External complaints office under Section 13 AGG

How it runs

1. 1

   Taking stock

   We look at what applies today: any existing works agreement, the bodies already named, escalation routes, earlier cases. That determines whether the external body replaces the current one or sits alongside it. Section 13 Para. 1 AGG requires a competent body, not a particular number of them.

2. 2

   Setting up the channel

   Intake channel, panel, deputising rules and deadline logic are set up and agreed with your internal decision-making body. At the end of this step it is settled who receives a complaint, who examines it and who receives the report.

3. 3

   Publication inside the establishment

   Section 12 Para. 5 AGG requires the Act, Section 61b of the Labour Courts Act and information about the competent complaints body to be published within the establishment. You receive the notice as a posting and in digital form. In practice this is the step most often left undone, and it is the first thing an inspection notices.

4. 4

   Running the body

   Every incoming complaint goes through intake, an explanation of the procedure, fact finding and preliminary examination. The facts and the available courses of action go back to management and the works council as a short report, and the outcome goes to the complainant.

5. 5

   Analysis and prevention

   Anonymised complaint patterns show where training, policy or management is not working. This is where the body turns from an obligation into an instrument, and at the same time it is the evidence for the duty to take measures under Section 12 Para. 1 AGG.

The legal frame

The following provisions determine what a complaints body has to deliver and where its remit ends. Each is quoted in the German original, because that is the wording that binds, with the effect stated underneath.

Section 13 Para. 1 AGG

Die Beschäftigten haben das Recht, sich bei den zuständigen Stellen des Betriebs, des Unternehmens oder der Dienststelle zu beschweren, wenn sie sich im Zusammenhang mit ihrem Beschäftigungsverhältnis vom Arbeitgeber, von Vorgesetzten, anderen Beschäftigten oder Dritten wegen eines in § 1 genannten Grundes benachteiligt fühlen. Die Beschwerde ist zu prüfen und das Ergebnis der oder dem beschwerdeführenden Beschäftigten mitzuteilen.

Two duties in one sentence: a competent body has to exist, and every complaint has to be examined and answered. A body that takes complaints in and reports nothing back fails the second half of the provision.

Section 12 Para. 5 AGG

Dieses Gesetz und § 61b des Arbeitsgerichtsgesetzes sowie Informationen über die für die Behandlung von Beschwerden nach § 13 zuständigen Stellen sind im Betrieb oder in der Dienststelle bekannt zu machen. Die Bekanntmachung kann durch Aushang oder Auslegung an geeigneter Stelle oder den Einsatz der im Betrieb oder der Dienststelle üblichen Informations- und Kommunikationstechnik erfolgen.

Setting the body up is not enough. The workforce has to know that it exists and whom to approach. The second sentence allows a posting, a copy on display or the intranet alike, so the duty is easy to discharge and is still the most common open point at companies that have already named a body.

Section 12 Para. 3 AGG

Verstoßen Beschäftigte gegen das Benachteiligungsverbot des § 7 Abs. 1, so hat der Arbeitgeber die im Einzelfall geeigneten, erforderlichen und angemessenen Maßnahmen zur Unterbindung der Benachteiligung wie Abmahnung, Umsetzung, Versetzung oder Kündigung zu ergreifen.

The measure is owed by the employer, not by the complaints body. A warning, a transfer and a dismissal are employment-law decisions of the company. The external body prepares them, it does not take them.

Section 15 Para. 4 AGG and Section 61b Para. 1 ArbGG

Ein Anspruch nach Absatz 1 oder 2 muss innerhalb einer Frist von zwei Monaten schriftlich geltend gemacht werden, es sei denn, die Tarifvertragsparteien haben etwas anderes vereinbart. Eine Klage auf Entschädigung nach § 15 des Allgemeinen Gleichbehandlungsgesetzes muss innerhalb von drei Monaten, nachdem der Anspruch schriftlich geltend gemacht worden ist, erhoben werden.

Claims run in months, not in years: two months to assert a claim in writing, three further months to bring it. Whoever starts reconstructing the facts weeks later negotiates without a file. That is why documented intake comes before assessment.

Quoted as the law stood on 12 August 2026. An amendment procedure on the AGG is under way which affects, among other things, the deadline in Section 15 Para. 4 AGG. The wording in force at the time governs, not this page.

How the price is built

The price has four components, each shown separately. That makes the offer comparable with others even where they are cut differently.

• Headcount and number of sites.
• Languages the reporting channel has to be reachable in.
• Whether a works agreement already exists or the procedure still has to be settled.
• Expected case volume and the number of cases included.
• Whether the body replaces the existing internal one or runs alongside it.

You receive a fixed figure per component once headcount and scope are settled. The platform is EUR 49 per officer role per month and is shown separately in the mandate.

Frequently asked

May the complaints body under Section 13 AGG be external?

German employment-law commentary does not answer this uniformly, so here is the honest version. Section 13 Para. 1 AGG refers to the competent bodies of the establishment, the company or the public agency and prescribes neither a particular person nor a particular organisational form. Part of the commentary reads the wording as requiring the body to stay close to the establishment; another part treats partial externalisation as permissible as long as the employer's duties are preserved. Both sides agree on the point that decides the design: the duties under Sections 12 and 13 AGG cannot be contracted away. That is why this service is built as a supplement to internal responsibility rather than a replacement for it. Intake, fact finding and recommendation sit outside, competence and decision stay in the company. Whether your existing internal body remains alongside is settled when we take stock.

From what headcount is a complaints body required in Germany?

The AGG names no threshold. Section 13 Para. 1 AGG applies to every employment relationship, and Section 12 Para. 1 AGG obliges every employer to take the necessary protective measures. Unlike the Whistleblower Protection Act, which in Section 12 Para. 2 HinSchG attaches to normally at least 50 employees, the duty does not fall away for a small workforce. What changes with size is the appropriate effort: a company of twelve needs a named, reachable body, not a panel with deputising rules.

What does an external complaints office cost?

The price is made up of set-up, a monthly mandate fee, case handling and optional training. The level depends on headcount, the number of sites, the languages the channel has to cover and how many cases per contract year are to be included. When comparing offers, look at the cut rather than at the monthly figure: whether publication, deadline monitoring, the report to the works council and the documentation are included separates offers more than the fee does. You receive a fixed figure per component once scope and headcount are settled.

How does the external body relate to the works council?

It does not take its place. Section 13 Para. 2 AGG states expressly that the rights of employee representative bodies remain unaffected. Alongside it sits the separate right to complain under Section 84 Para. 1 BetrVG and the works council's own remit under Section 85 Para. 1 BetrVG to receive complaints and press for redress. In practice employees have several routes and the external body is one of them. Where a works agreement exists, the report is usually addressed to management and the works council together.

What happens to a complaint that turns out to be unfounded?

It is documented and answered like any other. Section 13 Para. 1 sentence 2 AGG requires examination and notification of the outcome and does not distinguish by result. For the company this case matters most: a documented, open-ended examination is the evidence that the procedure works. Detriment for having raised a complaint is excluded within the scope of the BetrVG by Section 84 Para. 3 BetrVG, and under the AGG the protection against victimisation follows from Section 16 AGG.

How long does set-up take?

Two things govern it: whether a works agreement already exists and whether the works council has to be involved. Where both are in place, the intake channel, the panel and the publication are a matter of days. Where the procedure still has to be settled and agreed under co-determination law, that agreement is the longest part and sets the date. The lead time is stated in the offer as a commitment rather than an estimate, so that you can name a start date to your workforce.

How is confidentiality protected?

The intake channel sits outside your internal mailboxes, and access in the workspace is per case: whoever does not work on the case does not see it. Documentation is append-only, so later changes are visible as changes. Whether and to what extent the complainant's identity is disclosed to those involved is agreed with them before every clarifying conversation. That is not a service promise but the precondition for the body being used at all.