In June 2018, the federal government set up a commission on growth, structural change and employment. Germans called it the Kohlekommission, the coal commission. Its job was to work out how Germany would end coal power. Its 28 voting members included unions, industry associations, environmental groups, scientists and people from the mining regions, among them the mayor of Spremberg in Lusatia. On 26 January 2019, it presented its report. The last coal plant was to close in 2038, and the regions were to receive 40 billion euros in aid over twenty years. Twenty-seven of the 28 members voted for it. The one vote against came from a representative of Lusatian residents affected by open-cast mining, because the report did not protect the village of Proschim from being cleared. Parliament turned the plan into law in 2020.
The Parents Said No
In 2008, Hamburg’s governing coalition planned a major school reform. All children were to learn together for six years instead of four before being sorted into different types of secondary school. After changes negotiated with the opposition, the city parliament passed the law on 3 March 2010, this time unanimously. A parents’ initiative called Wir wollen lernen, we want to learn, forced a referendum. On 18 July 2010, with a turnout of 39 percent, 54.5 percent of voters rejected the six-year primary school, and the core of the reform failed.
Too Little Time to Deliberate
In early July 2023, the Bundestag was about to pass a major change to the law on heating systems in buildings, in the last week before the summer break. A CDU member of parliament, Thomas Heilmann, asked the Federal Constitutional Court to stop the vote, because members had too little time to study the final text. On 5 July 2023, the court issued an interim order by five votes to two, and the vote was postponed. The court weighed the risk of an irreversiblen Verletzung der Beteiligungsrechte, an irreversible violation of the member’s right to take part, against the cost of a delay. The Bundestag passed the law on 8 September 2023. In July 2026, the court decided the main case. It ruled Heilmann’s application inadmissible and found that the deliberations had been very compressed, but neither exceptionally short nor empty of content.
Against the Will of the Workforce
On 20 December 2024, after more than seventy hours of talks, Volkswagen and the IG Metall union reached an agreement. ZDF called it the longest negotiating marathon in the company’s history. More than 35,000 jobs were to go by 2030, but in a socially acceptable way, without compulsory redundancies. Employees gave up pay increases. The head of the works council, Daniela Cavallo, listed what the workforce had gained, and ended with this: nicht zuletzt die Gewissheit für den Vorstand, dass bei Volkswagen Veränderungen gegen den Willen der Belegschaft zum Scheitern verurteilt sind. (Not least, the certainty for the board that at Volkswagen, changes against the will of the workforce are doomed to fail.)
In Good Time and in Full
In a German company with more than twenty employees entitled to vote, management must inform the works council rechtzeitig und umfassend, in good time and in full, about any planned change in operations that could bring significant disadvantages for the staff. It must then discuss the plan with the works council. The law lists what counts as such a change. It includes closures and relocations, and also the Einführung grundlegend neuer Arbeitsmethoden und Fertigungsverfahren, the introduction of fundamentally new working methods and production processes. Management must try to reach an agreement on how the change will be carried out. If it carries out the change without having tried, employees who lose their jobs can sue for compensation. A change of method that skips the negotiation can cost money for each person affected.
While the Plan Can Still Change
German labor law defines good time by its purpose. When an employer plans new technical systems, new work processes or new workplaces, it must inform the works council, and the law names the Einsatz von Künstlicher Intelligenz, the use of artificial intelligence, explicitly. It must consult the works council so rechtzeitig …, dass Vorschläge und Bedenken des Betriebsrats bei der Planung berücksichtigt werden können, early enough that the works council’s proposals and concerns can still be taken into account in the planning. The same law asks employer and works council to meet at least once a month. They must negotiate disputed questions mit dem ernsten Willen zur Einigung, with the serious will to reach agreement.
Software Needs the Works Council
In a German company with a works council, new software that can record how employees work cannot simply be switched on. The works council has a right of co-determination over technical systems that are able to monitor employees’ conduct or performance. The courts look at what the technology can do, not at what the employer intends. In 2016, the Federal Labor Court ruled that a blood donation service with about 1,300 employees needed its works council’s agreement for how it set up the comment function on its Facebook page, because visitors could post comments there about identifiable staff. In 2022, the same court treated the introduction of Microsoft 365 as subject to this right. Because the software needs one rule for the whole company, it ruled that the company-wide works council is responsible. Without an agreement, a conciliation board decides.
The Plan on Display
Before a German town designates land for new housing or a business park, it must tell the public möglichst frühzeitig, as early as possible, about the aims of the plan, the alternatives that differ substantially, and the likely effects. Residents must have the chance to comment and discuss. The draft plan is then published for one month, and anyone may submit comments. The law ends the procedure with a duty: Die fristgemäß abgegebenen Stellungnahmen sind zu prüfen; das Ergebnis ist mitzuteilen. (The comments submitted on time must be examined, and the result must be communicated.)
Twelve Hours to Comment
When a federal ministry prepares a draft law, it is to send it möglichst frühzeitig, as early as possible, to the states, the associations of local governments and the national associations whose interests it affects. The rule is old. Its predecessor from 1924 already asked ministries to bring in the representatives of the professional groups concerned in good time. In October 2019, an unusual alliance of employers’ associations and unions wrote an open letter of protest. They included the industry federation BDI, the energy association BDEW, the union federation DGB and the services union ver.di. A ministry had sent a draft over a weekend and wanted comments by Monday at 6 p.m. The letter said this left weniger als 12 Stunden, less than twelve hours, to prepare a position, and that it was not the first time.
The School Conference
In North Rhine-Westphalia, every school has a Schulkonferenz, a school conference. The law calls it the school’s highest body for participation. Within the law, it decides on the school’s program, on which textbooks are introduced, on the school rules, and on whether lessons are spread over six days of the week. In lower secondary schools, teachers, parents and students hold seats in equal numbers. The principal chairs the meeting but has no vote, except to break a tie.