(Bloomberg) — A former executive fired after alleging extensive greenwashing at Deutsche Bank AG’s asset-management unit DWS lost her German unfair-dismissal suit.
Desiree Fixler, who sued DWS after she was laid off in March last year, lost the case for reasons that couldn’t be immediately disclosed because the parties weren’t present, Presiding Judge Ilka Heinemeyer said when delivering the ruling at the Frankfurt labor court on Monday.
The judgment against Fixler signals a small victory for DWS Chief Executive Officer Asoka Woehrmann, who first hired and subsequently fired her. The decision to remove Fixler was made to “gain even more traction” in the firm’s sustainability efforts, the unit said in an internal memo seen by Bloomberg at the time. It came just a few months after DWS had publicly highlighted her appointment as an important step in plans to increase its focus on environmental, social and governance issues.
Fixler has said she was fired for speaking out about glaring discrepancies between DWS’s public claims regarding its ESG capabilities and its internal procedures. Fixler’s allegations have since triggered various legal and regulatory probes in the U.S. and Germany, resulting in a lasting hit to DWS’s share price.
DWS has vigorously denied the allegations. A DWS spokesman said the company welcomes the ruling but won’t comment further.
Fixler and her lawyer had attended the hearing in the case earlier on Monday.
After the ruling, Fixler told reporters the court didn’t explore the matter properly.
“I am shocked that such a case was handled in a 20 minute-hearing,” she said. “The judges didn’t even discuss any of the ESG issues.”
Very Few Protections
At a hearing earlier on Monday, Judge Heinemeyer said Fixler was fired during the first half year on the job when employees enjoy very few protections under German law against being laid off. She added that the judges would also look into her claim that the dismissal was an illicit act of retaliation.
Fixler’s lawyer argued her client effectively started to work for DWS on August 8, 2020, which would make the six-months probation period elapse on March 8. DWS fired her with a letter dated March 9. Her formal contract started in September 2020 and DWS claims because of that it was free to fire her in March 2021.
DWS’s lawyer told the court that the firm had last year offered her to settle for 100,000 euros ($113,000) but Fixler declined to because she wanted more than a one-year salary of 640,000 euros. A settlement in the labor case now seems out of reach as authorities are probing DWS and any agreement would need to cover all pending matters over the issue, the lawyer said.
The case is ArbG Frankfurt am Main, 2 Ca 2178/21.
(Updates with Fixler comment in eighth paragraph.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
