Employer Resistance to Works Councils: Evidence from Surveys amongst Trade Unions

Abstract

Employer resistance to works councils is not a phenomenon that has been closely associated with German labour relations. While classic studies characterise the ‘German model’ in terms of social partnership, more recent accounts seem to observe a ‘dualisation’ if not liberalisation of German labour relations. In somewhat of a contradiction to the ‘social partnership’ perspective, we find that incidents of employers’ hostility towards the establishment of works councils are widespread. Based on data provided by the WSI Survey of paid union representatives (2012, 2015), we find that employers disrupt every sixth attempt to establish a works council. Among the measures taken by employers, the most common strategy is to intimidate works council candidates. Furthermore, we show that employers’ hostility to works councils is evenly distributed between manufacturing (core) and private services (periphery), which suggests that the transformation of the ‘German model’ over the past decade follows a more nuanced path than suggested by accounts of dualisation. In contrast to the liberalisation hypothesis, our results also indicate that rather than affecting establishments across the board, attempts by employers to obstruct employees’ participation rights are focused on a certain type of establishment: medium-sized and owner-managed firms.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Martin Behrens is a senior researcher at the Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI) of the Hans Böckler Foundation and lecturer at the department of Sociology at the Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf. His research focus is on comparative industrial relations and on German employers’ associations, works councils and labour unions. Recent work focuses on interest formation in German employers’ associations, dispute resolution in comparative perspective and labour-management cooperation at the workplace and industry level.

Heiner Dribbusch is a senior researcher at the Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI) of the Hans Böckler Foundation. His research covers comparative industrial relations with a special focus on the development of trade unionism, collective bargaining and industrial disputes. Recent publications cover the development of industrial disputes in the service sector, the interplay between strikes and union organising and employers’ resistance to works councils.

Notes

1. Schlecker was going out of business in 2012.

2. Employee representation in the public sector is governed by the several Staff Representation Acts at federal and federal state (Länder) level.

3. According to estimates by United Services Union, ver.di the largest German food retailer EDEKA was comprised in 2015 of about 6000 independent retailers frequently running more than one medium-sized supermarket. Of these SMEs only between 60 and 120 were estimated to have a works council (ver.di Bundeskongress 2015, 65).