Friday, March 31, 2006
SAP cool as unions gain foothold - Technology - International Herald Tribune
SAP cool as unions gain foothold - Technology - International Herald Tribune: "FRANKFURT With its stock options, Silicon Valley-like image and reputation as Germany's answer to Microsoft, SAP would seem a rather fruitless place to organize a labor movement.
But about 9,000 SAP employees in Germany will take what could be the first step toward bringing unions into this 34-year-old company, Europe's most successful software developer. Eligible workers at two SAP sites were due to vote on Thursday for a committee that will later hold an election for a works council, a legal entity that represents workers.
SAP does not welcome this change, viewing it as unnecessary in a company with healthy management-employee relations and an entrepreneurial culture. Neither do most of the employees: In a vote this month, 91 percent rejected a proposal to set up a council.
'I thought, in a democracy, when you have a vote of 91 percent to 9 percent, the 9 percent would accept that,' Henning Kagermann, chief executive of SAP, said in an interview Tuesday.
In this case, however, three employees who supported a works council filed a petition with a German labor court. Because Germany guarantees workers the right to organize, even if most oppose it, SAP concluded that it had no legal ground to block the creation of such a council. It accepted an offer by another group of employees, viewed as less close to the unions, to conduct an election for its members.
'You have to respect that there is a law,' Kagermann said, shrugging his shoulders.
The success of the campaign demonstrates the enduring power of organized labor in Germany, even at a time when membership in unions is declining and when unions have lost much of their muscle in extracting wage increases.
Capital, an economics ma"
But about 9,000 SAP employees in Germany will take what could be the first step toward bringing unions into this 34-year-old company, Europe's most successful software developer. Eligible workers at two SAP sites were due to vote on Thursday for a committee that will later hold an election for a works council, a legal entity that represents workers.
SAP does not welcome this change, viewing it as unnecessary in a company with healthy management-employee relations and an entrepreneurial culture. Neither do most of the employees: In a vote this month, 91 percent rejected a proposal to set up a council.
'I thought, in a democracy, when you have a vote of 91 percent to 9 percent, the 9 percent would accept that,' Henning Kagermann, chief executive of SAP, said in an interview Tuesday.
In this case, however, three employees who supported a works council filed a petition with a German labor court. Because Germany guarantees workers the right to organize, even if most oppose it, SAP concluded that it had no legal ground to block the creation of such a council. It accepted an offer by another group of employees, viewed as less close to the unions, to conduct an election for its members.
'You have to respect that there is a law,' Kagermann said, shrugging his shoulders.
The success of the campaign demonstrates the enduring power of organized labor in Germany, even at a time when membership in unions is declining and when unions have lost much of their muscle in extracting wage increases.
Capital, an economics ma"
