#OneTeam: Pandas are stronger together

At Bitpanda, we strive to enable our people to be their best. Winning as #oneteam is part of our DNA and we want our folks to feel at home and offer them a space where they are heard and can actively participate in shaping our business. This is why we are eager to support the initiative of some of our Pandas to establish a works council, as long as this process is transparent, inclusive and fosters open participation.

What does this mean?

As Bitpanda grew in size and scope, we lost our ability to work together on a one-to-one basis with every single person in the company. For us, it’s always been important that everyone feels included and we think setting up a works council will make every single Panda feel that their voice is heard. 

A works council can best develop its effect, when it represents the interests of all our folks and where everyone feels adequately represented — regardless of region, department or hierarchical level. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case so far, with employees of different entities being denied participation and requests to be part of the election committee being disregarded. 

What happened?

The group that initiated the Works Council has started the process of setting up an Austrian Works Council, where only employees of Austrian-based entities can be represented. However, as a European tech company, with 40% of our people working in jurisdictions outside Austria, we can’t reach equal and diverse representation across all company functions by setting up an Austrian-only works council. Since the process can’t be changed once it’s started, we proposed the initiators to start the process anew, in a legally-valid, inclusive and transparent way, while offering them full-protection throughout the process. Unfortunately, our proposal was declined.

What’s next?

Since the group initiating the proposal has decided to move ahead with the Austrian-only works council, we will fully comply with Austrian statutory law and adhere to the election process. We want our Pandas to have a voice and be truly represented in the Austrian works council, with the end goal of ensuring equal and diverse representation across all company functions, and hence we actively encourage Austrian-based employees to get involved such that the work council will ultimately reflect the true diversity that makes Bitpanda what we are. The works council is about true diversity, not adversity.

As an employer, we will not intervene in the electoral process. Pandas will choose themselves which colleagues they want to be represented by. However, we will do everything in our power to support the election process with everything we can and make things the right way, not the easy way.

Making sure everyone feels included and every Panda’s voice is heard has always been a priority for us. This is why we will help everyone gain a full understanding of the work council setup process, such that they can get involved. We will also support all people that want to run for election and cast their votes — the more people actively shape the future works council, the better it represents the diversity of our company.

Once the work council is set up, we will actively cooperate with elected representatives to shape the future of our business. For us, it is crystal clear that we will work constructively with the future works council, in the interests of all employees, and we are committed to support where we can.

#OneTeam