Zwickau (dpa / sn) - The Zwickau labor court has declared the works council election in the Saxon VW plant in Zwickau to be ineffective. The court assumes that key electoral regulations were violated in this spring's election, spokesman Lars Brügmann announced on Monday. Employees who had contested the works council election prevailed.
The decision is not yet final. The works council can appeal this decision to the regional labor court. The panel will remain in office until a final decision is made. Works council chief Jens Rothe said on request that he wanted to examine the decision.
Above all, the labor court saw a formal error. The electoral board was not always present in full when the votes were counted. Thus, the publicity of the counting of votes was not consistently preserved. It cannot be ruled out that this had an impact on the election result.
"First of all, we have to wait for the written justification and then we'll see whether we can take action against the decision," said Rothe, chairman of the works council. "But I assume that it will go to the next instance. What is important is that the election was declared ineffective, not void. That means the committee will remain in office until the decision is final." First of all, he does not see any disadvantages for the employees.
In the election, candidates belonging to the IG Metall union won 35 of 37 mandates. The election was contested by the members of an opposing list.
Zwickau is not the only location in the Volkswagen Group where the works council election was contested. In the case of the election at the main plant in Wolfsburg, after complaints from several VW employees, a court found deficiencies in the process and declared them invalid for the time being. There, too, the works council wanted to take action against the decision.
