In a press release published Wednesday afternoon, the OGBL wrote: "Negotiations have been rendered obsolete after the personnel delegation, the OGBL, and the RTL Group S.A. management left the table ahead of the legal deadline following eight rounds of negotiations."
The various parties were in negotiations through until midnight on Tuesday after an initial meeting in the afternoon. The afternoon ended without a resolution, leading to the management's final offer made to the personnel delegation, which rejected it with a counter-offer, equally rejected by RTL Group.
According to the OGBL, the request was simple, namely that compensation be in line with the group's profits of the first half of 2019. The management described the request as "unacceptable" and the trade union countered that it would not sign a "bad redundancy plan."
94 individuals are affected by the group's restructuring announced earlier this year. 44 of those affected will be offered a role in Cologne and 50 will be made redundant.
The file now goes to to the conciliation team, which will run negotiations in two weeks time.
In a press release, the OGBL focused on the government's agreement with RTL Group, wondering whether the group has adhered to the conditions stipulated in the group's foothold in Luxembourg. Addressing the government, the trade union demanded it publicise the secret clauses in their agreement with RTL Group.
RTL Group's management has not offered a comment on the trade union's criticism, but confirmed that they regret that all involved parties have not come to a resolution. Additionally, the management has informed affected employees of the next steps in the process and presented the group's redundancy plan despite negotiations coming to an end. The group reiterated its hope for concluding negotiations in a quick and constructive manner in order to give affected employees clarity on their futures.
