A list of proposals for the works council election that contains a :- in its password is invalid.
Five employees of a global logistics company with a company at Cologne/Bonn Airport and another establishment in neighbouring T. had challenged the election of the 25-member works council, arguing, among other things, that the electoral board had wrongly rejected their election proposal because of the list password used and had instead provided the surnames and first names of the two candidates named first in the list. The employees had submitted to the election board first an election proposal with the password “fair.die”. After the electoral board rejected the proposal because of a phonetic risk of confusion with the ver.di union, the workers informed that their electoral proposal had the password “FAIR”The “list” should be. This password and three other alternative proposals, which also contained a smiley, rejected the electoral board in turn.
As the LAG has decided, a graphic symbol is inadmissible as a component of a password if, like the smiley face, it merely expresses a mood or emotional state, has no unique word substitute function and is therefore usually not pronounced. Also with the password “FAIR”the list” passed a risk of confusion, since it sounds like “ver.di-list” in linguistic terms. Nevertheless, the LAG declared the works council election invalid, because the electoral board had inadmissibly ordered the general postal ballot for the T. establishment despite its geographical proximity to the main establishment. The LAG did not allow the appeal. (LAG Cologne, Decision of 01.12.2023 – 9 TaBV 3/23)
