Regret expressed over incident
Another Scientology recruiter's name handed out by Labor Office
"Aktion Bildungsinformation" presumes those seeking work are a new target group.
Stuttgart, Germany
April 29, 2000
Stuttgarter Zeitungby Annette Mohl
Nuertingen - Through oversight a staff member from the Goeppingen Labor Office gave out the name of a recruiter from the Dianetics Stuttgart Association, Inc. That had happened in the business offices of Leinfelden-Echtedingen in October 1999; this time a staff member in Nuertingen slipped up.
Behind Dianetics Stuttgart, Inc. is concealed the Stuttgart Scientology center. Apparently, that is not known to several staff members of the labor office. That also went for the employee who had just been hired to work in the Nuertingen Labor Office the first part of April, and who sent the address of the corporation to an applicant via fax. The woman had made an inquiry in the Employer Information Service (AIS) to find an opening.
Instead of reporting to Dianetics, as the Labor Office recommended, the woman called up the charitable association "Aktion Bildungsinformation" (ABI). Their chief, Eberhard Kleinmann, had already had sharp words of criticism for the Goeppinger Labor Office (to which the business offices of Leinfelden-Echterdingen and Nuertingen belong) because it had forwarded an office cleaning lady from Filderstadt an online offer from Dianetics. Now the ABI has again made the president of the labor office aware of events. "We are getting the impression that Scientology has been increasing advertisement to target those who are looking for work." As another instance, a job seeker was also send to Dianetics in December. She did not receive anything about work there, though, but instead was offered personality training for cash.
There were explicit apologies from the Goeppingen Labor Office for the error. The current director of the employment agency, Werner Schreiner, apologized for the oversight by saying it was due to a high turnover of personnel. Basically, however, all staff were made aware of Scientology and instructed not to hand out the names of their recruiters. Presumably the address had slipped by in the course of daily business, "Dozens of inquiries are made every day through AIS." When the mistake had been noticed by the supervisor, four of the five agency personnel were comprehensively informed about the failure. The one could not be reached by telephone.
The director of the Nuertingen business office, Harald Osswald, also expressed regret over the incident. Basically, people are only referred to Dianetics if they explicitly express an interest for such a position.