The colour of the tie is discreet, the suit fashionable but not too elegant, even the hair parting is perfect in the photograph. The candidate, in his mid-30s, smiles engagingly from the cover of his application form. Nevertheless, the stylish photograph will not improve this applicant’s chances of getting the job. At least not at Süwag, an energy provider in southwestern Germany, because photographs and details such as age, nationality and marital status are blacked out by the legal department before the application forms are passed onto the respective departments. Fraport, the operator of Frankfurt Airport, does not even ask about the gender of online applicants. The job advertisements of many companies have begun to sound very neutral. Whereas formerly applicants were supposed to fit in with a company’s “young dynamic” team, be flexible and qualified, today the companies simply request “informative application documents”. A new era for job seekers, new opportunities for all! Qualifications are what counts, irrespective of where someone comes from or how expensive the photographs on the application form.The European Union provided the legal basis for this with its anti-discrimination directives, which the EU member states are enacting into national law. In keeping with EU guidelines, in summer 2006 the German Bundestag passed the General Equal Treatment Act (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz, AGG), which lays down that no one may be put at a disadvantage because of their race, ethnic origin, gender, religion, worldview, handicap, age or sexual identity. Companies have since responded to these guidelines with new application practices. “The state cannot prescribe tolerance in human relations but it can clearly indicate what is socially unacceptable through its legal system,” says Federal Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries.

Critics regard the EU-wide regulations as too bureaucratic, but everyday EU practice shows how necessary they are: people of many different nationalities and religions, with all their cultural peculiarities, languages and religious customs, live together in the European Union. And more than 15% of all Europeans have a permanent health problem or a disadvantage. Clear regulations against their discrimination enhance their professional opportunities and their integration into society. German companies were quick to react to the AGG. According to a recent human resources management study undertaken by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Personalführung, 90% of all companies are scrutinizing their personnel management, and 40% of the companies have been promoting inner-company equality for some years now.