The verdict should have a signal effect.
(Photo: imago images/Kirchner Media)
Dusseldorf In the dispute over wage reimbursements for the meat company Tönnies and its former subcontractors, a court has decided for the first time. On Wednesday, the administrative court in Minden upheld the claims for compensation by two temporary employment and service companies (Az. 7a K 424/21). This was confirmed by a spokeswoman for the Handelsblatt.
The dispute focuses on the question of whether the industry is partly to blame for the corona outbreaks in its plants. Despite massive criticism, the slaughterhouse company Tönnies and some subcontractors had submitted applications for compensation after the authorities had closed the Tönnies main plant in Rheda-Wiedenbrück for four weeks in the summer of 2020. The background was a massive corona outbreak, in which more than 1000 workers at the plant had been shown to be infected with the corona virus.
The Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe (LWL) is responsible for processing applications for reimbursement of wage costs. The Infection Protection Act generally provides for the reimbursement of wage costs if health authorities close companies and order quarantine. The wages have to be paid by the companies for the time being and can be reimbursed retrospectively for up to one year.
In the dispute with Tönnies and its subcontractors, however, the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs (MAGS) had instructed the authority to refuse compensation if “the employer’s failure to comply with the existing protective obligations led to an infection with the corona virus”. is.
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The MAGS referred to a legal opinion that the ministry had previously obtained. At the end of 2020, the LWL then rejected the first applications from the meat industry – at least partially wrongly, as the Minden Administrative Court has now decided.
4500 cases pending
Specifically, the oral negotiations concerned the service providers Best. Promo Distrib SRL and Ni.Ke. Fleischverarbeitung GmbH who worked for Tönnies. A third decision concerns PPS Partner Personal Service GmbH Paderborn, which is not active in the meat industry. The 7th chamber of the administrative court in Minden also upheld her complaint.
A spokeswoman for the court gave no details on the reasons for the verdict. These have not yet been announced to those involved, it said on Thursday. At the administrative court in Minden alone, more than 4,500 proceedings relating to compensation proceedings are still pending. According to a spokesman for the administrative court in Münster, for example, there are more than 3,000.
At the end of 2020, there were around 50,000 applications for compensation nationwide, 2,200 of them in connection with the Tönnies slaughterhouse. It was about several million euros. Even then, the MAGS had announced that the case was new legal territory and that a careful legal and factual examination of “all relevant questions” was required.
It is questionable whether the state of North Rhine-Westphalia will accept the decision of the Minden Administrative Court. If necessary, as both sides have indicated in the past, they would take the dispute to the Federal Administrative Court.
More: Tönnies and subcontractors want money back from the country – farmers complain of damage in the millions.