As of: February 10, 2024, 6:01 p.m
By: Marcel Reich
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A VW works council has successfully sued against a pay cut.
The Lower Saxony State Labor Court thus confirms a ruling by the Braunschweig Labor Court.
Kassel - In the dispute over the reduction in the salaries of works council members at Volkswagen, the Lower Saxony State Labor Court has for the first time ruled in favor of a plaintiff employee representative.
On Thursday in Hanover, the 6th Chamber confirmed a judgment of the Braunschweig Labor Court from July 2023, which had declared the salary cut made by VW to be inadmissible.
The court ordered VW to withdraw the cut and to pay the plaintiff for the loss with interest.
In February 2023, VW retroactively downgraded the 61-year-old plaintiff, who has been an exempt member of the works council in Wolfsburg since 2002, by two pay groups from October 2022 © Julian Stratenschulte/dpa
In February 2023, VW retroactively downgraded the 61-year-old plaintiff, who has been an exempt member of the works council in Wolfsburg since 2002, by two salary groups from October 2022 and, according to the works council, reduced his salary by around 650 euros per month.
The state labor court now ruled that this was inadmissible.
It joined the Braunschweig Labor Court, whose decision VW had appealed.
BGH ruling unsettling
The background is a ruling by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) from the beginning of last year.
Its criminal senate had overturned acquittals for four former VW human resources managers who had been accused of granting works councils too high salaries.
The criminal judges rejected the practice of increasing salaries for long-standing employee representatives, which was also common practice in other companies.
They set stricter rules than the Federal Labor Court, which the labor courts follow.
According to a spokesman for the works council, this means: “Something is required under labor law that can also pose a criminal risk.”
In order not to commit a criminal offense, VW cut the salaries of several works councils after the BGH ruling.
Many went to court against it.
According to the works council, there have been 38 first-instance judgments at Volkswagen alone, 36 of which were in favor of the plaintiff works councils.
VW only won in two cases.
There were further proceedings at subsidiaries such as Porsche.
It was only on February 2nd that the Leipzig works council chairman Knut Lofski won before the Leipzig labor court.
According to the VW works council, the proceedings before the State Labor Court in Hanover were now the first decision in the second instance.
Another appeal is set for February 18, also in Hanover.
According to the court, more are already pending.
Judge hopes for clarification from the Federal Labor Court
The BGH's ruling caused a lot of uncertainty, said presiding judge Karola Klausmeyer, who decided on the first appeal.
It is still disputed what impact this has on the case law of the Federal Labor Court (BAG).
The judge therefore expressly allowed an appeal to the highest labor court.
“The BAG should have the opportunity to position itself on this, especially in view of what the BGH said about it.” And after her verdict, she added: “I’m excited to see what the BAG makes of it.”
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In the case under discussion, the plaintiff benefited from the fact that VW had actually offered him a correspondingly paid position in 2015.
“And that wasn’t a fake offer,” explained the presiding judge.
“He would have gotten the job too.” It was therefore correct to pay him that way as a works council member afterwards.
There was therefore no reason for VW to downgrade.
VW is still leaving revision open
VW initially did not provide any information as to whether it would appeal the verdict.
“First, we will carefully examine the written reasons for the decision of the state labor court in order to decide on any further legal steps,” said a company spokesman when asked by the dpa.
In principle, however, Volkswagen “welcomes the clarifications from the labor courts, since the scope and limits of the decision of the BGH Criminal Senate are classified in this way by the labor courts as the responsible specialist jurisdiction,” he added.
The previous judgments indicated that the labor courts continued to consider the previous practice to be permissible.
However, since these are individual cases, no fundamental clarification can be derived from this, said the spokesman.
“Unfortunately, a legal clarification of principles is still pending.”
With material from dpa