PRESS RELEASE IG Metall, together with works council members, calls for an effective Works Council Strengthening Act

Frankfurt am Main ― In a joint statement titled “No Half-Measures—We Support an Effective Works Council Strengthening Act!”, 50 works council members are calling for significant improvements in workplace co-determination.  In the statement, they generally welcomed the draft bill from the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs for a Works Council Strengthening Act but called for even more far-reaching legal provisions. This applies in particular to the protection of election initiators when establishing works councils. Christiane Benner, Second Chair of IG Metall, has forwarded this statement to Federal Ministers Prof. Dr. Helge Braun (Chancellor’s Office), Peter Altmaier, Hubertus Heil, and Horst Seehofer, as well as to the party and parliamentary group leaders of the CDU/CSU and the SPD.

You will find this “Joint Statement” attached. Collectively, the signatory works council members represent over one million employees. In addition to representatives from large corporations, the statement was also signed by works council members who had to assert their democratic co-determination rights themselves in the face of significant resistance from their company management.

Christiane Benner, Second Chair of IG Metall, comments: “We expect the governing coalition to swiftly pass a Works Council Strengthening Act that truly lives up to its name. We need tangible improvements both in the context of establishing works councils and in support of the daily, dedicated work of works council members. Currently, one in six attempts to establish a new works council is being obstructed; employees are being deprived of their livelihoods or psychologically broken. This is scandalous and must be stopped through effective legal regulations.”

On the joint statement