There's the "Works Council" (Betriebsrat) that in big companies is basically an employee-elected parliament, with various party-like factions running. For my em

There's the "Works Council" (Betriebsrat) that in big companies is basically an employee-elected parliament, with various party-like factions running. For my employer's last Betriebsrat election, IG Metall (the union that represents my company's sector) ran a slate of candidates, along with other "parties" that emphasized somewhat different approaches - one campaigned on a platform of more flexible home office rules (pre-Covid). The Betriebsrat approves major HR policies, like how long open positions need to be advertised internally before they can be advertised outside the company, or approving non-shift Sunday or night work hours (kind of a pain, but also a protection against abuse), as well as employee data privacy matters, such as whether MS Teams presence status can be visible to people outside of the company. Their cooperation is also necessary to fire permanent employees for cause after their 6 month trial period is over. This is a mixed blessing - it means that there are some useless people who can drag things out for ages, but also means that a PIP is more than a bum-covering exercise for management. If you're having an issue, and don't feel like your boss is hearing you, you can go to a Betriebsrat member instead of HR (especially if it's an issue with HR), and there are enough of them that it's likely that you know one of them, or a colleague does.