account indicates discrimination under the AGG.

If the assessment determines that the experience does not fall within the scope of the AGG, the procedure at the AGG Complaint Office ends. However, further recommendations may be made depending on the circumstances.

If the assessment determines that the account plausibly indicates discrimination, the person seeking advice is shown what options are available, and the AGG Complaint Office advises on possible courses of action. One option is to file an official complaint.

The Beratungsbroschüre der HHU [ONLY GERMAN] provides a comprehensive overview of the options for obtaining advice at HHU.

You can find the Patient Advocacy Complaints Office at University Hospital Düsseldorf here. 
 

You can find the AGG Complaint Office of University Hospital Düsseldorf here.

The General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) applies in the context of employment relationships—that is, between employer and employee as well as among employees. It protects against unjustified disadvantage and provides employers and employees with legal means to eliminate discrimination and to counter its future or repeated occurrence.

The AGG Complaint Office is a unit specifically responsible for receiving complaints. As soon as a matter is submitted to the office that indicates possible discrimination under the AGG, the office, acting for HHU as the employer, examines whether the submission contains indications of discrimination by persons within the scope of the AGG.

The procedure is based on a two‑stage process.

(1) Advice

The AGG Complaint Office informs affected persons, obligated parties, and interested individuals about the rights and obligations under the AGG. People seeking advice are asked to describe experiences they consider discriminatory, and the office records the facts of the case. If necessary, the AGG Complaint Office asks follow‑up questions to the person seeking advice in order to clarify the facts that make up the case.

NOTE: The AGG Complaint Office is NOT an investigative authority. The facts must be prepared and submitted to the complaint office. Guidance on how to proceed can be found in the brief overview below.

Checklist for your submission

If the assessment of the facts thus obtained suggests that discrimination under the AGG may have occurred, the person seeking advice has the option of lodging an official complaint under section 13 AGG.

(2) Complaint

As part of the complaint procedure, the person accused is first heard. For reasons of due process, they must be given the opportunity to submit a statement. The expanded factual record thus obtained is then reviewed and evaluated on its own and in comparison with the submission already made by the complainant.

If the AGG Complaint Office concludes that discrimination under the AGG has occurred, it is obliged to work to ensure that the discrimination is ended or that no further discrimination occurs. To this end, the competent bodies at HHU may be instructed by the AGG Complaint Office to take targeted, proportionate measures.

NOTE: If the information submitted indicates with a high degree of probability that discrimination under the AGG will be established, the AGG Complaint Office is obliged to move the procedure forward and to conduct a hearing of the person identified as the respondent. From that point at the latest, an anonymous handling of the procedure can no longer be guaranteed.

You can first obtain general advice about the procedure of the AGG Complaint Office. We recommend that you start by consulting the information provided on this website to get an overview. If you have further questions, you are free to contact the AGG Complaint Office using the contact information provided here.

Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Central University Administration
AGG Complaint Office in the Legal Affairs Office
Building 16.11, Level 01
Universitätsstraße 1
40225 Düsseldorf

AGG-Beschwerdestelle(at)hhu.de

Tel.: +49 211 81-11383 (Administrative office of the Legal Affairs Office)

The right to complain is linked to a perceived disadvantage due to certain grounds (race, ethnic origin, sex, religion or belief, disability, age, or sexual orientation) or to perceived harassment. The term “disadvantage” is defined in more detail in the statute.

You may lodge a complaint both about disadvantages and (sexual) harassment originating from the employer, and about acts committed between employees. In the latter case, the issues will mainly be harassment and sexual harassment. Section 3(5) AGG also equates an instruction to disadvantage (i.e., an instruction to discriminate) with discrimination.

The right to complain under the AGG is available to the persons named in section 6 AGG (“employees”) if they have experienced unjustified unequal treatment on account of one of the features listed above. These include:
- employees,
- persons employed for vocational training,
- persons who, due to their economic dependence, are to be regarded as employee‑like; this also includes home‑based workers and those in equivalent positions,
- applicants for an employment relationship, and
- persons whose employment relationship has ended.

In addition, HHU also accepts complaints from students, insofar as they relate to the characteristics listed in section 1 AGG.

The AGG Complaint Office is responsible for all cases of discrimination related to any of the protected characteristics listed in section 1 of the AGG. To get an initial idea of whether your concern is a case for the AGG Complaint Office, you can find an initial overview on the website of the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency at the following (EXTERNAL) link: Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency – Homepage Discrimination Check: Antidiskriminierungsstelle - Startseite Diskriminierungs-Check

To enable the AGG Complaint Office to begin its review as promptly as possible and counter discrimination effectively, it is necessary to submit a comprehensive, fact‑based account.

As a guide, the AGG Complaint Office is happy to provide the following checklist, which you can use to submit a structured and comprehensive account of your experience to the office. You can download this quick guide here:

Checklist for presenting the facts

It is not always easy to describe experiences you consider discriminatory in a neutral manner. Nevertheless, we encourage you to present your account as free of value judgments as possible.

Of course, feelings and impressions are part of what you experienced and cannot always be separated from the facts. However, the AGG complaint procedure is a formal process. To assess whether a case constitutes discrimination under the AGG, it is essential that you first describe the facts (verifiable and, in principle, provable circumstances) and then, separately, set out your subjective view of those facts.

Our experience shows that otherwise frequent follow‑up questions may be necessary to clarify the facts. This can place an additional burden on those affected, but it is indispensable for the work of the AGG Complaint Office; therefore, it is also in your interest to describe the facts as comprehensively and concretely as possible.

Furthermore, facts should be presented in a way that is as verifiable as possible. If there are witnesses or other evidence, please name them and provide supporting documentation of what you experienced when presenting the facts. This is helpful for evaluating the case, especially when a potentially opposing statement by the respondent must be considered during the review. As in any legal procedure, when accounts conflict, the evidentiary situation is crucial. Every piece of evidence you can provide in addition to your account helps us to provide redress in the event of discrimination.

Disadvantages can occur directly, indirectly, through one’s own actions, or by instruction. Harassment—such as intimidation, hostility, humiliation, degradation, or insults—and sexual harassment are regarded as unwanted conduct of a sexual nature. Remarks of a sexual nature also constitute a form of disadvantage. Non-compliance with the rules of conduct prescribed by law can lead to substantial compensation claims in proceedings before the labor court. If employees violate the AGG through discriminatory behavior, the employer is required to examine and, where appropriate, impose employment-law and/or disciplinary consequences.

Harassment within the meaning of section 3(3) AGG exists when unwanted conduct has the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of the person concerned and creating a hostile environment. This covers both verbal and non-verbal conduct. Harassment is present both when the hostile result is intended (“has the purpose”) and when it is not intended but nevertheless occurs (“has the effect”). A hostile environment is assumed where the intrusions exceed a certain threshold of severity.

Thus, conduct may constitute harassment if, for example, an employee repeatedly tells homophobic jokes to a colleague, accompanied by humiliation and hostility, and the working environment is permeated by this atmosphere.

Sexual harassment (section 3(4) AGG) is present when the harassment is based on sexual motives. In contrast to harassment under section 3(3) AGG, a single act is sufficient (no hostile environment is required), because the interference with the person’s sphere of dignity and privacy is particularly serious.