Facts
In the course of the revision of the salary scale, the special class teachers employed in the Department of Education of the Canton of Basel-Stadt with primary teaching and special education diplomas were partially transferred to salary class 16 and partially to salary class 17. Some teachers appealed the transfer to salary class 16 to the Governing Council and the Court of Appeal, which partially upheld their appeal. As a result, the Governing Council decided to reclassify the appellants retroactively to March 1, 1996, and the remaining teachers with the same job description with effect from August 1, 2001, to salary class 17.
Teachers A., B. and C. demanded that the Governing Council also reclassify their position retroactively to salary class 17, which it refused. They appealed this to the Court of Appeal, which dismissed their appeal.
With a constitutional appeal, A., B. and C. requested the Federal Court to set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal.
Considerations
The Federal Court states that the principle of legal equality and thus Art. 8 para. 1 of the Federal Constitution is violated if equal work in public employment is remunerated unequally. However, the authorities must be granted a wide scope of discretion in the choice of the connecting factors for the determination of the remuneration, as long as the unequal treatment is objectively justified.
For the area of wage equality between men and women, stricter standards apply. Here it has been recognized that the claim to non-discriminatory wages can generally also be asserted retroactively, subject to the statute of limitations. This must be equally possible in public employment…