UPDATED: The Djøf union has filed a lawsuit against Energi Danmark to withhold the million-dollar bonuses of three former employees. This is reported by the media outlet Finans.
Djøf is bringing the case on behalf of the three dismissed employees. According to Finans, the claim is calculated at over 300 million DKK per person. It is not clear where Finans got the information from.
Attorney Frederik Brocks, who will be leading the case for Djøf, confirms to the media outlet that the lawsuit has been filed. He does not wish to comment or confirm the amount.
Energi Danmark fired the three employees in April. According to the energy group, the reason was that there had been "a serious breach of trust in the form of a number of collective, disloyal acts". The three employees had previously earned bonuses totaling more than half a billion DKK. This was reported by Finans in March.
According to Energi Danmark, the bonuses are invalid because there is a policy in the group that there must be a ceiling on bonus agreements. The bonus agreements were concluded with the former CEO of Energi Danmark, Jørgen Holm Westergaard. The energy company believes that the agreements were concluded under collective pressure from employees.
Djøf: Bonus agreement cannot be dropped just because it has become expensive
In addition, Energi Danmark's chairman of the board, Jesper Hjulmand, claims to Finans that the agreements were concluded behind the back of the board and are therefore illegal. Frederik Brocks rejects this. He does not believe that the board can rightly say that it did not know about the bonus agreements. He also believes that Energi Danmark could have terminated the agreements earlier instead.
- Overall, it is our position that as an employer you cannot unilaterally choose to sit on the sidelines and refuse to honor a bonus agreement, simply because you think it has become too expensive, he tells Finans.
Bonuses in the energy industry depend on the energy market. With rising energy prices, the industry has earned more than it usually does. That is why bonuses during the energy crisis have become very high. The lawsuit, which has now been filed, is on behalf of one of the three employees.
This is because Djøf wants to try to get Energi Danmark to accept that one case forms the basis for the other two. In this way, legal costs can be kept down, Frederik Brocks tells Finans. In addition to the withheld bonuses, the lawsuit also concerns what Djøf believes is an unjustified dismissal.
/ritzau/
Text, graphics, images, sound, and other content on this website are protected under copyright law. DK Medier reserves all rights to the content, including the right to exploit the content for the purpose of text and data mining, cf. Section 11b of the Copyright Act and Article 4 of the DSM Directive.
Customers with IP agreements/major customer agreements may only share Danish Offshore Industry articles internally for the purpose of handling specific cases. Sharing in connection with specific cases refers to journaling, archiving, or similar uses.
Customers with a personal subscription/login may not share Danish Offshore Industry articles with individuals who do not themselves have a personal subscription to Danish Offshore Industry.
Any deviation from the above requires written consent from DK Medier.
