Works councils

The German cabinet has agreed to back new legislation making it easier to set up works councils — elected employee workplace representatives.

The changes include: reducing the number of supporting signatures required to initially set up a works council (and removing this requirement altogether in workplaces with 20 or fewer employees); strengthening the protection against dismissal for workers proposing the setting up of a works council; and greater use of a simplified electoral procedure, which is less open to employer obstruction.

The proposals were under discussion earlier in the year (see Labour Research, February 2021, page 8) but were blocked for a period by opposition from the right in the coalition government.