What does the new bay. Equality Act for Erlangen?

The new version of the Bavarian Equality Act came into force on July 16, 2025 and brings with it many welcome innovations. This changes the legal framework for municipal equality work.

But not everything is changing for the better

Experts and equal opportunities officers criticize the fact that the new law does not go far enough: it remains within the binary gender order and refers exclusively to women and men. In addition, there are still no binding guidelines on the number of posts for equal opportunities officers in relation to the number of employees, which poses a challenge for many local authorities.

The new law introduces some significant innovations

(without claiming to be exhaustive):

• In future, uniform equality concepts with specified evaluation cycles must be drawn up. The city of Erlangen is already a pioneer here - the current equality concept already meets the new legal requirements.
• The term of office of the Equal Opportunities Officer will be extended to five years. This strengthens the continuity of equality work - a step that we very much welcome in view of the "thick planks" that often have to be drilled in this field.
• A deputy equal opportunities officer will be legally required. Here too, Erlangen has long been ahead of the field.
• A new mediation procedure will also be introduced, which is intended to take effect when contentious and difficult to resolve situations arise on site.
• In future, a state-wide networking center will promote the exchange of information between municipal equal opportunities officers, facilitate joint training courses and pool knowledge on equal opportunities policy
• Also new: the right of equal opportunities officers to participate in the recruitment process. In future, this can be laid down in municipal statutes.

For the city of Erlangen, this means that the city's equality statutes will be updated.

At the same time, however, the abolition of the mandatory equality report is threatened at state level as part of the fourth modernization law - a step backwards that would weaken fact-based equality work and transparency.

Erlangen will nevertheless do everything in its power to take up the positive impulses of the new law - and to continue to advocate a modern, inclusive and intersectional equality policy in the future.