The affair about a member of the supervisory board dragged on for several months.
(Photo: imago images / R. Wittek)
Dusseldorf The affair about a high-ranking employee representative at SAP comes to an end: The Mannheim District Court has dismissed the former works council chairman Ralf Zeiger from the supervisory board at the request of the software manufacturer. The group had previously given him extraordinary notice with the consent of the works council.
“The local court has now followed the request of the supervisory board and has dismissed the member on the employee side from the supervisory board,” explained SAP, thereby confirming information from the Handelsblatt.
This brings about another change in the supervisory body: Long-time SAP employee Helmut Stengele, who is now in early retirement, is to take over the vacant position that the German Bank Employees Association (DBV) is entitled to as a union.
Background: As head of the works council at SAP SE, Zeiger is said to have falsified and deleted documents during an internal investigation. According to information from corporate circles, it was about covering a colleague on his own list who was suspected of working time fraud: He is said to have taken a considerable amount of vacation, but not applied for.
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In the course of the investigation, the group asked the works council to release data on the presence of the official at meetings, including holiday reports. When the data was collected at the beginning of June, inconsistencies arose: several e-mails that would have incriminated the employee representative disappeared from the works council chair’s mailbox, and in one case the reason for rejection was changed.
An examination of the log files that record activities revealed: The then works council chairman Zeiger had initially manipulated the files in the interests of his colleague, who is also a member of the works council list “Stark” – and reversed the changes after the investigation began. This emerges from a report about which the works council was informed.
This means that both mandate holders are no longer active at SAP. The former works council chairman after the extraordinary dismissal, the other representative who had previously headed the group works council, “by mutual agreement”, as it was officially called.
Works council fights for trust
After the controversy, the SAP employee representatives are trying to win back the trust of the employees. For a transitional period, Klaus Merx is head of the body, who already held the office in 2015 and 2018 and is internally regarded as a compensatory character. He doesn’t want to run again in the next election.
“It will be a challenging task to improve the reputation of the SAP works council again. Unfortunately, the valuable work for the workforce has been overshadowed by scandals in recent weeks. I would like to help ensure that employee participation at SAP provides positive impulses again, ”said Merx after taking office in July.
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