Verdict - :-( - Smiley not allowed on list for works council election
A list of candidates for a works council election with a smiley face is invalid. This was decided by the Cologne Regional Labor Court on Friday. At a works council election in a logistics company, an election committee had rejected a list with the pictogram, which in turn was contested by five employees of the company.
According to the court, the pictogram is inadmissible if - like a smiley - it merely expresses a mood or emotional state, has no clear word replacement function and is therefore not usually pronounced.
Employees had initially submitted an election proposal with the name "fair.die". This was rejected by the election committee due to the risk of confusion with the trade union verdi, as were "Fair :-) die Liste" and other proposals with smileys. As the court has now ruled, rightly so. The election committee ultimately used the names of the first candidates on the list as the password.
However, the company election was declared invalid for other reasons: the election committee had inadmissibly ordered a general postal vote for a plant in Troisdorf despite its proximity to the main plant at Cologne/Bonn Airport, as the court stated.
Press release
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- Despite the ruling by the Cologne Regional Labor Court, which deemed a list with a smiley face invalid for the works council election due to its emotive nature, the company's election was still declared invalid for other reasons.
- The Judgments handed down by the Cologne Regional Labor Court have significant implications for future works council elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, as they clarify the admissibility of using pictograms with explicit mood or emotional expressions.
- Following the works council election at the logistics company in Cologne/Bonn Airport, the Regional Labor Court issued a ruling concerning the validity of lists with emotive pictograms, such as smileys, and their role in the election process.
Source: www.stern.de
