Staff councils and their power resources – Workplace representation in German municipalities
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-12-2021-0528 |
| Published date | 12 August 2022 |
| Date | 12 August 2022 |
| Pages | 106-120 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Andrea Müller,Werner Schmidt |
Staff councils and their power
resources –Workplace
representation in
German municipalities
Andrea M€
uller
Research Institute for Work, Technology and Culture, University of T€
ubingen,
T€
ubingen, Germany, and
Werner Schmidt
Research Institute for Work, Technology and Culture, T€
ubingen, Germany
Abstract
Purpose –The paper examines the work and interactions of staff councils in German municipalities and the
power resources the staff councils have at disposal. The paper also discusses the relationship between staff
councils and trade unions and suggests a modification of the prominent concept of the “dual system of interest
representation”to a “trimorphic system of interest representation”for the public sector.
Design/methodology/approach –The paper draws on case studies of staff councils in municipalities and
administrative districts, relying on semi-structured interviews, group discussions and document analysis.
Findings –Staff councils operate in an extensively regulated field. The major task of staff councils is to
monitor that employers follow collective agreements and the law. Staff councils’existence and co-
determinationrights of staff councils are provided by law; however, staff councils not only use institutional, but
also organisational and –occasionally –political power resources, whereas structural and societal power
resources are rarely actively used. The relationship between staff councils and trade unions often plays an
important role and is in many cases characterised by mutual support.
Originality/value –Although staff councils are a widespread and a very interesting type of representation
because staff councils represent both employees and civil servants who are employed in two distinctly different
employment systems, staff councils are widely under-researched. This paper enriches empirical knowledge
about labour relations and introduces the notion of a “trimorphic system of interest representation”.
Keywords Staff councils, Power resources, Public sector, Co-determination, Labour relations, Local
authorities, Germany
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
“Staff councils”(Personalr€
ate) are the elected interest representation at workplace level in
German public service. They represent about 4.9 million employees (Besch€
aftigte) and civil
servants (Beamte), which is more than a tenth of the workforce in Germany. Staff councils are
widespread in the public sector. In 2019, 46% of private sector workers were represented by
works councils, whereas in the public sector 89% of employees and civil servants worked in
authorities with staff councils (Destatis, 2020;Ellguth and Kohaut, 2020). Works councils as
well as staff councils operate at the workplace level dealing with everyday questions of work
and employment. They are regarded as actors in one of the two pillars of the “dual system of
German labour relations”; trade unions and employers’associations, which negotiate
collective agreements, represent the other pillar (e.g. M€
uller-Jentsch, 2004,2018).
ER
45,1
106
The authors would like to thank the anonymous referees for their helpful comments and advice and the
Hans B€
ockler Foundation for funding the research projects, which provided the empirical basis for this
article (for the latter, we received no specific funding).
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 3 December 2021
Revised 17 May 2022
14 July 2022
Accepted 26 July 2022
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 45 No. 1, 2023
pp. 106-120
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-12-2021-0528
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