Employee Participation – Employment Germany

Change in Work Constitution Act to Increase Employee Representation

By Dr. Astrid Schnabel LL.M. / 9 August 2019 9 August 2019 / Collective Bargaining Agreement, Employee Participation, Legislation, Works Council

Following a legislative reform earlier this year, flight crews’ rights to obtain employee representation through a works council have been improved. While employees from (almost) all fields of work can choose to elect a works council, sec. 117 of the Works Constitution Act formerly provided for an exemption for flight crews. Flight crews were only able to establish an employee representative body if their collective bargaining agreement provided for such representation. Consequently, only flight crews …

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Restructuring of a business in Germany – an overview

By Rodrigo Weihermann / 5 October 2017 11 June 2019 / Employee Participation, Termination

Where restructuring measures comprising collective redundancies become necessary, the employer must fulfil a number of legal requirements to successfully implement such measures. While it is sometimes tempting to implement the necessary restructuring in a way that ignores the various legal requirements (e.g. co-determination of the works council etc.), there are only exceptional situations in which such a way does not lead to a total failure of the original plan. For the employer, unlike for the …

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German Employee Boardroom Participation under European Scrutiny

By Rodrigo Weihermann / 26 July 2017 11 June 2019 / Employee Participation

On 4 May 2017, the Advocate General delivered his Opinion in the case of TUI/Erzberger (docket number: C-566/15) in front of the ECJ and found that the German provisions on employee participation do not violate European law. He has now been confirmed by the ECJ on 18 July 2017. The Higher Regional Court Berlin (Kammergericht Berlin) referred the following question to the ECJ: Do, the German provisions on employee participation conform with European Law? In …

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