Members of a German works council learn things that the company wants to keep secret. Section 79 of the Works Constitution Act forbids them to disclose or use trade secrets that they learned as council members and that the employer has marked as secret. The duty continues after they leave the council. The same section then names the people to whom it does not apply: the other members of the works council, the council bodies at company and group level, the employee representatives on the supervisory board and a few other bodies of employee representation. Within these bodies the information may move. Outside them, the duty continues even after the member leaves the council.