Works councils and the digitalisation of manufacturing: Opportunity or threat for their power position?

In the course of the so-called ‘digital transformation’, the digitalisation of manufacturing is on the agenda in many companies. Are works councils, as an important form of workplace representation of employees’ interests, prepared to bring employees’ interests into company digitalisation processes, and does this affect their own position of power? To answer these questions, four in-depth qualitative case studies of works councils from German industrial companies are conducted. The results show that works councils can rely on important resources in the bargaining of digitalisation processes. Through the combination of resource use with other factors, such as the perception of digitalisation and the (un)willingness of management to involve works councils, three different constellations can be identified under which dealing with digitalisation represents an opportunity or a threat for works councils.

Works councils and workplace health promotion in Germany

From a theoretical viewpoint, there can be market failures and organizational failures resulting in an underprovision of occupational health and safety. Works councils may help mitigate these failures. Using establishment data from Germany, the empirical analysis in this article confirms that the incidence of a works council is significantly associated with an increased likelihood that the establishment provides more workplace health promotion than required by law. This result also holds in regressions accounting for the possible endogeneity of works council incidence. Furthermore, analysing potentially moderating factors such as collective bargaining coverage, industry, type of ownership, multi-establishment status and product market competition, the article finds a positive association between works councils and workplace health promotion for the various types of establishments examined. Finally, this study goes beyond the mere incidence of workplace health promotion and shows that works councils are positively associated with a series of different measures of workplace health promotion.

Diversität und Interessenvertretung – zwischen Beharrung und Bewegung

Diversity has become a desirable ideal in the late modern work-oriented society. In particular, diversity is a goal of large global companies, which have already implemented concepts for managing it. Is diversity, however, also an issue of co-determination? While focusing on diversity in terms of gender and age, we aim to shed light on the question of whether works councils’ policies are informed by diversity endeavours: How have gender relations developed in the context of works councils? How relevant is gender policy in the context of co-determination? How are works councils dealing with demographic change? Do they have concepts for it and how do they put them into practice? Is diversity merely used as window dressing or is there more to it?

Die betriebliche Mitbestimmung im Zusammenhang mit Transferleistungen nach §§ 110, 111 SGB III

Measures supporting employment for employees who lose their jobs due to a change in the company or who are not taken on at the end of their vocational training are eligible for funding through transfer payments under Sec. 110, 111 of the Third Book of the Social Code (SGB III). The payments are tied to conditions that must also be fulfilled by employers alone and in cooperation with works councils. The author examines which participation rights works councils are entitled to in this context. In particular, the question arises if employers can be obliged to fulfil the conditions. The author comes to the conclusion that this is possible in social plan proceedings and shows when the conciliation board must establish a transfer social plan.

Politische Betätigung im Betrieb

Political statements by the works council are often a sensitive issue for companies - all the more so since right-wing lists have been on the rise in recent times. The Works Council Constitution Act (BetrVG) of 1952 already contained a ban on (party) political activity, which has since been amended several times and interpreted differently. By means of an analysis of the basic powers of the works councils as well as an interpretation of the of the law, the author shows that the workplace must be neither a politics-free zone nor a playground for agitators. Ultimately, the works council has a company-related mandate, while the employer is only affected by the ban in its specific role under works constitution law.