“Office chair dispute” in the Archdiocese of Cologne continues
Cologne – The so-called office chair dispute in the Archdiocese of Cologne will continue at the beginning of next year. The oral hearing in the appeal process will take place on February 24appeals process instead, as the Cologne Regional Labor Court announced to the Catholic News Agency (KNA) on Friday.
In the dispute, the former Archdiocese’s legal adviser defends herself against an extraordinary dismissal. The diocese justified this by saying that the specialist had taken an office chair with her to the home office at the beginning of the Corona crisis. Last January, the Cologne labor court declared the step invalid because taking the office chair with you did not represent “any concrete reason for termination”. According to the verdict, the retirement of the long-term ill lawyer was also invalid.
On the other hand, a claim for pain and suffering from the woman in the amount of at least 50,000 euros was rejected. His client had been processing abuse files for years and was initially left alone with this activity, lawyer Stephan Vielmeier justified the claim. In addition, she suffered re-traumatization when an external legal expert asked her about her handling of abuse cases. The court does not follow this reasoning.
Both the legal adviser and the Archdiocese of Cologne have appealed. Germany’s largest diocese is involved in a number of other court cases. The dismissed managing director of the Cologne University of Catholic Theology (KHKT), which was sponsored by Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, Martina Köppen, filed a lawsuit with the labor court. On Tuesday, the district court of Cologne also heard a claim for damages by a victim of abuse against the archdiocese for 725,000 euros. On Wednesday there will be another hearing of witnesses in a press law procedure between Woelki and the “Bild” newspaper.