“Due to Duty of Care”
Heckler & Koch transfers employees with Russian roots
3/9/2022 1:04 p.m
The products from Heckler & Koch are likely to be more in demand than ever thanks to the billions in funding from the German Armed Forces. The armaments giant is now transferring employees with Russian roots. Nobody wants to know anything about discrimination. However, the company does not provide a correct explanation either.
Against the background of the Ukraine war, the arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch has transferred employees with Russian roots to its main plant. It’s about a single-digit number of employees who work in Oberndorf in the Black Forest in “shelling”, i.e. where weapons are tested at the shooting range. Those affected have a family history of migration that points to Russia or other successor states of the Soviet Union.
H&K justified the step with the “duty to care for our employees”. Therefore, the decision was made to “integrate employees from the security-sensitive area of shelling into other areas of production for a while”.
According to a report by the “Schwarzwälder Bote”, affected employees reacted with great incomprehension and were deeply disappointed. IG Metall took on the matter and wants to comment in the afternoon. H&K announced that each of the 950 employees at the company’s headquarters also associated worries, fears and hardships with the war. “In view of the threatening situation, the security services in Germany warn against increased external influence on employees in the defense industry.”
Employee relocation just image maintenance?
What exactly is feared and what exactly could be prevented with the measure remained unclear in the company’s announcement. “With this measure, Heckler & Koch is pursuing the goal of protecting our employees and their family members,” it said. The employees were informed at the end of last week. “The temporarily relocated employees are highly valued colleagues of different national origins or roots who have been doing very good work very well integrated in the company for many years.” “We reject the accusation of discrimination in the strongest possible terms,” the statement said. Colleagues from more than 30 nations work for H&K.
German armaments companies are likely to become more of a focus in the coming months. For decades, domestic demand was not too high. The consequences of the war in Ukraine are likely to change that. The federal government wants to provide 100 billion euros alone to equip the Bundeswehr better than before. Additional orders could be received at Heckler & Koch as a result.
Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, its own production capacities have already been “adapted to the increased demand from numerous NATO countries,” said a spokesman. “Should there be a greater need from our armed forces or other NATO countries in the short term, we are able to enter into short-term cooperation with industrial partners in Germany and Europe.”