Germany: ruling forces Daimler to review categorization of executive staff (leitende Angestellte)

Gone unnoticed, the ruling issued on April 29, 2011 by the Regional Labor Court of Stuttgart (LAG Baden-Württemberg), confirming a first instance ruling, should have a substantial impact for part of Daimler’s supervisory staff.  The case is about the last election for the works council and for the “Spokespeople Committee” (Sprecherauschuss, a kind of light WC for executives) of the company’s head office, where 12,000 people work, which took place on March 10, 2010.  The Christian Metalworkers’ Unions (CGM) and four non-unionized employees lodged separate complaints against the electoral procedure and asked for the cancellation of the election.  Their reasons were the following: the list of executive staff, who can’t take part in the election, provided by Daimler, was incorrect.  For the head office, nearly 636 executives belonging to the E2 and E3 categories were put in the executives category while they aren’t executives per se, i.e. they don’t necessarily have the representation and autonomy prerogatives listed in the Law on Corporate Statuses (Betriebsverfassunggesetz).  The Court ruled that the categorization provided by Daimler was indeed erroneous and invalidated the election.   “The ruling issued by the Labor Court is going to serve as a reference for Daimler executives because it establishes that a great deal of the company’s supervisory staff aren’t executives and should therefore be covered by collective agreements” the four employees’ lawyer, Stefan Naegel, told Planet Labor.  Although the parties still haven’t’ received the grounds of the ruling, Naegele nevertheless announced that there was no possible appeal to this ruling.  “The charges were only against the election at the head office.  So there will only be new elections there, for the WC and the Spokespeople Committee.  However, Daimler is going to have to review the categorization of its supervisory staff for the entire group” he added.  Several thousands of executives should therefore be subject to collective agreements, with consequences on their working time and remuneration scheme.  When and how is this change going to be implemented?  Contacted by Planet Labor, Daimler refused to take a stand.  “It’s too soon.  As long as we haven’t looked into the grounds of the ruling, we can’t say anything,” Markus Mainka, HR spokesman, explained.