On 1 January 2008 Bavaria’s law to protect non-smokers came into force. Beer tents and smokers’ clubs were exempt. After the 2008 state election, the new government loosened the law. From 1 August 2009, smoking was again allowed in small pubs with one room and in side rooms of restaurants. A citizens’ initiative then collected more than 1.3 million signatures within two weeks. On 4 July 2010, 61 percent of voters in a referendum chose smoke-free restaurants and pubs. From 1 August 2010 all exceptions were abolished, including those for beer tents. Ten years later, in 2020, smoking in restaurants, pubs and beer tents in Bavaria was still completely banned.
ChatGPT on a Private Account
A medical technology group in Hamburg allowed its employees to use ChatGPT and similar AI tools. The rules were published on the intranet. Employees were to open their own private accounts with the providers. The tools were not installed on company computers. The group works council went to court to stop the introduction. On 16 January 2024 the Hamburg Labor Court rejected all its applications. The employer had no access to the data and could not monitor how employees used the tools. In these summary proceedings, the court found that no right of co-determination of the works council had been violated.
Home Office Rules Need the Works Council
Since 18 June 2021 the German Works Constitution Act has listed a new matter on which the works council has a right of co-determination: the Ausgestaltung von mobiler Arbeit, the arrangement of mobile work. Lawyers point out that whether a company offers mobile work at all remains the employer’s decision. How it works must be agreed with the works council. This covers how much mobile work is possible, when the working day starts and ends, and from which places employees may work. If the two sides cannot agree, a conciliation board decides. Its ruling replaces their agreement.
So That the Market Accepts the Standard
The German standards institute DIN explains why it works by consensus: Damit der Markt die Normen akzeptiert, sind eine breite Beteiligung, Transparenz und Konsens Grundprinzipien bei DIN. (So that the market accepts standards, broad participation, transparency and consensus are basic principles at DIN.) All groups with an interest in a topic can take part. Before a standard is adopted, the draft is published, and the professional public can comment on it through an online portal. All participants then revise the draft on the basis of the comments. Applying a DIN standard is in principle voluntary. It becomes binding only when a contract or a law requires it.
Training Rules Made by Consensus
When Germany creates or modernizes a training occupation, the new rules are drafted by experts from practice. The employers’ organizations and the unions nominate them. A procedure starts only when the employers and the unions of the industry agree. Without major disagreements it takes about two years. The employers’ federation BDA sums it up: Ordnungsarbeit ist Konsensarbeit – und zwar auf allen Ebenen. (Regulation work is consensus work, at every level.) The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training writes that this consensus principle has proven itself over decades. Once the regulation is issued, it binds every company in the country. The Vocational Training Act says: Für einen anerkannten Ausbildungsberuf darf nur nach der Ausbildungsordnung ausgebildet werden. (For a recognized training occupation, training may follow only the training regulation.)
A Share in the Wind Farm
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a developer who builds a new wind farm must offer at least 20 percent of the project company to its neighbors. People who live within five kilometers may buy shares, and so may the nearby municipalities. The stated purpose of the law is to improve acceptance of new wind turbines. A developer challenged the law. In a decision of 23 March 2022 the Federal Constitutional Court found it almost entirely compatible with the Basic Law. The court accepted the legislature’s premise that acceptance of wind farms is especially high when they are run by a local company unter bürgerschaftlicher und kommunaler Mitverantwortung, with shared responsibility of citizens and municipalities.
Starting Over on Nuclear Waste
On 22 February 1977 the state government of Lower Saxony named the salt dome at Gorleben as the only site for a nuclear waste repository. Protest grew in the region and beyond. On 3 May 1980 about 5,000 opponents occupied the drilling site and proclaimed the Republik Freies Wendland, the Free Republic of Wendland. In 2013 a law restarted the search from the beginning. A commission of scientists and representatives of social groups worked from 2014 to 2016. The Site Selection Act of 2017 requires a partizipatives, wissenschaftsbasiertes, transparentes, selbsthinterfragendes und lernendes Verfahren, a procedure that is participatory, based on science, transparent, self-questioning and learning. In September 2020 Gorleben dropped out of the search. The law aims for a decision in 2031. In late 2022, documents of the responsible federal company estimated that the search could last until 2046, or in another scenario until 2068.
Kant’s Touchstone
In December 1784 Immanuel Kant published his essay Was ist Aufklärung?, What Is Enlightenment? In it he asks whether a church assembly could bind itself and all later generations to fixed doctrines. He says it has no such right, and he gives a test for every law: Der Probierstein alles dessen, was über ein Volk als Gesetz beschlossen werden kann, liegt in der Frage: ob ein Volk sich selbst wohl ein solches Gesetz auferlegen könnte? (The touchstone of everything that can be decided as law for a people lies in the question: could a people impose such a law on itself?)
Children’s Football Without League Tables
The German Football Association, the DFB, changed the game for its youngest players. In the youngest age groups there are no more championship tables. Children play in small teams at festivals. The new formats were first tested in a pilot phase over two years. In January 2022 the DFB’s youth assembly confirmed the recommendation of its youth committee, and on 11 March 2022 the association’s general assembly adopted it. In September 2023 Hans-Joachim Watzke, a vice-president of the DFB, called the plans unfassbar, unbelievable, and announced a “reform of the reform”. DFB officials defended the decision. Since the 2024/25 season, the new rules have been binding throughout Germany.
The Bonus Almost Everyone Paid
In 2022 the federal government, the unions and the employers met in a revived Konzertierte Aktion, a concerted action against inflation. They agreed that employers could pay a bonus of up to 3,000 euros, free of tax and social contributions, until the end of 2024. Paying it was voluntary. Unions and employers wrote the bonus into numerous collective agreements. A survey by the union-affiliated Hans Böckler Foundation, published in July 2024, found that almost 26 million employees had received more than 52 billion euros in such bonuses. 77 percent of employees covered by a collective agreement received at least one payment.