A consecrated priestess who lived in the ashram tradition and as a “Sevaka” (servant) strived for spirituality: Germany’s highest labor judges had to deal with an unusual case on Tuesday in Erfurt. It was about the Yoga Vidya e.V. community with its headquarters in Horn-Bad Meinberg in North Rhine-Westphalia – according to its own statements for yoga teachers Europe’s largest training and further education center.
The Federal Labor Court had to clarify whether this is a religious community and whether the “Sevaka”, who provide selfless services, are employed and have to receive more than pocket money of, according to the court, usually 390 euros per month.
The decision was unequivocal: Yes, the plaintiff, a long-standing “Sevaka”, has employee status and is therefore entitled to minimum wage. The judgment of the ninth senate (9 AZR 253/22) can have significant financial consequences for the nationwide active yoga community with its 252 sevakas according to its own statements.
The case
The plaintiff, a qualified lawyer and ordained priestess with the ability to perform certain rituals, was a member of the community from 2012 to 2020. According to the statutes, the members of the association lived “in spiritual communities in the old Indian religious ashram and monastery tradition and devote their lives entirely to the practice and dissemination of the yoga teachings” – the judges described the case. The 42-year-old had a contract with the association, which obliged her to do seva services, among other things.
The plaintiff
According to her own statements, she worked 42 hours a week in seminar planning or online marketing, among other things. As a Sevaka, she had statutory social insurance, received free accommodation and food, and pocket money. The woman insisted that she was entitled to remuneration in the amount of the statutory minimum wage for her services – she has been talking about more than 46,000 euros since 2017. Her lawyer said to the association at the hearing: “We have an aggressive yoga A company that appears on the market and pursues economic goals.” And: “Yoga is not a religion.”
The judgment
The highest German labor judges first had to clarify whether the association with four seminar houses (ashram) on the North Sea, in the Westerwald, in the Allgäu and in the Teutoburg Forest is a religious community within the meaning of the Basic Law and therefore has some special rights. “What is religion now, the worldview?” asked the presiding judge, Heinrich Kiel, the association’s lawyer. In his verdict, Kiel said that the sued yoga club was “neither a religious nor ideological community within the meaning of the Basic Law”. The necessary minimum level of system formation and world interpretation is missing.
And: The plaintiff had rendered services neither as a member of an association nor as a member of an ideological community, but as an employee. She is entitled to the minimum wage because she has done work that is bound by instructions and determined by others. “Board and lodging do not count towards meeting the minimum wage,” the judge said. The Hamm Regional Labor Court must now renegotiate the amount.
Reaction from the yoga community
Yoga Vidya e.V described the verdict on the minimum wage lawsuit as irritating. It corresponds neither to the self-image of the community “nor to our reality of life”, explains the second chairperson, Swami Nirgunananda (Siglinde Langer). After the reasons for the judgment have been presented, it should be checked “whether we are defending ourselves against this decision with a constitutional complaint before the Federal Constitutional Court”.
Yoga Vidya sees itself as an ideological community and builds on the right of self-government of the religious communities and the freedom of religious and ideological confession. The community manages itself – similar to Christian monasteries. According to a spokeswoman, the income from fee-based courses and seminars is reinvested – in the expansion of the seminar program or the operation of the building.
