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In the article, the regulatory trajectories of variable hours contracts (VHCs, denoting on-call contracts, and zero-hours contracts) are analysed in two countries, the Netherlands and Finland. The unity or disunity in social partners' readiness for bringing the issue of VHCs to the agenda of collective bargaining has implications for the labour market regimes. From the institutional change perspective, the shared agenda in regulating the VHCs implies conversion of the labour market regime in the Netherlands. In Finland, layering was seen in the development of labour legislation, whereas the disregard of VHCs in collective bargaining implies drift. In Finland, the 'legislative route' of regulating conditions of labour may strengthen, undermining the negotiatory autonomy of social partners, earlier embedded in the structure of the Nordic labour market regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cultural and creative industries (CCI) is a sector where the workforce is highly educated, yet precarious working conditions are prominent. Although flexible and marginal work is often treated as an overall feature of the sector, this study based on register data on all workers in the sector shows that processes of flexibilization and marginalization are highly divergent between its subsectors. In half of the CCI subsectors, some form of collectively bargained response to the ongoing flexibilization and marginalization has emerged. This first of all shows that creative workers do indeed not only care about expressing their creativity but also about their material working and living conditions. Also how employers' organizations and trade unions respond to these developments by means of collective agreements varies. Where they disagree, concrete action is postponed. Where they align, either counteracting measures are included, or attempts are made to bridge the divide between employees and the self-employed to some extend in the collective agreement. By doing so, they counteract processes of dualization, paving the road for innovative approaches of industrial relations actors. Still, this counts only for part of the CCI as much of it remains not covered by collective agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Negotiating and concluding collective agreements are two very important consecutive steps in ensuring the economic and social well-being of employees and employers. With this material, we aimed to analyze what changes have occurred in the Law no. 367/2022 on social dialogue, in relation to the old Law no. 62/2011 on social dialogue, regarding the negotiation and conclusion of MCCs and whether these changes represent improvements to them and in what sense, with what consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective labour contracts, collective labour disputes and strikes have until now represented three fundamental institutions of collective labour law, with profound repercussions in ensuring or violating social dialogue and social peace. With the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in almost all areas of social life, including labour relations, new strengths and weaknesses, but also new opportunities and threats arise with regard to the existence, scope and legal and social effects of these three institutions. And with this article we only aim to shed some initial light on these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Majalat Monazaat Al-Aamal is the property of Majalat Monazaat Al-Aamal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Collective labour agreements are an understudied yet key aspect of flexible work policies, which are crucial resources for workers in combining work, family and other life domains. Despite a rich comparative work-family literature on flexible work arrangements at the company and national levels, little attention has been given to those negotiated collectively. Evidence on this topic is needed because such agreements can complement low levels of provision or even compensate the absence of company or national-level arrangements, ultimately defining their access. We contribute in filling this gap by conducting a cross-sectoral comparative exploration of collectively bargained provisions of flexible work arrangements in Spain and the Netherlands. We examine the clauses of 209 agreements using unique collective bargaining data from WageIndicator (2021). The analyses illustrate two important aspects of collectively bargained ‘family-friendly’ provisions. First, how differences in national baseline legislation shape opportunity structures for collective innovation around flexible work arrangements. Second, how sectoral variations appear to be primarily influenced by the representation of workers in high-skilled jobs, particularly when supported by high union density, rather than the share of female workers. We discuss the implications of these findings for workers’ work-family reconciliation and future work-family research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major reason for the gendered division of parental leave use is the financial compensation during leave. Swedish national parental leave benefit provides 77.6 percent of earlier earnings up to an income ceiling, but collective agreements cover part of the income loss above the ceiling during leave. We focus on the importance of such collective agreements by examining fathers' parental leave take-up across the 2000s, as agreements were expanded during this period in time. We combine register data for the period 2001 to 2011 with the Longitudinal Integrated Database for Health Insurance and Labour Market Studies (LISA) being the key data source. The main division of agreements is between the state, the municipality and county, and the private sector. Results indicate that fathers with income above the income ceiling increase their use over the time period. Especially in the private sector a polarisation can be seen, where high income fathers increase their leave use, while fathers with lower income fall behind. As we do not find stronger increase in fathers' leave use in sectors where agreements expanded across time there is no evident support of a direct effect of the top-ups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Lan Harremanak - Revista Relaciones Laborales is the property of Lan Harremanak and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The video game industry is one of the fastest growing industries with a huge potential to employ more and more people all over the world. However, there is a dark side that different studies call attention to, all related to the poor working conditions: too long hours, low pay, discrimination and mobbing, inadequate occupational safety, imbalance between work and family life, etc. Organizing in unions, collective negotiations, various formal and informal collective actions and representations are instruments that may bring about better working conditions, but they are not sufficiently practiced. This is an issue that requires more attention in Croatia. The paper initially analyzes the working conditions of individuals employed in the video game industry, particularly focusing on the results of different studies carried out among the workers. Next, the paper presents individual actions, as well as informal and formal collective actions undertaken by the workers in this industry in different parts of the world. Provisions in the Collective Agreement of the Gamechuck d.o.o. based in Zagreb are analyzed. Findings indicate the importance of organizing in unions and collective negotiations, but also a variety of informal actions for the improvement of the workers’ position and working conditions. The analyzed Collective Agreement shows that a high level of workers’ rights is guaranteed, with more attention needed to arrive at a clearer definition of the working hours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health promoters recognize the social determinants of health (SDOH) shape health outcomes yet generally neglect how unionization and collective agreements (CAs) shape these SDOH. This is surprising since extensive evidence indicates unions and CAs influence wages and benefits, job security, working conditions and income inequality, which go on to affect additional SDOH of food and housing security, child development and social exclusion. We argue unions and CAs should be a health promotion focus by examining how they influence the SDOH and health outcomes in wealthy developed nations in four ways. First, we consider how union density (UD) and CA coverage (CAC) are associated with differences between wealthy western nations in percentage of low-waged workers, extent of income inequality, and low birthweight and infant mortality rates. Second, we bring together literature that shows greater UD and CAC within national sub-jurisdictions are associated over time with more equitable distribution of the SDOH and better health outcomes. Third, we document—also using available literature—how within nations, union membership and working under a CA shape the SDOH one experiences. Fourth, we carry out a Canadian case study—applying a political economy lens—to examine how power relations, working through economic and political systems, determine extent of unionization and CAC and the inclination of health promoters to consider these issues. Implications for health promoters are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of this article is the public struggle over the establishment of the labor court system in Israel and the complex attitudes of the Histadrut, particularly in the 1960s. The conflict, I argue, was resolved in accordance with state policy and economic interests. At the time, the government's view of labor courts as a key mechanism in the settlement of prevalent collective disputes was shared by the political right and employers. This is consistent with another argument that the labor courts represented the government's policy of promoting a social-democratic welfare state model, affected by social-liberal thinking, or "post-socialist liberalism," as it was termed by Yehuda Sha'ari, one of the main promoters of the Labor Court Law. The resulting preference for adjudication over strike action engendered a powerful labor and social security mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the analysis of the concept of emerging professionalism from collective agreements applied to the greatest number of workers (15 collective agreements, selected on the basis of the number of workers to which they apply and other criteria indicated), in this paper the Author points out that technological innovations are not producing a conceptual revolution comparable to that which was the unique framework of the 70s on the personnel framing systems, a fortiori because often the renewals of collective agreements take place after a considerable time; the problem, from the point of view of industrial relations, however, is that the increasing differentiation of the organizational models of enterprises could have the effect that the revision of the discipline of professionalism corporate, shifting the centre of gravity of collective bargaining towards a greater degree of decentralisation and hence the potential (and dangerous) extension of the employer’s powers. Finally, the effect of the interweaving between the protection of professionalism in national collective agreements and ius variandi of the employer is discussed

Copyright of Revista de Derecho de la Seguridad Social, Laborum is the property of Ediciones Laborum S.L. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Derecho de la Seguridad Social, Laborum is the property of Ediciones Laborum S.L. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article offers information on the local wage setting that is when companies in their collective agreements with unions formulate local rules for determining wage increase criteria, in contrast to central wage setting where the industry agreement specify the rules for all companies covered. Topics include considered the HR-managers should promote local wage practices more than they currently do.

The purpose of this article is to examine the compatibility of collective agreements for self-employed persons with the principles of European competition law. According to European law, self-employed persons are considered to be on equal footing with companies, thus making them susceptible to violating competition rules by entering into agreements on working conditions. The judgments of the European Court of Justice in the Albany and FNV Kunsten cases have established that collective agreements for self-employed persons are not generally exempted from the rules prohibiting restrictions on competition. However, considering the protection needs of numerous self-employed persons, a change in approach seems necessary. In 2022, the European Commission adopted Guidelines aiming to clarify the scope of EU competition law regarding collective agreements for self-employed persons. The objective is to exclude self-employed individuals who are most in need of trade union protection. However, there are some critical points in the Guidelines that warrant attention, such as the assessment of the compatibility of collective agreements for self-employed persons with competition law being conducted on an individual basis. A collective approach to the issue appears necessary instead of an individual one. Therefore, it seems appropriate to reflect on the dialectic between market freedom and social rights in European law concerning this specific issue, particularly in light of the recent proposal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the association between decentralized wage bargaining and worker health in Finland. We utilize unique data on collective agreements matched with total population administrative data on mental health disorders and sickness absence for the 2005–2013 period. We find that decentralized wage bargaining is related to mental health among blue-collar workers. Specifically, local wage increase allowances are associated with improved mental health in firms with a high concentration of white-collar employees, whereas this association is reversed in firms where blue-collar workers predominate. No consistent links to sickness absences are observed. Further analyses indicate that higher earnings under local wage agreements may explain the observed improvement in mental health in white-collar intensive firms, whereas decreased employment could partially explain the worsened mental health in blue-collar intensive firms. • We examine the association between decentralized wage bargaining and workers' health. • Decentralized wage bargaining is related to mental health among blue-collar workers. • Local wage increases improve mental health in white-collar intensive firms. • Local wage increases reduce mental health in firms where blue-collars dominate. • Changes in earnings and employment may explain the observed associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Româna de Dreptul Muncii is the property of Wolters Kluwer Romania and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Studia Iuridica Toruniensia is the property of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Faculty of Law & Administration and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Collective bargaining is central to wage-setting and working conditions, but knowledge about what exactly has been concluded in collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) in Europe is limited. In light of the debate about a European Minimum Wage this information gap is evident. This article aims to explore the feasibility of an EU-wide CBA data collection. We conclude that such a database could cover all CBAs for nine countries, all multi-employer CBAs for another nine countries and a selection of CBAs for two countries. Data collection for the remaining countries has to rely on CBAs collected from social partners. Realisation of an EU-wide CBA Database seems a doable but challenging task. When CBA texts would be collected and coded, the content of CBAs could be compared across member states. The Wage Indicator CBA Database is an example of a cross-country coding scheme for CBA texts. Text-mining options are explored as a promising way forward as to reduce coding efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Arbetsmarknad & Arbetsliv is the property of Karlstads universitet, Arbetsvetenskap and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The advent of platform work has led to deepened debate about the role of trade unions in our contemporary, segmented labour market. One of the crucial questions unions face is how to approach the protection, and organisation, of platform (“gig”) workers. The dilemma about whether to extend employment protection to more of those who work outside of the classical employment relationship can be solved in at least two ways: by changing labour legislation, and/or by extending the scope of collective agreements. This paper analyses two different approaches, from a common law and civil law perspective within the EU, and evaluates their efficacy. The common law perspective is analysed by looking at the case of Ireland, while from the civil law perspective the case of Slovenia is presented. In both countries, trade unions have been struggling to define strategies to approach the issue of the diversification of work relations. On the one hand, unions are wary of eroding the benefits of “employee” status, but on the other, in the context of membership decline, demonstrating relevance to increasing numbers of “non-standard” workers (including “gig workers”) is more important than ever. The paper assesses the union movements’ response in both countries to the “Uberisation” of work.

2022/31 Indirect discrimination of trade union members by applying collective bargaining agreement rather than internal legal act (LT): The Lithuanian Supreme Court (the 'Supreme Court') has found that trade union members were discriminated against in a case where an employer granted non-union members more extended annual leave than union members based on their collective bargaining agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statutory bargaining extensions of collective agreements are an effective instrument to stabilise multi-employer bargaining. For unions, this means tensions between the logic of influence and membership. On the one hand, the extension constitutes a central institutional power resource. On the other hand, it might impede collective action if workers are covered without contributing. This article analyses unions' preferences for extensions in Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, three countries that differ in union power and the trajectories of their bargaining institutions. The article has two findings. First, unions value extensions as a power resource because they prevent wage dumping. Second, union-supporting institutions counteract free-riding. Given new legislative efforts at the EU level, statutory extensions could become more important in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is aimed to contribute to our knowledge regarding employer and employee preferences about employment security and unemployment income protection as well as the degree of neoliberal change during the last decades through the lens of collective bargaining. It charts the institutional–historical development of an Employment Transition Agreement (ETA) between the bargaining cartel for white-collar unions, PTK, and the organisation for private employers, SAF/SN. ETAs are a form of institution through which Swedish trade unions and employer organisations give employees added protection in the event of redundancies, mostly in the form of added income protection but also matching services and shorter training programmes. Drawing from archival material and published statements in newspapers, the article engages with what the organisations wanted from such agreements during negotiations and how this shifted during the decades. The results show that the agreements have given employees added unemployment income protection while at the same time giving employees greater flexibility during collective lay-offs. It also shows how the agreement initially was more focused on employment security and proactive investments in skills. But when the balance of power shifted in favour of employers, PTK had to give up any such ambitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective bargaining remains an important yet underexplored mechanism in the pursuit of workplace gender equality. Through gender equality bargaining efforts, unions seek to address the lack of equity for working women. Yet little is known of the extent of equality bargaining provisions, or about where provisions and the factors that influence their availability occur. Contributing to this disparity is a lack of data measuring gender equality provisions in collective agreements. This article analyses key trends in the collective regulation of flexible work provisions in Aotearoa New Zealand from 2007 to 2019. Results show modest growth in the scope and coverage of flexible work provisions, the majority of which have occurred in the public sector. Marked differences across sectors and industries suggest the influence of factors such as women's rising labour force participation and feminisation of union membership and its leadership, particularly within industries where union density has grown. Findings underscore the need for contextualisation of collective regulation in opportunity structures and the ongoing frailty of women's access to gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within this article, I share a story of four generations of my family and community coming together through pow wow dancing. I present the storying and re-storing of Indigenous scholarly engagement through pow wow regalia making and dance to accomplish two things: 1) to center Indigenous knowledge, kinship and community work through scholarship; and 2) to generate merit and value in the good work in which Indigenous scholars engage. Our creative and cultural selves are often excluded in terms of what receives value and merit in collective agreements. The academy wants us to teach, publish, and engage in community service. My community service is often within Indigenous kinship and community service where I engage in creativity and expressive arts. Evaluations of our tenure attribute value, credit, and merit for work produced, service generated, and research conducted steeped in a eurowestern definition of scholarly work. We theorize about the significance and importance of our culture and traditions; however, our families and communities’ practices are regarded as external and outside of the eurowestern academic contexts. This article brings together the knowledge of preparing for and dancing in a pow wow as valued and good work of Indigenous scholars within the academy. It calls attention to a need to revise systems of value and merit in a manner that benefits Indigenous scholars’ whole knowledge systems.

Using data on collective bargaining coverage for 80 countries, the authors analyse the merits of using the extension of collective agreements as a policy tool for creating a floor for conditions of work and employment. Issued by public authorities, this regulatory instrument is distinctive in that it is based on agreement between independent, autonomous and representative organizations. This gives it some of the advantages of a contract as well as those of a statute. The extension of collective agreements by public authorities can provide coverage for vulnerable workers who may not otherwise have access to social protection, while offering a highly responsive form of regulation that can be adapted to particular circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective agreements express the collective character of labor relations and labor law as an independent legal discipline. They play an increasingly important and even essential role in the modern elaboration and regulation of the behavior, rights and obligations of entities in the labor relations. In the very development of the legal regulation of labor relations, collective agreements were one of the most important phases and a real turning point in the legal and economic aspect of these relations. Within the labor relations rights corpus, subject to collective bargaining (collective agreement), can also be the intellectual property rights of works created in a labor relation. This is in accordance with the determination of the Macedonian legislator, which in the Law on Copyright and Other Related Rights explicitly refers to the possibility for the issue of intellectual property rights of works of created in a labor relation to be regulated differently, by collective agreement. They are subject of great attention and interest in both legal theory and legal practice. Having regard to the aspirations of our country for integration into the European family, legislator should take into account all the tendencies that are seen in the field of collective bargaining and concluding collective agreements in the EU countries and in that direction to intervene in the legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bucharest University Annals - Law Series is the property of CH Beck Publishing House and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Collective bargaining is defined in art. 1 of the Law no. 62/2011 of the social dialogue as the negotiation between the employer or employers' organization and trade union organization or the representatives of the employees, as the case, which regulates the working relations between the two parties, as well as any other agreements on issues of common interest. Collective bargaining is therefore possible in both the private and the budgetary sectors, but due to the restrictions set by the law, collective bargaining in the budgetary sector is more restrictive. In the present study, we will analyze the aspects that characterize the collective bargaining within civil servants, especially by highlighting the issues that can be found on the collective bargaining list between civil servants and the state institutions and authorities.

Welfare regimes differ in how they supply social benefits such as pensions, disability allowances, and unemployment funding. In several regimes, the social partners - employee unions and employers' associations - provide social benefits for workers. These regimes promote occupational welfare. This article aims to study the advantages and limitations of occupational welfare through the case study of Israel - a country in which the social partners promote occupational welfare by means of collective agreements. It examines the ways collective agreements - directly and indirectly - advance occupational welfare in Israel. The research includes a quantitative study of all collective agreements concluded in Israel in the period 1957-2016 and a qualitative study of Israeli collective agreements at the national level. The study shows that although Israel's social partners lost much of their power during this period, they are still able to promote occupational welfare, and that Israeli social partners promote innovative workplace policies through collective agreements. Several occupational welfare arrangements first introduced in collective agreements were later extended through legislation or extension orders to all Israeli workers. Without collective bargaining, important occupational welfare benefits might have not been introduced. However, state legislation was needed to fix the flaws of these arrangements, including enforcement problems and lack of coverage of the self-employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on two Swedish benefits: occupational pensions and unemployment benefits. Both have undergone interesting developments recently, partly relating to changes in the public social security system, partly to changes in the labour market. These changes have led the social partners at sectoral level to decide on different priorities when negotiating collective agreements or offering unilateral benefits to their members. The overarching aim of the article is to illustrate and explain the increasing activity at sectoral level regarding occupational pensions and unemployment benefits. However, there are changes in the labour market that the social partners have not managed to address, or that it might not even be their role to address. When a significant proportion of welfare benefits derive from collective agreements and membership of private organizations, this has implications for atypical and self-employed workers, that are further elaborated in the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of MEMLEKET: Politics & Administration / Siyaset Yönetim is the property of Local Governments Research, Assistance & Education Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Horizons of Politics / Horyzonty Polityki is the property of Jesuit University Ignatianum in Krakow and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Die christlichen Kirchen sind in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland nach dem staatlichen öffentlichen Dienst die größten Arbeitgeber. Dies betrifft insbesondere das Gesundheits- und Sozialwesen. Nach der Gründung der Bundesrepublik haben die Kirchen ein eigenes individuelles und kollektives Arbeitsrecht aufgebaut, das in wichtigen Punkten vom staatlichen Recht abweicht. In der Weimarer Republik hatten die staatlichen Arbeitsgesetze hingegen auch für sie gegolten. Seit den 1950er Jahren stützen sie die Sonderbestimmungen ihres eigenen Arbeitsrechts darauf, dass ihre Beschäftigten sich in einer „Dienstgemeinschaft" befinden. Dieser Begriff entstammt der Rechtsordnung des NS-Staats. Der Aufsatz geht auf derzeitige rechtliche Kontroversen ein und kritisiert, dass die Kirchen sich zu extensiv auf ihr korporatives Selbstbestimmungsrecht berufen. Zurzeit betonen sie den religiösen Charakter der von ihnen getragenen Einrichtungen des Gesundheits- und Sozialwesens zum Teil noch stärker als zuvor. Für die Zukunft zeichnet sich die Notwendigkeit gesetzlicher Eingrenzungen ab. The Christian churches are the largest employers in the Federal Republic of Germany after the state civil service. This applies especially to the health and social services. After the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, the churches established their own individual and collective labor law, which deviates from state law in important points. In the Weimar Republic, however, the state labor laws had also applied to them. Since the 1950s, they have based the special provisions of their own labor law on the fact that their employees are in a „community of service". This term originates in the legal system of the Nazi state. The essay addresses current legal controversies and criticizes the fact that the churches invoke their right to corporate selfdetermination too extensively. At present, they emphasize the religious character of the health and social services they provide, in some cases even stronger than before. The need for legal restrictions is becoming apparent for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]