After the cancellation of the restructuring collective agreement of the department store group Galeria by the management, the Verdi union wants to take a close look at the situation.

The Verdi Federal Tariff Commission Galeria decided to answer the emerging questions with internal and external legal support, a spokesman for the union said on Thursday.

In addition, experts should evaluate the company's figures, data and facts independently of the available data from the Galeria management.

The management and the owner would have to come up with solutions.

"Putting problems on workers is not an acceptable solution."

At the end of last week, Galeria declared that the company was “forced in a tense economic situation to (..) terminate our integration collective agreement with the Verdi union in order to stabilize our company as a whole in the long term”.

One of the consequences of this termination is the "freezing" of the remuneration of the employees at the current wage level and the obligation to negotiate with Verdi.

150 million euros more

In an employee letter dated October 7th, available to the Reuters news agency, Galeria boss Miguel Müllenbach asked for understanding.

It is about a "topic of existential importance".

"We will only be able to successfully continue on our way if we succeed in restructuring Galeria's financing and injecting new, fresh capital into the company," said the letter, which was also reported by the "Handelsblatt".

Galeria declined to comment on Thursday.

Since the corona pandemic, Galeria has overcome many difficulties with its employees and has successfully repositioned itself strategically, emphasized Müllenbach.

"Since February of this year, however, a situation has arisen - triggered by the war in Ukraine - in which the consumer climate in Germany has fallen to an all-time low, energy prices have exploded dramatically and inflation has risen to a record high." Galeria has said that too hit hard.

In the next two years, Galeria will have to spend more than 150 million euros on energy alone than previously planned.

The department store giant was formed in 2019 from the merger of Karstadt and Kaufhof.

It was only in January that the federal government supported the company with a further 220 million euros.

Galeria had already agreed on a loan of 460 million euros with the federal government in 2021.

Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof belongs to the Signa Holding of the Austrian investor Rene Benko.

Among other things, it has a real estate portfolio worth billions.