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Axel Springer boss Döpfner: "There must be no double standards"
Photo: Michael Kappeler / picture alliance / dpa
Axel Springer Verlag is planning stricter rules for sexual relationships among employees.
That's what CEO Mathias Döpfner said in an interview with the Financial Times.
Accordingly, connections between managers and their employees would have to be disclosed internally in the future.
However, there should not be a general ban on such relationships.
The announcement comes a few weeks after the expulsion of the former »Bild« editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt.
Among other things, he was accused of abusing his power against women under his control, of having mixed professional and private relationships with female employees and of having exploited relationships of dependency.
A SPIEGEL research had already revealed the allegations in March.
At that time, an internal compliance procedure was initiated to investigate the allegations.
However, Reichelt had returned to his post after about two weeks.
Finally, in October, the New York Times and SPIEGEL - together with the investigative team at Ippen-Verlag - reported new, previously unknown allegations.
Reichelt lost his post.
Springer wants to adapt to American standards
According to Döpfner, the new requirements are also a reaction to the publisher's increased ambitions in the United States. Springer is present there primarily through his purchase of the news site Politico. In the USA, there are much stricter rules regarding the relationship between superiors and their employees. "We cannot accept double standards," Döpfner told the Financial Times. "We will introduce global guidelines based on Anglo-Saxon rules." Managers of several companies such as McDonalds, Boeing, or Intel have lost their positions in the past due to relationships with their employees.
Resistance to the new rules, according to Döpfner in the »Financial Times«, comes from within our own ranks: Employee representatives prevented the publishing house from introducing such a rule four years ago.
Even today, the representatives resisted it.
Linda Paczkowski-Diering, Chairwoman of the Works Council at Axel Springer SE, confirmed to the newspaper that discussions were taking place about it.
If there is no compromise, says Döpfner, »we would simply say: There is a code of conduct that we expect from our employees.
Anyone who does not behave accordingly has to leave the company. "
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