The lighting technology manufacturer, OSRAM, is going to make its traditional lamp business legally independent. On Friday, 12/06/2015, the Supervisory Board of the traditional Munich company approved the basic concept by the Chief Executive Olaf Berlien, which had been known since the end of April, and thus agreed to the legal independence of the divisions concerned, with around 12,000 employees worldwide and a turnover of around EUR 2 billion.
Before the Supervisory Board Meeting, after intensive negotiations the company reached agreement with the employee representatives and IG Metall on the conclusion of a key issues paper regarding the social conditions and the upcoming independence. For example, the key issues paper regulated that the new company would, like OSRAM, be bound by collective bargaining agreements according to the legal regulations. The key issues paper laid the basis for the employee representatives to agree to the Board of Management's plans in the Supervisory Board.
With regard to labour law, OSRAM has relied since the beginning of the carve-out process in April 2015 on the Seitz labour law team's experience of large-scale labour law projects. The law firm has been advising OSRAM since then on all major labour law topics and is part of the HR negotiation team.
Seitz is one of the only law firms in Germany with extensive experience in managing and implementing major labour law projects. Thus, for example, the law firm is currently simultaneously assisting the current biggest restructuring in Germany with regard to labour law at Karstadt, and up until recently the bidding competition on the part of Signa-Group with regard to the acquisition of Kaufhof.
The employee representatives of the General Works Council were advised by Augsburg attorneys Benning Reinecke Nerlinger. The law firm has advised the General Works Council for many years on restructuring and other labour law topics.
Representative OSRAM:
In-house: Bettina Kahr-Geleng, Stefan Möhren
Seitz: Dr. Stefan Seitz, Dr. Marc Werner (both taking the lead),
Heinke von Netzer
Representative General Works Council:
Benning Reinecke Nerlinger: Alexander Nerlinger
Representative IG Metall:
Irene Schulz (Federal Board), Michael Knuth (IG Metall Bavaria)
A further article on this can be found on the JUVE website.
On this topic, see also
www.handelsblatt.com
www.finanzen.net
www.focus.de
www.augsburger-allgemeine.de