The same rule covers a new person and a new method. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the employer must instruct employees in safety bei der Einstellung, bei Veränderungen im Aufgabenbereich, der Einführung neuer Arbeitsmittel oder einer neuen Technologie vor Aufnahme der Tätigkeit, on hiring, when their tasks change, and when new equipment or a new technology is introduced, before they start the work. The Works Constitution Act goes further. When new technology or new work processes are planned, the employer must inform each affected employee. Once it is clear that an employee’s job will change and their skills will not be enough, the employer must discuss with them how those skills can be adapted. In that case, the works council has a say in the training.
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Five Months Without Trains
The Riedbahn between Mannheim and Frankfurt is one of Germany’s busiest rail lines. Deutsche Bahn adopted a plan for its complete renewal in September 2022 and awarded the contracts in September 2023. The line was then closed completely from 15 July to 14 December 2024. It reopened on 14 December 2024. Some tracks and a branch line followed by 24 December, and the new ETCS signaling only in 2025. The cost rose by 195 million euros, or 15 percent, to 1.5 billion euros. The Riedbahn is the first of about forty such renewals planned on the same model by 2030.
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.)
The Residents of Grünheide
In 2024, Tesla wanted to expand its car plant in Grünheide near Berlin with a freight station, warehouses and a daycare center for employees. More than 100 hectares of forest were to be cleared. The municipality asked its residents. On 20 February 2024, it announced the result: 3,499 against and 1,882 in favor, with a turnout of over 70 percent. The vote was not binding. The state’s economy minister said it showed dass die Bedenken und Befürchtungen der Menschen deutlich überwiegen, that people’s concerns and fears clearly outweigh the rest. Tesla cut its plan. Instead of 100 hectares, 50 were to be cleared, and the planned logistics areas and the daycare center were dropped. On 16 May 2024, the municipal council approved the smaller plan.
A Culture of Arguing With the Boss
In September 2015, after the emissions scandal broke at Volkswagen, the head of the works council, Bernd Osterloh, wrote to the company’s employees. He demanded a fundamental change: Wir brauchen für die Zukunft ein Klima, in dem Probleme nicht versteckt, sondern offen an Vorgesetzte kommuniziert werden. (In future we need a climate in which problems are not hidden but communicated openly to superiors.) And: Wir brauchen eine Kultur, in der man mit seinem Vorgesetzten um den besten Weg streiten kann und darf. (We need a culture in which people can and may argue with their superior about the best way.) In 2011, a VW technician had warned the head of engine development about illegal practices. An internal audit later left open why that warning had no consequences.
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.
Object Now or Lose the Right
In German private law, silence is in principle not a declaration of intent. Several rules make an exception, and they all reward the person who objects in time. A works council must be heard before every dismissal. If it has Bedenken, concerns, about an ordinary dismissal, it must state them in writing with reasons within one week. Äußert er sich innerhalb dieser Frist nicht, gilt seine Zustimmung zur Kündigung als erteilt. (If it does not respond within this period, its consent to the dismissal counts as given.) A shareholder who attended the annual meeting can, as a rule, challenge one of its resolutions in court only if he or she declared an objection for the minutes at the meeting. Between merchants, a letter confirming a deal counts as accepted unless the recipient objects without delay, and goods that are not inspected and complained about in time count as approved. A tenant who does not report a defect in the apartment promptly can lose the right to reduce the rent.
A Habit Becomes a Right
In German labor law, a benefit an employer repeats regularly can become an entitlement. This is called betriebliche Übung, company practice. The classic case is a Christmas bonus. If an employer pays it three years in a row without stating in writing that it is voluntary, the employee can claim it in the fourth year. The employer cannot simply withdraw a right created this way. He must give formal notice of changed terms of employment, an Änderungskündigung.