The naming of subsidiaries showed up Clemens Tönnies recently less creative than with his own children Max and Julia. Instead of individual names, the boss and management missed the 15 newly registered GmbHs simply called “Tönnies-Production”. The company added the Roman numerals I to XV to the commercial register in mid-July at the Gütersloh district court for Rheda-Wiedenbrück.
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The founding of the companies, which are headed by Tönnies lawyer and chief HR manager Martin Bocklage and another Tönnies HR manager, has now caused outrage. Does Germany’s largest meat manufacturer, severely criticized for its working conditions, want to circumvent the planned ban on temporary work and contracts in the meat industry?
Such speculations quickly became popular on social networks. After all, certain businesses in the butcher shop should have a maximum of 49 employees of the regulation passed by the Federal Cabinet on Wednesday be excluded. A number that is already above the upper limit of 30 originally envisaged in the draft bill. And as Object of the company of the Tönnies subsidiaries The following applies: “Manufacture and sale of all kinds of meat products, including slaughtering, cutting and picking, as well as processing and processing into tradable end products made from meat and meat components”. So all that Tönnies currently above all else can be done by cheap contract workers and subcontracting.
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“Tönnies shouldn’t play with fire,” wrote SPD leader Saskia Esken. There is also concern about the food-enjoyment-restaurant union – and sees the danger that companies may create loopholes. With a view to the regulations on temporary agency work, but also because of possible problems with the establishment of works councils and collective agreements in the companies.
Before the bill has passed parliament, the Federal Minister of Labor has given himself up Hubertus Heil (SPD), on the other hand, is certain that the “organized irresponsibility” he repeatedly denounces will not be undermined by the Tönnies daughters. The SPD politician said about the fears: “No (…) The 50s regulation only applies to craft businesses.” State Secretary Björn Böhning added: “Third parties can no longer work here in the field of slaughtering, cutting and processing. This also includes subsidiaries.”
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However, the law has not yet been passed in parliament. And the Union has already said that improvements may still be needed so that, for example, during the barbecue season “seasonal production peaks can be flexibly absorbed”. The meat industry, on the other hand, is keeping a lawsuit open. “Not when it comes to the ban on contracts for work,” said the managing director of the Association of the Meat Industry (VDF), Heike Harstick, of the “world”, but against planned “encroachments on the company law of the companies”. Corporate structures would be “partially completely questioned, for example by redefining the term owner and prohibiting cooperation, dual partners or even slaughtering wages”.
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The company speaks of a “normal process”
Even if the law were passed as planned, it remains unclear what Tönnies’ aim with its subsidiaries is. A Tönnies spokesman said that the companies that are 100 percent owned by the company can be used to “quickly implement” direct hiring at different locations and for the various companies in the group.
The group had promised all employees in the core areas of production at the end of June “in the Tönnies group of companies” adjust. According to the spokesman, it remains unrestricted. “We are already in the middle of this process because we want to have the first thousand former contract workers hired in mid-September,” it says on request.
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When founding the subsidiaries, Tönnies spoke of “shelf companies” and a “completely normal process”. After all, legal foundations are needed for permanent positions, the spokesman said – and refers to politics. “At the moment it is still completely unclear which organizational forms the planned law provides. As a precaution, we founded these companies.”
How they will ultimately be used can only be judged after the ban on work contracts has been introduced.
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