The two board members of Stadtwerke Gießen AG (SWG), Manfred Siekmann and Reinhard Paul, informed the local press yesterday that they had agreed to withdraw two of the five compulsory redundancies of SWG bus drivers.
Last Monday afternoon, the SWG board and Verdi union representatives ended the jointly agreed top-level talks without reaching an agreement, but at this point all points of view on the current situation had been exchanged between all parties involved for the first time. The talks had originally been agreed in order to explore solidarity-based options for averting the redundancies. However, the union representatives felt unable to enter into a solidarity solution. They explained in detail how the transfer agreement concluded in 2001 between the trade union and Giessen city council had been intended.
Dr Volker Kölb, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Stadtwerke, confirmed in writing to the two board members yesterday (Tuesday) at their request that his interpretation of the agreement was in line with that of the union representatives. For him, it was clearly the spirit of the contract that there should be no compulsory redundancies at SWG for employees who were employed by the utility at the time the contract was concluded. "Now that we have received a contractual interpretation from both parties that ties our hands with regard to the compulsory redundancies of the two bus drivers with permanent employment contracts, we will of course act in accordance with the spirit of the contract. However, this interpretation was not entirely clear from the plain text," explained Manfred Siekmann and Reinhard Paul in a press release.
They immediately took the necessary steps to welcome the two drivers back to their original employment contracts.