Die Wirkung des Betriebsverfassungsgesetzes am Beispiel der Freistellung von Betriebsräten – ein Beitrag zur Rechtstatsachenforschung / The Effect of the Works Council Act on Paid Leave of Absence of Works Councillors

In establishments with a works council and 200 and more employees, the Works Council Act requires the paid leave of absence of one works councillor, subjected to collective bargaining and works agreements. This paper analyses the de-facto distribution of this legal provision and shows that the paid leave of absence do not sharply increases at the legal threshold of 200 employees. Instead of a step function, we observe a continuous increase of the probability of paid leave of absence with the number of employees. In particular, a lot of establishments have a works councillor in paid leave of absence before the legal threshold and a lot of establishments have no-one far behind the threshold. Contrary, the probability of paid leave of absence for one works councillor sharply increases at the legal threshold for establishments with bad relations between management and works council.