01.10.2018 Ι The reorganization at Thyssen-Krupp offers future prospects to the nearly 70,000 employees in Germany. IG Metall agreed to divide the group after the Supervisory Board guaranteed safe work.
The employees of Thyssen-Krupp have been through a lot in recent years. Only the long conflict over the separation of the steel division. Then the confrontation with the financial investors Cevian and Elliott, who wanted to completely disassemble the conglomerate. In addition, the leadership crisis, after two bosses at the top in July in quick succession to throw in the towel: the CEO Heinrich Hiesinger and Supervisory Board Chairman Ulrich Lehner.
With their departure, Markus Grolms, union secretary at the IG Metall board and deputy chairman of the supervisory board, suddenly, unexpectedly and unwillingly took on the difficult role of assuming the part of Lehner and getting the problems under control. For example, finding a new man at the top. The financial investors wanted the chairmanship of the board of directors to be filled by an external officer, but all possible candidates declined with thanks. Metal workers can do a great deal when it has to be – in the interest of the employees – to take on the job of the employer. And they can do him good. This is shown by the results, which the Supervisory Board decided under Grolms’ direction on Sunday.
Success of co-determination
The group is divided into two independent listed companies. In the new public limited company (AG) industrial goods (“Industrials”), the group parts of elevators, plant engineering and automotive subcontracting are combined. New is System Engineering; These include, for example, production lines for car factories. The Materials Materials Division (AG) includes the share in the steel company merged with the Indian Tata Group, the materials trading, the steel-related processing and the marine sector.
“The strategy adopted by Thyssen-Krupp’s Supervisory Board on Sunday – with the votes of all ten employee representatives – makes sense,” says Jörg Hofmann, the first chairman of IG Metall. “We have succeeded in preventing the sell-off of individual parts of the company that investors have operated, which shows how important strong employee participation is.”
Terminations excluded
Hofmann emphasizes: “It was crucial for us to secure employment and locations in the long term, as we did with the basic agreement that the Supervisory Board co-decided on Sunday, which excludes redundancies in connection with the division of the Group.” In both companies, all existing collective agreements and company regulations that have been concluded for the employees continue to apply. And co-determination is guaranteed throughout the process. “This is especially important with regard to investment and personnel planning,” explains Hofmann. “In the further process, we will insist that the financial viability of the new companies be guaranteed and substantiated by auditors’ reports.”
Again stable leadership
At the same time, the Supervisory Board on Sunday ensured that the planned restructuring can be tackled again with stable leadership. Guido Kerkhoff, who had temporarily taken over his post as CEO after the departure of Hiesinger, was re-elected as CEO for a further five years. Long-standing Supervisory Board member Professor Bernhard Pellens is the new Chairman of the Supervisory Board. The former Labor Director and Chief Human Resources Officer has also been confirmed for five more years: the former IG Metall district manager in North Rhine-Westphalia, Oliver Burkhard.