There will be some new appointments to the supervisory board of Europe’s largest airline group after the general meeting in May.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt A fierce dispute has broken out over the employee seats on Lufthansa’s supervisory board. After Verdi was excluded from the election of delegates in one of the group’s plants, the regional labor court in Cologne stopped the election with a temporary injunction. The delegates decide on the members of the control committee. It is now unclear whether the employee representatives will be able to nominate their candidates for the Supervisory Board in time for the Annual General Meeting in early May.
That would have serious consequences: A supervisory board that is only half full is unable to act. In order to avoid this, however, the legislature has left a back door open in company law. Upon application, a court can order that members of the control body be nominated. Until then, the currently incumbent employee representatives would remain in office.
On Tuesday next week, the so-called main electoral board – it is the higher electoral board for all Lufthansa companies – wants to decide on how to proceed. Lufthansa does not want to comment on the process. According to the company headquarters, it is a matter for the employees. Verdi confirmed the injunction against the election, but declined to comment further.
The case is complex. The triggers are the employee representatives of Lufthansa Technik in Frankfurt. As can be heard from the workforce, there has been a power struggle between representatives of Verdi and opponents of the service union for some time. The Verdi opponents are in the majority.
In the current delegate elections in all Lufthansa companies, Verdi was excluded by the company election board of the technology department in Frankfurt. The reason is said to have been a formal error in the application documents. However, there are also voices in the company who say that the electoral board deliberately informed Verdi late about the exclusion so that the election could be held without the Verdi list.
EUR 100,000 per year for a seat on the supervisory board
The union also complained. According to a message to the Lufthansa workforce, some members of the electoral board would themselves be on the list of delegates and the supervisory board: “The idea behind it: No vote for Verdi = more votes for my list = more chances of a supervisory board mandate.” Lufthansa control bodies are in demand. The work is remunerated with an annual salary of around 100,000 euros – including attendance fees.
Verdi fought back and applied for an injunction against the election. The application was also justified with formal errors, in this case in the election documents. The regional labor court in Cologne agreed. It decreed that the “election of the delegates for the election of the employee representatives of Deutsche Lufthansa AG in the operations of Lufthansa Technik AG in Frankfurt am Main be terminated”. That’s what it says in the minutes available to the Handelsblatt.
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The nomination of the employee representatives on the supervisory board is a complicated process. First, each Lufthansa company elects delegates. These – around 600 in number – then come together at the Lufthansa conference hotel in Seeheim near Frankfurt and elect the representatives for the Supervisory Board there. They are free to choose, delegates from Lufthansa Technik can, for example, also elect representatives of the flight crew.
A fierce dispute has broken out over the seats of employee representatives on the supervisory board. This shakes the schedule for nominating candidates up to the Annual General Meeting in early May.
(Photo: dpa)
So far, the meeting in Seeheim is scheduled for March 17th and 18th. But after the decision of the presiding judge at the regional labor court in Cologne, Jochen Sievers, this date is shaky.
The conflict is exacerbated by the fact that, according to Verdi, the company selection board at Lufthansa Technik in Frankfurt did not follow the judge’s instructions. “However, the court decision seems to have hardly interested the company election board, because the election was continued,” the union wrote in a second message to the workforce on February 6.
The main electoral board must now resolve the conflict – a tricky task. If he stops the election and re-advertises it, it will be almost impossible to keep the schedule until the general meeting. That would be an embarrassment for the employee representatives. If he lets the election continue, he risks contesting the election. That too would be a disaster.
In the environment of the employee representatives, it is therefore assumed that a later nomination of the employee representatives will be applied for in court. According to the Stock Corporation Act, such an application can be made by the employee side. However, company representatives such as the Management Board or the Chairman of the Supervisory Board also have the opportunity to ensure the control body’s ability to act.
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