In its judgment of April 30, 2008 (5 AZR 502/07), the Fifth Senate had to decide on the content and scope of a teacher’s duty to work at a general education school. According to her employment contract, the plaintiff’s regular working hours were generally based on the Federal Employee Collective Agreement (BAT), including its amendments and additional agreements.

In the relevant period, according to No. 3 of the related special regulations for employees as teachers (SR 2 l I BAT), the collective bargaining agreement on working hours in Section 15 BAT did not apply. Rather, the provisions for the corresponding civil servants applied to employed teachers. The Senate had already made it clear last year that a clause that refers to the working hours of comparable civil servants as regulated by legal regulations to determine the extent of the employee’s working time is neither unclear nor incomprehensible in the sense of. § 307 Abs. 1 sentence 2 BGB is.

In its decision of April 2008, the Senate stated that, unless otherwise contractually agreed, the teacher’s duty to work at a general education school is not limited to teaching lessons and so-called related activities. The compulsory number of hours only limits the amount of time required to work. According to the content, the teacher owes all services that are usually associated with the task of a teacher. The educational mandate of general education schools also requires, to a certain extent, qualified supervision of students in all-day schools. If a teacher concludes an employment contract with the provider of an all-day school, the circumstances show that the content of the work obligation also includes the supervision of learning hours to an appropriate extent. A proportion of ten percent of total working time is generally not unreasonable given the growing importance of extracurricular activities.