The issue at stake hinges on how to define the hypothetical career development path of an employee-turned employee representative, i.e. the career an employee would have had if they had not switched (wholly or partly) to the unpaid employee representative works council role and consequently, how to determine the appropriate remuneration pathway for that employee. Until recently the issue had seemed settled, but in January 2023 the Federal Court of Justice (BGH, Az.: 6 StR 133/22) overturned the Brunswick Regional Court’s (Az.: 16 KLs 85/19) acquittal of four high-level Volkswagen Group managers who had been accused of having approved excessively high remuneration packages for employee-turned employee representative works council members.
As a Berlin correspondent for the French and Swiss press since the late 1990s, I cover a wide range of economic, political and social issues, with a particular focus on the German business and labour market. My areas of interest include co-determination, digitalisation, demographics and ESG/DEI policies.