There are the dashing start-up founders who want to deploy their staff 24/7 without anyone asking annoying questions. There is the company patriarch who thinks his employees don’t need representation. And there’s the foreign investor who thinks codetermination is communism. In many such companies there is no works council. This is often to the detriment of employees. So something should change.
Hans Böckler, the first chairman of the German trade union federation, put it like this after the war: “We must not leave the entrepreneurs alone for a moment!” Of course, not every works council does its job well. Anyone who says no to every change not only annoys managers – above all, they let the employees down. Constructive works councils, on the other hand, are a gain. They provide impetus for the transformation of the company. They listen to workers’ concerns. And when there are changes, they often prevent employees from getting under the wheels.
Employees are usually allowed to set up a works council in the company with five or more employees. But that is not so easy. Companies hinder every sixth attempt, claims IG Metall. They are often more creative than in their actual business. Sometimes they break up the company into small parts to prevent a works council. Or they threaten bankruptcy and subsequent founding of a new company. Sometimes designated employee representatives are flimsy fired. Or bullied: “Did you know that your partner cheats?” That’s not true, but the potential works council was successfully unsettled.
The change to a service society is helping to reduce the number of works councils. The tradition of many service professions to help selflessly inhibits the courage to fight for one’s rights. New digital platforms such as the Gorillas delivery service see employees primarily as a cost center and often put the brakes on co-determination. But there is resistance to works councils everywhere in the economy. According to studies especially in small and medium-sized companies that are run by the owners themselves. In the 1990s every second employee had a works council, today it is less than 40 percent.
It is time for politics to intervene. The top priority are the wishes of the employees. If employees really don’t want representation, nobody should make them happy. However, it is important to take a closer look when companies such as the car rental company Sixt claim that the employees do not miss a works council at all.
Tesla in Brandenburg is also interesting for Minister Heil
SPD Labor Minister Hubertus Heil now wants to facilitate the formation of employee committees through criminal law. If a company interferes with the establishment of a works council, the judiciary should investigate on its own. This could become the sharp sword. Anyone who obstructs the work of the councils faces a year in prison. In reality, however, there are no convictions.
Minister Heil should also deal with the phenomenon that companies are trying to control works councils. The development at Tesla is currently interesting. The US electric car pioneer is creating thousands of industrial jobs in its factory near Berlin, and this is the first time something like this has happened in East Germany for a long time. At Tesla, a works council is also elected. Very early, already this month. So far, managers and engineers have been the main people on board at the site. The workers are only gradually hired. However, you can only be elected to the works council six months after you have been hired. coincidence, the whole thing? In any case, a board full of managers will hardly serve the interests of the represent the entire workforce.
There is still work to be done to ensure strong representation of workers in Germany. In Angela Merkel’s chancellorship, trade unionists fell on deaf ears when they complained about bullying of employee representatives. Now the chances of change are better, finally. When the Works Constitution Act was reformed the last time, the national football coach was Helmut Schön and the chancellor was Willy Brandt. That was in 1972.