A few days ago, the Giessen Labour Court handed down its verdicts in the 25 parallel proceedings in which bus drivers employed by Stadtwerke Giessen (SWG) had challenged a new works agreement. The court has now largely dismissed the bus drivers' claims.
The court agreed with SWG's legal opinion on six of the seven points in dispute. The bus drivers had invoked an amendment agreement to their employment contract concluded on the occasion of the transfer of bus operations to SWG's local transport subsidiary MIT.BUS GmbH and argued that SWG had guaranteed them the continued validity of the collectively agreed terms and conditions of employment and all works agreements in force at the time. The Giessen Labour Court did not agree with this opinion. In the written reasons for the judgement, it states that this of course "does not mean that the plaintiff's working conditions are 'frozen' until he retires." The court therefore confirmed the reduction in the so-called one-man supplement made by SWG. "The reduction of the bonus from the original 250.00 euros to only 157.18 euros in future is legally effective," explains the competent chamber of the Giessen Labour Court. Furthermore, according to the court, SWG is also not obliged to pay the bus drivers a so-called sight card surcharge in addition to the one-man surcharge.
However, with regard to the issue of taking account of travelling times, the Labour Court agreed with the bus drivers and ordered SWG to take account of and pay for travelling times. The prospects of success of an appeal against this judgement are currently being examined.