Labour Research (May 2017)

European news

Women reps at VW


There are now three women among the 10 individuals who represent employees on the supervisory board of Volkswagen, Germany’s largest car maker. 


German legislation requires that in companies with more than 2,000 employees, half of the supervisory board (the body which monitors management’s action and sets the company’s long-term strategy), should represent the workforce.


Since January 2016, 30% of all supervisory board members must be women, and the addition of two new women members from local works councils means that the employee side has hit the 30% figure. (There was already one woman representing employees — Birgit Dietze, a full-time official for the IG Metall metalworking union.) 


All employee representatives on the board were elected by around 1,000 delegates from VW plants across Germany on 6 April. 


As well as representatives from German plants, the delegates also re-elected Johan Järvklo, a trade union representative from the Scania plant in Sweden.



This information is copyright to the Labour Research Department (LRD) and may not be reproduced without the permission of the LRD.