Co-determination
Works councils are becoming increasingly active around the issue of innovation. This means that co-determination - the involvement of employees in company decision making - is playing a role in securing jobs and competitiveness. more...
Co-determination
Employee representatives in Germany champion workers' interests at different levels - both directly within the company and through negotiating collective agreements with the employers that apply across a whole industry. more...
Co-determination
The number of transnational company agreements between management and employees is growing. In particular there has been an increase in European-level negotiations about restructuring. more...
Corporate governance
The European Commission is discussing good corporate governance - but it's a very one-sided discussion. For example, the German model with employee representatives on supervisory boards hardly makes an appearance. more...
Corporate Social Responsibility
Under the catchphrase Corporate Social Responsibility, companies like to present themselves as particularly concerned with social issues and as being environment friendly. Employee representatives can take company bosses at their world and develop new possibilities of participation. more...
Co-determination
The financial crisis hasn't decreased the pressure on corporations to achieve short-term profits. Therefore works councils in industry are facing new tasks: Increasingly they have to look after performance indicator systems, white collar employees and temporary agency workers. more...
Co-determination
Often works councils do not only benefit employees but also the firms' profitability. This is shown by an expertise on the state of co-determination research. more...
Employee involvement
Plants with works councils are closed less frequently than those without. At least that is the case when the workplace is part of a larger concern. This is the conclusion of a study by the Leibnitz University in Hanover. more...
Capital markets
Analysts and investors have no interest in a company's workforce - other than as a cost factor. The one exception is the chief executive. Here personal impressions are very important and salaries can be high, provided they are closely tied into the share price. more...
Employee involvement
Workplaces that have works council pay wages that are more than 10% higher than those which do not have an elected body representing the employees. The main beneficiaries of this are women and lower earners. more...
Board-level representation
Germany's supervisory boards are changing, from backward-facing monitoring committees to forward-looking advisory bodies. Employee involvement helps in this process, as a recent study shows. more...
Employee involvement
Works councils help regulate flexible hours by providing a shorter working week and less precarious part-time employment. more...
Employee involvement
When employees leave, companies generally need to find and train new people. Those leaving often take the knowledge they have acquired with them. Works councils and collective agreements contribute to employees staying longer. more...
Biedenkopf Commission
Employees are able to be involved in decision making in their companies in many countries in Europe. In some cases, the thresholds for employee representation at board level are set well below those for Germany, as the three academics on the Biedenkopf Commission document in their report. more...
Biedenkopf Commission
Does employee involvement help or hinder Germany's economic progress? The academic members of the commission on employee involvement have undertaken a detailed examination of the available research on the subject. They conclude that giving employees a voice has been beneficial, that Germany is not unusual in Europe in giving employees these rights and that the issue may become more important in the future. more...
Board-level representation
Too big, too cumbersome, unable to act - that is how its critics describe a supervisory board with employee representatives. But German public companies frequently and willingly choose such an overseeing body that is larger than that required by law - even companies where there is no employee representation. more...
Corporate governance
Boards in America are complaining about the increasing pressure from analysts and large investors, like powerful pension funds. According to a recent study, company chiefs are prepared to accept a long-term loss of value, in order to meet short-term market expectations. more...
Work councils
Whether it is BASF, Nestlé or Volkswagen, employees are increasingly gaining representation at European or indeed international level. But in an era of globalisation, while big groups now operate across all national borders, employee representation in companies and in unions still needs to catch up. These are the conclusions of a study by the Fulda University of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschule Fulda). more...
Board-level representation
Employee representation at board level is not a barrier to a country's economic success - rather the opposite. Europe's strongest economies are those where employee representatives are required to be involved in decisions taken at the highest level in the company. This is the conclusion of a new study by Sigurt Vitols of the Social Science Research Centre in Berlin (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin). more...
Employee involvement
Critics believe that, given the chance, German companies would escape from the German system of employee involvement (co-determination, as it is known) as soon as they could. British subsidiaries of German companies have this chance, but they choose a very different path. They voluntarily offer their employees possibilities of employee involvement which go well beyond the UK standard. more...
Representation
Employee involvement at workplace level is not an exotic, outdated German phenomenon. A comparison with Germany's neighbours shows that employees across Europe have rights to be informed and influence decisions - in some cases more so than in Germany. more...
Employee representation at board level
Germany is not unique. Employees have a statutory right to board level representation in 18 of the 25 states of the European Union (EU). Now there is an opportunity to find shared solutions. more...
