Bitter legal battle over Air Berlin assets: Mallorcan employees continue fighting

Bitter legal battle over Air Berlin assets: Mallorcan employees continue fighting

Key question: Can a transfer of funds between EU insolvency proceedings undermine workers' rights?

The short answer: Yes, under certain conditions. The long answer is more complicated and plays out in the corridors of courts while people on the Plaça d'Espanya buy their bread and buses run late as usual. Here on Mallorca the issue is not only legal provisions but the money of 43 former employees – €924,760 they are still claiming.

What happened? After the collapse of the German airline in 2017, liabilities of around €2.5 million remained in Spain. From the sale of plots near Ciudad Real, a little over €1 million flowed into the German insolvency proceedings in 2019. The 43 employees had previously been awarded compensation in Spain and had enforced their claims in the Spanish commercial court.

The Commercial Court in Palma viewed the transfer critically and saw it as a possible attempt to circumvent the employees. The next higher instance reversed that assessment: the transfer had been made as part of the German main insolvency proceedings, no fraud was proven, and no preferential treatment of German creditors over Spanish creditors could be established. Now, however, the Tribunal Supremo has allowed revision proceedings – an indication that the legal dispute is far from over.

Critical analysis: The case exposes several weaknesses. First: time. Eight or nine years are a generation in the labor market; plaintiffs age, documents are lost, memories fade. Second: transparency. Sales of insolvency assets across borders often occur without sufficient information for local creditors. Third: resource inequality. Employees pursuing individual claims usually lack the financial and legal means to withstand multi-year cross-border processes against organized insolvency administrators.

What is missing from the public discourse: concrete figures on the handling of the land sales, records from the insolvency administrators, and a clear account of how attachment orders from labor courts were considered in dealing with cross-border transfers. The perspective of those affected is missing: who pays rent, electricity or legal fees in the years between judgment and possible payment? Many questions remain open.

Everyday scene on the island: Early in the morning, when street sweepers on Passeig Mallorca wipe the damp sand from the palm fronds and an espresso signals the start of the workweek, taxi drivers and hotel employees quietly talk about the case. 'If the money comes back, it will help some people a lot,' says a former ground crew member we meet at the edge of a small market. She speaks with the rough directness known here: no pathos, just the simple arithmetic of living costs against years without income. They also follow Ryanair ground staff strikes affecting airport operations.

Concrete approaches: In the short term, courts and insolvency administrators should be required to keep transparent lists of cross-border asset movements and automatically inform affected employees. There need to be mandatory reporting counterparts in the states involved so that attachments and labor court decisions do not disappear into an information swamp. In the medium term, EU regulations would make sense to give wage claims priority and, in special cases, a 'blocking' protection until all creditors' rights are clarified. Such rules would be useful in airline disputes, as seen in the Ryanair vs. Aena dispute. Additionally, class actions or collective enforcement funds for affected employees could reduce litigation costs and increase pressure on mass administrators.

Practically on the ground, unions and legal advice centers are helping with document collection, deadlines and financial planning. Authorities in Palma could set up an information office to systematically accompany cases like this – from the first judgment to the possible repatriation of funds.

Punchy conclusion: The legal chatter of the instances is important, but for the people the account balance matters. The Supreme Court's permission to appeal is an opportunity for the employees, but it is not automatic. If Europe does not clearly regulate how workers' rights are protected across borders in the crises of airlines and corporations like the Air Europa and Turkish Airlines deal, the impression remains: large assets travel easily between states, while human rights often get stuck at the border.

A final impression from Palma: While the city council continues its debates over benches and street furniture and tourists take their selfies, the question of justice here has an everyday effect. Not loud, but felt in the minds of people who still have to get up again, even though many legal steps remain to be taken.