Management and works councils are struggling to find a solution in Russia.
(Photo: dpa)
Hamburg Since the Putin regime’s attack on Ukraine, Deutsche Telekom has been fighting over the fate of its Russian locations in Saint Petersburg, Moscow and Voronezh. As part of an internal event on Friday, CEO Timotheus Höttges only informed the workforce that a solution was still being worked on.
Two employee management bodies have now asked the board to give up the branches and cut all business ties in the country. Corresponding resolutions, which are available to the Handelsblatt, were passed by both the Group Works Council (KBR) and the General Works Council (GBR) by the end of last week.
The board of directors around Höttges should end the “business relationships in and with Russia” and “close their own employment locations in Russia”, according to the statement by the GBR, which represents the employees in the headquarters and “Group Services”.
In the resolution of the KBR, which is responsible for the entire group, the framework is broader. There it is about “concepts and binding guidelines” from the supervisory board and management board to ensure that “business relationships only take place with and in countries” that clearly stand for compliance with the United Nations’ charter of human rights. This also means Russia, emphasized KBR chairwoman Kerstin Marx.
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The demands of the works councils put the management board in Bonn in an awkward position. So far he had avoided a concrete positioning and stuck to the locations. In the short term, it was said, the projects of the Russian colleagues could not be relocated to other countries.
Telekom currently employs more than 2,000 people in Russia, but does not make any significant sales there. The Russian developers and IT specialists mainly work on projects for the parent company in Bonn. It is about the fiber optic expansion in Germany or the new Open RAN architecture of the mobile network. Many of these projects are about Telekom’s core business. The employees are therefore not easy to replace.
Employees fear for Telekom’s reputation
That’s why precautions were taken in the background. Telekom transferred money to Russia in good time so as not to jeopardize employee pay despite sanctions. According to CFO Christian Illek, the group also took precautions to ensure the supply of IT equipment. The Russian employees’ access to important internal systems has been blocked
However, the employee representatives would like the management to take a clearer stance. You see the reputation of Telekom, whose largest shareholder is the Federal Republic of Germany, in danger. Other DAX companies such as Volkswagen have already positioned themselves clearly when it comes to Russia. So far, Telekom has only referred internally to the group’s commitment and donations to Ukrainian refugees.
“We expect an answer later this week,” GBR chairman Constantin Greve told Handelsblatt. It is about “a clear reaction from the board,” said KBR chairman Marx. “From our point of view, the commitment in Russia must be reconsidered.” So far, the board has not commented specifically on this. Greve and Marx are also members of the group’s board of directors.
A Telekom spokesman commented on the demands that “no Russian customers and no business relationships with Russia” were maintained. “Therefore we see ourselves in accordance with the resolution of the KBR.”
More: Why Deutsche Telekom continues to rely on Russian programmers