Transparency Germany Press Release

Here is the translation of the press release by Transparency Germany, that was apparently pulled just hours later. (Can they do that?) I found a copy of it here. Alas, the salary numbers are x-ed out...

Anyway, notice how they corroborate Moni's story but still call her a liar? Yep, that's some quality German PR...

The friend of a former employee published an account about a terminated work relationship between a friend and Transparency Germany (TI) in her Weblog "“Gedankenträger"”. The contents of this post did, for the most part, not correspond to the facts and conveyed to the readers the impression that the former employee was treated unfairly.

Fact is that the work relationship was not continued at the end of the probationary period, as the former employee made the increase in work hours dependent on salary demands, which could not be fulfilled on the part of TI. Since her job interview, the employee was aware that the initially agreed upon number of hours of 20 hours per week was to be increased at the end of the probationary period. The initially arranged salary for 20 work hours per week was XXXX Euro per month without deductions. The employee demanded a salary of XXXX Euro per month without deductions for the increased time of 30 work hours per week. The yearly budget of a non-profit non-governmental organization like Transparency Germany (see http://www.transparency.de/Jahresabschluss_2004.70.0.html) and the consideration of the salaries of other employees of the organization does not permit pay raises such as this.

Per communication of our legal advisor, the blogger was asked to remove the post due to the misrepresentations within, which actually happened in the meantime.

We abstained deliberately from a cease-and-desist letter in the communication and granted the blogger an opportunity to remove the text. No legal or financial ramifications arose for the blogger.

Transparency Germany has acknowledged the discussions in the blogs regarding this subject. We are of the opinion that weblogs should not be abused as platform for dissemination of misrepresentations.