A yoga center offers courses and further training nationwide. It sees itself as a religious community – and therefore does not want to pay a minimum wage. But the association’s constitutional complaints fail.
A yoga and meditation center failed in its constitutional complaint to the Federal Constitutional Court. The association wanted to defend itself against rulings by the Federal Labor Court, according to which two former members of the association were entitled to the minimum wage for their work in the yoga ashram, a spiritual retreat. The Karlsruhe Senate did not accept the constitutional complaints for decision, the court announced. They did not meet the legal requirements for explanation and there was no reason for acceptance, it said in its justification. (Ref. 1 BvR 2244/23; 1 BvR 2231/23)
In April 2023, the labor judges in Erfurt decided, among other things, that a former priestess from the yoga ashram was entitled to the statutory minimum wage for her work instead of pocket money. The plaintiff, who was successful at the time, was a member of Yoga Vidya eV from 2012 to 2020 and worked there as a “Sevaka” (servant) in seminar planning and online marketing, for example. The nationwide association based in Horn-Bad Meinberg in North Rhine-Westphalia sees itself as a spiritual-religious community.
Yoga as a religion?
The labor court ruled at the time that the plaintiff had not performed services as a member of an association or a member of an ideological community, but as an employee. This meant that she was entitled to minimum wage. A second Ashram member’s lawsuit was similar. The association felt that its right to freedom of religion had been violated and filed a constitutional complaint. The Seva service was a fundamental part of their faith and should not be considered work, a spokeswoman explained before the decision.
The Federal Constitutional Court has now declared that it is not necessary to decide whether the Federal Labor Court’s assumption that the association is not a religious community is compatible with the freedom of religion enshrined in the Basic Law. “It has neither been explained nor is it otherwise apparent that the services provided by the plaintiffs in maintaining the association’s accommodation and seminar operations and in selling yoga products, the assessment of which under labor law is at issue here, were in themselves religious in nature.”
Source: Stern
