Germany: court to rule on corporate managements’ right to unilaterally change the law applicable to their EWC in Visteon case

Closing request denied three times.  The case opposing the European subsidiary of the American car part maker Visteon (27,000 employees total, about 13,000 in Europe) started on June 22, 2011 when the management of Visteon Europe, located in the UK, informed Thomas Rösner, chairman of the EWC, that it intended to close the Spanish plant in Cadiz, cutting 396 jobs in the process.  Apparently, the information/consultation procedures imposed by the Community EWC Directive were not respected since, as the regional labor court of Cologne recognized (second instance ruling of September 8, 2011), the management of Visteon Europe waited until July 12, 2011 to send a simple PowerPoint to the EWC with information about its intentions.  In any case, the EWC was not consulted about the provisions of the social plan Visteon published twp days later – July 14, 2011.  This is why the EWC lodged a referral complaint within the employment tribunal of Cologne to immediately stop the procedure of closure of the Cadiz plant.  “The first instance court denied the request, judging that there were not enough arguments to grant it.  In Germany, since WCs usually have numerous blocking options, labor courts rarely grant referral rulings.  They are not used to it” Rösner told Planet Labor.  “Besides, the German text transposing the 2009 EWC Directive didn’t really add to the WCs’ powers as regards applicable sanctions when these rights are violated.  Therefore, the maximum sanction is a €15,000-fine, which is ridiculous” Rösner said.