Germany: judges rule on the ‘considerable consequences’ needed before a company decision triggers EWC right to information

In a judgment handed down on April 29 2015 over a case between the EWC of an Australian packaging company and both management and its European subsidiaries, the judges at the Lörrach-Radolfzell labor court have decided that the EWC is only apt to lodge a complaint against the group’s European management team and not against the group’s separate national management teams. After reviewing the facts of the case before them they decided there was no obligation to inform the EWC because of a lack of “considerable consequences” related to the group’s decision (a site would be closed with the loss of 70 jobs, and the activity transferred in Poland). The judges held that the amount of fines for cases of non-respect of defined rules in German law over EWCs was not to be challenged and that the German legislator had totally respected the Directive 2009/38 over EWCs.