On Tuesday, the Korneuburg Regional Court heard whether Lauda has a works council or not. The judgment is given in writing. One day later, the management had a polemical argument about the chairwoman of the works council.

The start of the court hearing, which should clarify whether the flying personnel of the airline Lauda has a works council or not, should actually take place in March 2020. The corona pandemic prevented this, however, so that the statute took place on Wednesday in front of the Korneuburg regional court. The verdict was not announced because - as is usual in most civil law proceedings - this will be served on the parties in writing in the next few weeks.

The two main points of the negotiation: Did the works council election contested by the airline run correctly, is it valid, and thus does the flying personnel have an employee representative? Another aspect is the dismissal protection suit of the chairmen of the committee. This was given notice in the middle of the preparations for the election and was then repeatedly dismissed, at least once even dismissed without notice. Since she was already a member of the previous works council, she was protected against dismissal, which, if the election were valid, could mean that the dismissals announced a few months later and the dismissal without notice could also be null and void.

There are different views on the course of the process. The chairwoman of the works council speaks of a constructive negotiation. According to her, the judgment should be served in writing within the next few weeks. She hopes that the decision of the Korneuburg Regional Court will then bring about clarity.

Among other things, managing director Andreas Gruber was in court for the airline Lauda. He also confirmed that the judgment will be given in writing. In terms of content, he did not want to be looked at in terms of his assessment of the course of the process. But he made up for this a day later in a circular signed by co-boss David O'Brien. On this occasion, the two managers also accused the chairman of the works council of allegedly not responding to invitations to meet to save the Vienna base since last Friday. Unusual, because in the past the situation was exactly the opposite, inquiries were not answered by the management.

In any case, almost the entire Tuesday was spent listening to the statements of the works council chairman in court and presenting the management's point of view. The lines in the circular are written extremely polemically, because the “null and void choice” would have been organized by the lady “and her friends”, but for the continued existence of the Vienna base and the preservation of the jobs they should not - as the employee letter claims interested. She would not have done anything to save the base, even polemically one writes that she generally would not have moved a finger. What is questionable, however, is what the Lauda management is aiming for with this obvious hostility in a circular, which, by the way, is introduced by the fact that the employees have all been notified to the AMS for termination “significantly earlier than 30 days”?