AGG training: obligations, content and evidence for 2026

§ 12 Paragraph 2 AGG (General Equal Treatment Act) obliges employers to point out in an appropriate manner the inadmissibility of discrimination and to ensure that this does not occur. According to sentence 3, appropriate training for employees is considered fulfilment of the obligation. Those who train, document and repeat training. Anyone who does not train bears the full burden of proof in the event of a dispute to prevent discrimination and loses in most proceedings before the labour courts because the obligation according to Section 12 AGG is also the employer's organisational obligation.

This article describes the mandatory scope of AGG training in 2026, the mandatory content according to Section 1 AGG with the six protected characteristics, the target groups depending on the function, the usual frequency, the requirements Online training and, above all, documentation that will stand up in an audit or in court. It is aimed at HR management, AGG complaints offices in accordance with Section 13 AGG and management who have either never trained or trained unsystematically in the last five years and will correct this before the next compliance audit. All statements refer to the legal status as of May 2026 and the relevant case law of the Federal Labour Court and the state labour courts over the last ten years. The article concludes with a concrete recommendation for action for the next twelve months.

§ 12 Paragraph 2 Sentence 3 AGG expressly mentions employee training as a suitable measure for fulfilling the obligation to protect. The law does not prescribe a specific form, a specific duration or a specific frequency. The labour courts fill this gap. The Federal Labour Court has made it clear in several decisions since 2010 that a one-off training course when starting out is not enough; a repetition at regular intervals is necessary, in practice between 24 and 36 months depending on the industry and risk situation.

The content is based on § 1 AGG (objective of the law), § 7 AGG (prohibition of discrimination), § 12 AGG (obligations of the employer), § 13 AGG (right of appeal), § 15 AGG (compensation and compensation) and § 17 AGG (Social Responsibility). Training without these paragraphs is not suitable training within the meaning of the law. In addition, the six protected characteristics are taught using practical examples, broken down into application, work and separation phases.

The target group is broad. All employees within the meaning of Section 6 AGG, i.e. employees, trainees, freelancers with integration and temporary workers, are required to undergo training. Managers and HR employees receive extended training because, as supervisors or personnel decision-makers, they are responsible for the most common points of conflict. The AGG Complaints Office receives additional special training on how to conduct the procedure. Management and board members also need to be included in the training, not because they are required to undergo operational training, but because their organisational decisions ensure the effectiveness of the training in the event of a dispute. A documented training format for management with a summary of duties and decision-making lines is therefore an integral part of a mature compliance program and is mentioned in the annual report.

§ 1 AGG prohibits discrimination on six grounds: racial or ethnic origin, gender (including pregnancy and maternity), religion or belief, disability (as defined in SGB IX), age (any age group, not just older employees), sexual identity. Each feature has its own history of interpretation, its own example cases, and its own rules of burden of proof. Training that only covers the first three characteristics is incomplete and, in the event of a dispute, will be viewed as an insufficient measure.

Practical examples for each characteristic are illustrated with concrete situations from everyday work. Job advertisements with age information (age), language requirements without any factual connection to the job (ethnic origin), break regulations that ignore religious prayer times (religion), application processes without accessibility (disability), promotion decisions with gender-specific patterns (gender), jokes and innuendos in the team (sexual identity). These examples are not made up; they come from actual proceedings from the past five years.

The training explains the three forms of discrimination according to Section 3 AGG: direct discrimination, indirect discrimination and harassment including sexual harassment. Indirect discrimination is the most common form of dispute because it is based on seemingly neutral criteria (e.g. full-time requirements in a position), which effectively disadvantage certain groups. A well-done AGG training raises awareness of exactly these inconspicuous constellations, not just the obvious cases. The training also explains the permissible different treatment according to Sections 8 to 10 AGG, so that employees recognise when unequal treatment is justified and when not; Without this explanation, misunderstandings often arise about the scope of the law. In practice, such misunderstandings lead to conflicts that could be avoided with better information, and they measurably increase the burden on the complaints office.

The training of the workforce usually lasts 45 to 90 minutes as an online module with interactive elements and a final knowledge test of at least five questions. Since the LAG Schleswig-Holstein 2019, a pure reading requirement without an exam has been considered insufficient because there is no evidence of engagement with the content. Anyone who trains for a shorter period of time risks the inappropriateness of the measure in the event of a dispute because the depth of the dispute must be checked in advance.

The extended training for managers and HR lasts 120 to 180 minutes and also teaches the duties as a supervisor (duty of observation, duty of intervention, duty of reporting), the requirements for non-discriminatory job advertisements and application procedures as well as how to handle complaints within your own team. This training is usually carried out as a face-to-face or live online format with case work because pure self-learning modules cannot reflect practical reflections.

The complaints office training in accordance with Section 13 AGG usually lasts half a day and covers procedural conduct, hearing technology, documentation requirements, cooperation with the works council and data protection officer as well as the reporting line to management. Additional refresher training is scheduled at least every 24 months; CIVAC provides prepared modules for all three levels that are linked to the workspace and send automatic reminders before the expiration date. Duration is not an end in itself; What is crucial is that the content is understood and recognised in everyday work, which is why the modules are designed with case studies instead of just naming paragraphs. A short, sharp training course with five to seven case studies is demonstrably more effective than a long lecture on the full wording of the law, because recognition in everyday life contributes to learning success. If you choose short modules, you can repeat them every six months with different case studies and thus keep your attention active.

Both forms are fundamentally suitable. The choice depends on the target group, size of the workforce and maturity of the compliance program. Online training is suitable for the broad base (employee, simple refreshers) and scores with scalability, automated documentation and consistent content. The prerequisite is a platform that completely logs the processing, the exam answers and the date for each participant, with a lock against skipping the content.

Face-to-face training is suitable for managers, for complaint offices and for dealing with specific incidents in the team. They enable questions, role plays and the reflection of one's own behavioral patterns, which pure online training cannot cover. The documentation is carried out via an attendance list with a signature, a short written reflection and a confirmation from the trainer with content and date.

A mixed form is standard: online for the basic training and presence for the extended target groups, both documented in a workspace, with consistent reporting to the AGG complaints office and to management. CIVAC supports both formats in one platform and maintains the evidence for each person in a consolidated training card, which can be presented upon request in the audit. The auditor calls, the evidence is ready. A purely face-to-face implementation in larger workforces generates considerable coordination costs and cannot usually be implemented across the board within twelve months; The mixed form solves this problem without any loss of quality for the critical target groups. Live online training with a trainer and case work is a fully-fledged alternative to face-to-face training, as long as the group is not larger than twenty people and the trainer actively controls the interaction. This variant is increasingly being chosen for management training in distributed organisations because it reduces travel costs while maintaining personal engagement. The live training is usually not recorded in order to protect the openness of the discussion.

The jurisprudence of the labour courts has settled down to an interval of 24 to 36 months. A one-time initial training followed by a silence and silence break is not enough. Repetition not only updates knowledge, but also fulfils the employer's ongoing obligation to prevent discrimination. In the event of a dispute, anyone who has not documented a refresher course after three years will be treated like an employer who has not trained at all.

Event-related training is also required: after an incident (adapting the content to the occasion), after a change in the law (e.g. the expansion to include gender diversity in 2018), after a change in the AGG complaints office (handover and training of the successor), when a new group of employees is accepted (e.g. after an acquisition). These event-related training courses are short, targeted and documented separately in the workspace.

New hires are instructed in the AGG content within six weeks of joining. This can be done as part of the onboarding modules, with its own testing and documentation. Simply posting the AGG notice on the bulletin board does not replace the training; Section 12 Paragraph 4 AGG also requires notice, but not as an alternative. Both are mandatory. The deadline begins when the obligation is known, not when the next training plan is scheduled. A training matrix that shows the next due date for each person, function and module is standard equipment for every regulated compliance function and is specified in the workspace. This matrix is ​​submitted to management in the annual compliance report and used as proof of effectiveness in the next ISO audit. The automatic notification of superiors when training courses are due relieves the HR function and makes compliance with deadlines measurably traceable.

§ 13 AGG obliges every employer to set up a complaints office to which employees can turn if they feel discriminated against. The complaints office is not identical to the works council or the whistleblower channel according to the HinSchG. It is a separate function with its own order, procedure and reporting line. The appointment is made in writing, with a clear scope of tasks, representation regulations and reporting line to the management.

The procedure begins with receipt of the complaint (written, oral or electronic), examines the facts (hearing the accused person, witnesses if necessary), documents the assessment and the measures and ends with feedback to the complainant. The assessment must be completed within a reasonable period of time, in practice four to six weeks depending on the complexity. Data protection is taken into account in every procedure because personal data in special categories can be affected.

CIVAC supports the complaints office with its own client module that structures receipt, processing and closure, with reminders of deadlines and with anonymous statistics for annual reporting to management. Licence the workspace for your internal representatives, or have our representatives order it. Both models cover the § 13 AGG function with an appointment certificate, signed, filed, verifiable, and in an emergency with a two working day SLA for the external order. The external complaints office also brings a distance that internal positions often do not have, which lowers the inhibition threshold for complaints and measurably increases the resolution rate based on experience. In the first twelve months after the introduction of an external complaints office, the number of incoming reports typically increases by twenty to forty percent, which can be read as an indicator of previously suppressed topics.

In the event of a dispute, the burden of proof according to Section 22 AGG is reversed: the person complaining must provide evidence of discrimination; the employer must prove that there was no discrimination. Documented AGG training is one of the strongest defenses because it shows that the employer has fulfilled its organisational obligation. Without this documentation, the employer is structurally worse off in the process, regardless of the specific facts.

The documentation includes for each participant: name, function, training date, module, examination result (if online), signature (if in attendance). For each training unit: table of contents, duration, training leader, attendance list. At the organisational level: annual training report with coverage level, list of non-participants with reasons, planning of the next round. These documents form proof of the organisational obligation in the compliance audit, without further questions.

CIVAC saves the documentation in the workspace with the version status and tamper evidence mechanism. The storage period is based on the general statute of limitations of the AGG (two months for assertion in accordance with Section 15 AGG, three years statute of limitations in accordance with Section 195 BGB) and is set at five years in order to cover subsequent proceedings. Audit-proof, documented, § 22 AGG-proof, in a data room instead of in n scattered Excel lists that would be lost in the event of a dispute. Reporting to management takes place annually from the workspace, with anonymized key figures on training coverage, number of complaints and processing time; separate preparation of the data is not necessary. If the number of employees exceeds two hundred people, we also recommend a semi-annual report to the works council, provided that the works council receives the data anonymously and does not take part in the individual procedures. This report is part of the trusting cooperation according to the BetrVG and strengthens the acceptance of the complaints office among the workforce.

The costs of AGG training depend heavily on the format and size of the workforce. A standard online training course costs between 15 and 60 euros per employee, depending on volume and provider. In-person training for managers costs between 1,500 and 3,000 euros net per day and training leader. A complete complaints office training course with support for the first procedure costs around 5,000 to 8,000 euros net, depending on previous experience.

The choice between internal and external implementation follows the same logic as for other representative functions. Internally, with around 500 employees it is worthwhile to have a dedicated HR training function. External is worthwhile for smaller organisations, for companies without their own training function and for the complaints office where independence from management is essential. An external complaints office also sends a strong signal to the workforce that complaints are taken seriously and are not filtered internally.

CIVAC is set up as a compliance platform and officer-as-a-service in such a way that the AGG content is available as part of the broad officer library, with the 490 audit templates and the 25 officer roles. The external AGG complaints office is appointed with a two working day SLA, with an appointment certificate and procedural instructions. Others run compliance like a filing cabinet. We run it like software., including training cards for each employee. These training cards are the strongest means of defence in the event of individual labour court proceedings because they provide specific evidence per person of what was taught and when. The external complaints office supplements this evidence with procedural documentation that is linked to the training cards and shows a consistent picture of the organisational obligations in the event of a dispute. Combining these two data sources in one workspace significantly reduces the preparation time for labour court proceedings.

If you completed your last AGG training more than 36 months ago, if you do not have a documented complaints office in accordance with Section 13 AGG, or if your training card is not available to each employee, the next refresher is overdue. A refresh is not a burden on the company, but rather an insurance against reversal of the burden of proof according to Section 22 AGG in the event of a dispute, and it is favorable in relation to the compensation risk according to Section 15 AGG.

CIVAC delivers the AGG content as part of the workspace, together with the 24 other representative roles, the 490 audit templates, the EU data residence and the documented reporting line to management. Licence the workspace for your internal representatives, or have our representatives order it. In the first case, your HR employees and your complaints office work with prepared modules, templates and training cards. In the second case, an external AGG complaints office takes over the function within two working days and leads the procedure to completion, with full documentation.

Turn reading into a mandate. Write to info@civac.de with your workforce size, the status of your last training and the current model of your complaints office, or use the contact form on civac.de. The first response contains a module overview, a training plan for the next twelve months and a cost indication, in writing within two working days, signed by the responsible representative. If desired, a free location determination can be carried out in advance using a five-minute checklist, which can be answered by email. The purpose of the location determination is to clarify the appropriate scope of training and the appropriate model for the complaints office without being tied to a contract. On this basis, the next step can be decided without purchasing a complete consulting project.