Worker Councils are to be elected in German companies beyond a certain (small) size (at least five employees who can vote and three employees who can be elected

Worker Councils are to be elected in German companies beyond a certain (small) size (at least five employees who can vote and three employees who can be elected). This doesn’t mean that all German companies have them. The workers have to organize the vote themselves and if they don’t do it then there‘s no Works Council. Tactics similar to union busting are also a thing in Germany to prevent Worker Councils from forming. However, large (old) companies will nearly always have such a Council in Germany. What can they do? Basically, they do have a voice concerning anything that touches the day to day working situation. Monitor whether the employees adheres to norms and rules. Employers also have to inform the Council members about anything relevant going on concerning the workers. Especially when it comes to hiring, firing and restructuring the Council can also veto and force the employer to sue and get the court to override the veto. In general you don’t really want to have the Council on your bad side as an employer, even though the power isn’t limitless and how much power there is in practice depends on the specific Council and how it fulfills its duties. Unions aren’t needed for any of this but they will always want to help install a Workers Council. I recently started at a public health insurance and we had someone from the Council sit in during my interview. When I was on the other side and took part in an interview we also had someone from the Council there to look over our shoulders, also when we documented our evaluation of the candidate.