According to § 3 para. 3 AGG, harassment is discrimination if undesirable behavior that is related to a reason stated in § 1 AGG has the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of the person concerned and creating an environment characterized by intimidation, hostility, humiliation or insults .
According to a decision of the Eighth Senate of September 24, 2009 ( 8 AZR 705/08 ), inscriptions on the toilet for an employer’s male employees such as “Fuck foreigners, foreigners out and kanaks” as well as a swastika represent inadmissible harassment of employees of Turkish origin because of their ethnicity origin.
However, due to the disputed information about the time at which the branch manager was informed about these inscriptions and his reactions to them, the Senate was unable to make a decision as to whether the graffiti created a so-called “hostile environment” in the sense of. § 3 para. 3 AGG was created. The violation of dignity and a “hostile environment” must be met in order to realize the prerequisites for the offense in Section 3 Paragraph. 3 AGG are present cumulatively. The lawsuits ultimately failed because the compensation claims were not submitted within the exclusion period of Section 15 Paragraph. 4 AGG were asserted in writing.