Decision from the Higher Regional Court – Harley-Davidson Cologne / Bonn
The Frankfurt am Main Higher Regional Court has currently defused the situation at the well-known Harley-Davidson locations in Cologne and Bonn. The Frankfurt am Main Higher Regional Court has now granted an urgent application for compliance with the Harley-Davidson dealer agreement.
Now it remains exciting, because Harley-Davidson is now required to immediately grant the two authorized dealers access to the dealer system. The judgment will be delivered by the Higher Regional Court tomorrow at the latest.
The 50 employees breathe a sigh of relief
Let the approximately 50 employees in Cologne and Bonn breathe a sigh of relief! It is now at least guaranteed that, should a business takeover occur, it can only take place in consultation with all those involved and without pressure.
The court has now decided for the customers that the two authorized dealers in Cologne / Bonn can return to regular day-to-day business as official Harley-Davidson authorized dealers.
Request a statement from ver.die
The trigger for this farce was the publication of the correspondence between the managing director of the holding company G. Kierdorf and Dr. Ocak, who, as a representative of ver.di, published the supposedly racist response on Twitter. Until now it was unclear whether Dr. Ocak acted as a lawyer or not, he is a fully qualified lawyer, but not a lawyer and is not registered as such register of lawyers
Dr. Ocak has assured that he has a power of attorney from the former employee, which was actually the issue, but according to Mr. G. Kierdorf, it was not enclosed. How this farce will turn out in the end remains to be seen. We will find out from the court to what extent the statement was racist or not; opinions on this have so far been very divided, which makes the result of a court decision all the more exciting.
When Harleysite asked Ver.di, there was the following response from ver.di district manager D. Kolle
Mr. Ocak is a fully qualified lawyer and is employed by the United Services Union (ver.di) as a legal assessor in the advice and law (legal protection) team. The publication of correspondence in legal protection matters is unusual, but is advisable in politically significant proceedings or events. In its daily work, ver.di consistently opposes any form of racism, naming relevant incidents specifically and, in individual cases, publicly. Precisely because of the values associated with the Harley-Davidson brand, the contradiction to these values in Mr. Kierdorf's statements seemed so extreme that Mr. Ocak felt compelled to publish them.
Ultimately, I share this assessment and have always perceived Mr. Ocak to be correct in distinguishing his private or political affairs from his professional work at ver.di. It was not foreseeable that Mr. Kierdorf's racist statements and their publication would have an impact on the employees of both companies by terminating the license agreements. I do not think it is right to punish the employees in both companies for the former managing director's misconduct and appeal to Harley Davidson to reconsider this decision.
ver.di district manager D. Kolle 17.01.2022
A former employee of HD Cologne originally wanted to have her last pay slip checked by ver.di's legal advisor, but she now seems to be on the sidelines with her concerns.
01/25/2022 Harley site