Introduction of a codetermined Supervisory Board at Birkenstock Productions Rheinland-Pfalz GmbH

BIRKENSTOCK is starting another new chapter in its strengthening of labor rights by introducing a codetermined Supervisory Board at Birkenstock Productions Rheinland-Pfalz GmbH. This means elected employee representatives will be involved in key business decisions for the first time in the history of Germany’s largest footwear manufacturer. This development was preceded by multiple company mergers which resulted in the threshold of 500 employees as stipulated in Germany’s One-Third Participation Act (DrittelbG) being exceeded. Birkenstock Productions Rheinland-Pfalz GmbH currently has a workforce of approximately 600 employees at its sites in St. Katharinen, Vettelschoß, and Neustadt (Wied). The employees elected two employee representatives for the newly created board on Wednesday.

“The creation of a Supervisory Board at Birkenstock Productions Rheinland-Pfalz GmbH represents a further return to normalcy for us,” says Oliver Reichert, CEO of the BIRKENSTOCK Group. “We knew since taking over the management in January 2013 that we were facing the introduction of a codetermined Supervisory Board at the sites in Rhineland-Palatinate if we effected the corporate transformation that made sense from a business-minded point of view as intended. This time has now come, and we welcome this.” At the same time, the BIRKENSTOCK CEO countered allegations that the management had sought to prevent the employees from exercising their statutory codetermination rights from 2012 on.

In this regard, Oliver Reichert said: “Had we seriously wanted to prevent a codetermined Supervisory Board from being established at our production subsidiary in Rhineland-Palatinate, we would simply have not gone through with two or three of the mergers, which would have kept the employee numbers below the 500-employee threshold. Allegations to the effect that BIRKENSTOCK is still endeavoring to restrict the employees’ codetermination rights are therefore absurd.” Works councils at the businesses in St. Katharinen, Uerzell, and Vettelschoß are already an integral part of internal employee codetermination at BIRKENSTOCK. Meanwhile, preparations are underway for the constitutive election of a new works council at the Bernstadt plant.

Markus Bensberg, CEO of the BIRKENSTOCK Group, likewise welcomes the introduction of the Supervisory Board: “We are intentionally making the employees’ interests more a part of our business decisions,” says Markus Bensberg. The activities of the Supervisory Board should further improve cooperation with the employee representatives within the BIRKENSTOCK Group. Bensberg: “With all the corporate restructuring effected since the beginning of 2013, we focused at all times on the positive effect it would have on business and company codetermination. This was and still is the wish of the shareholders.” When the two BIRKENSTOCK CEOs Oliver Reichert and Markus Bensberg took over at the helm as the first managers from outside the family in the history of the company, they were presented with a conglomerate of 38 individual companies. The BIRKENSTOCK Group in Germany now comprises ten operating companies. At the same time, the Group’s global workforce increased twofold from just under 1,900 to around 4,000.

A codetermined Supervisory Board was consequently introduced at Birkenstock Productions Rheinland-Pfalz GmbH on the initiative of the management. When the 500-employee mark was exceeded last year following the final corporate measures, thus making the provisions of the One-Third Participation Act applicable, the management sought dialog with the works council at the St. Katharinen plant and made the necessary arrangements in the subsequent weeks for an employee representatives election, which was held on April 18, 2018. This supervisory body consists of six members, two of whom were elected by the employees and four of whom were appointed by the shareholders. The board is comprised as follows:

Representatives of the shareholders:

Sean Harris
Dr. Carsten Jungmann
Dr. Nils Häck
Klaus Noll

Representatives of the employees:

Michaela Falk-Wagner
Claudia Wings

The inaugural meeting, at which among other things the Rules of Procedure will be determined and the Chairman of the Supervisory Board will be elected, will be held on May 2, 2018.

Change at the top of Birkenstock Productions Rheinland-Pfalz GmbH

The introduction of a codetermined Supervisory Board at Birkenstock Productions Rheinland-Pfalz GmbH also affects the company’s management, with the Managing Director to date, Sean Harris, moving to the newly created supervisory body. In addition to his new role as a member of the Supervisory Board, he will continue to have overall responsibility for the company’s production division as CTO of the BIRKENSTOCK Group. He has passed operational management of Birkenstock Productions Rheinland-Pfalz GmbH on to the former head of the St. Katharinen plant Marcus Börger, who has been with the company for two years. Since joining the company, he has been very successfully expediting the site’s modernization together with his team. Marcus Börger has a great deal of production experience garnered among other things while managing plants in the automotive supplier industry.