Co-determination in Germany and Europe

Co-determination in Germany

Co-determination in Germany defines a set of rights that give employees the possibility of actively participating in the shaping of their working environment. This includes legally stipulated Co-determination rights, companyinternal agreements devised in conjunction with union contracts as well as informal determination possibilities that have arisen from Co-determination practice. mehr ...

Employee representation in Europe

More information on the European company (SE) and board-level participation in the EU-27. more...

The Company Agreements Archive

The Hans Boeckler Foundation has the only significant archive in Germany containing company agreements negotiated between central management and workforce representatives. It contains a wide selection of material which can both provide an indication of policy shaping trends and also information on industrial relations in German companies. more...

Publications on employee representation

"A remarkable piece of economic democracy and participation"

In 1976, Germany introduced a law regulating the participation of workers and their trade unions in big German companies. In 2006, John Monks, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, congratulated his German colleagues on 30 years of successful "Mitbestimmung".

John Monks' speech on the 30th Anniversary of the German "Mitbestimmungsgesetz" - Berlin, August 30, 2006 (pdf)

Co-determination in Germany - A Beginner's Guide

The word "co-determination", or "Mitbestimmung" in German, is commonly heard outside Germany but its actual meaning is often unclear. The collection of texts aims to provide a basic explanation of what co-determination is all about, how it works in practice and what it means to the Germans.

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Mitbestimmung: monthly magazine of the Hans Böckler Foundation

Selection of articles that have recently appeared in Mitbestimmung, the monthly magazine of the Hans Boeckler Foundation. The articles cover employee related issues across Europe and industrial relations developments in Germany. more...

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Böckler Impuls: Selected articles about Co-determination

Every two weeks, the Hans Boeckler Foundation's information service provides you with concise analyses and reports on labour, economic and social issues. Written for people who are short of time, it evaluates scientific sources and sound opinions. Selected articles about co-determination. Böckler Impuls: English Version

Co-determination in the world

Participation and Co-determination in Chinese Enterprises

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Beijing and Hans-Böckler-Stiftung extend special thanks to Prof. Dr. Li Hanlin, Director, National Institute for Social Development, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and his team for having made the utmost out of their joint funding of the Research Project "Participation and Co-Determination in Chinese Enterprises". The foundations' motivation to develop and accomplish this project together with CASS was the growing interest in understanding more about the different kinds of communication between management and workforce within different types of chinese enterprises.

It goes without saying, that the meaning of terms like Co-Determination or Participation obviously differ to a high degree because of the tremendous differences between the Chinese and German Industrial Relations System. Nevertheless, we hope, that for the one (scholars) or the other (member of a supervisory board, works councillor, union official) it might be of interest to learn more about these issues in China resp. how a Chinese research team delivers these important findings.

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Themenseite Armut

Eine umfassende Übersicht zu den Themen Armut, Verteilung und Gerechtigkeit

Mitbestimmung