Interessenausgleich. Balance of interests. The German legal term for what an employer must negotiate with the works council before a major operational change. The statute names the objective, and it is not agreement or settlement. It is balance.
Social partnership
Sozialpartnerschaft. Employers and unions in Germany are called social partners, by both sides and by the state. The word describes a relationship that is genuinely adversarial as a joint undertaking, and the naming shapes what an acceptable outcome looks like.
Consensus as the objective
German political and business speech treats consensus as the objective rather than as an unusually good outcome. Konsensfähig — capable of consensus — is a compliment applied to proposals and to people. A position that cannot attract agreement is described as defective rather than as merely unpopular.
Co-determination
Mitbestimmung. German company law places employee representatives on the supervisory boards of large firms, half the seats in those above two thousand employees. The structure assumes that a decision reached without one side represented lacks something — and builds the representation in before any conflict arises.
The settlement judge
Der Güterichter. German courts appoint judges whose function is to conduct settlement negotiations rather than to rule — a separate judge from the one who would decide the case, with no power over the outcome. The court provides a route to agreement that cannot become a route to judgment.
The Mediation Act
Germany passed a dedicated Mediation Act in 2012, defining the process, the mediator’s confidentiality and independence, and providing for judges to refer cases to it. Mediation is defined by the parties reaching their own solution. The mediator has no power to decide.
The settlement
The German settlement. Most civil and labour disputes end in one, and German judges actively propose terms rather than waiting for the parties to arrive at them. A judgment produces a winner. A Vergleich produces an agreement, and the system prefers the second.
The service path
The service path. The German term for the prescribed sequence through which a matter travels upward. Going around it — am Dienstweg vorbei — is itself a breach, separate from whatever the underlying complaint was.
The complaints body
Die Beschwerdestelle. German equal treatment law requires every employer to designate a body to which employees may bring complaints, and to inform staff that it exists. The route out of a private grievance is provided in advance, by statute.
Works peace
Betriebsfrieden. Works peace. A concept in German labour law: the works council and employer are under a statutory duty to cooperate in a spirit of mutual trust and to refrain from acts that disturb it. Peace inside the firm is a legal object, with duties attached to preserving it.