The study conducted by Sebastian Sick of the IMU, which is based on a large database collected at the end of 2022, is part of a debate that has been raging in German politics for several years, amid the erosion of the German model of company codetermination. In addition to the election of works councils with significant rights, this model involves the participation of employee and trade union representatives on supervisory boards, with a third of the seats for companies with more than 500 employees and equal representation for companies with more than 2,000 employees.
Codetermination initially conceived within a national framework
Although amended over the years, the main laws governing codetermination were passed before the 1980s and were essentially conceived within a national framework.
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.