Corona-Krise – Stresstest für die Mitbestimmung

In all sectors of society and the economy the Covid-19 pandemic reveals existing strengths, but even more so systemic weaknesses. This is also the case for workplace codetermination. In many workplaces, individual and collective rights of employees are openly disregarded – partly as a result of overburdened managers (and workers’ representatives), partly with strategic purpose. In some cases, the regime of “emergency decrees” implemented at the workplace by the executive powers goes so far that management requests works councils to sign a general agreement in order to renounce all codetermination rights. Whether collective rights can be undermined in this way depends strongly on the pre-existing codetermination culture. Other decisive factors for the question of whether codetermination passes the stress test of the pandemic are the assertiveness of the works council, as well as its connection to the trade union and the organisational power of the workforce. The findings suggest that factors such the size of the enterprise, the ownership and the prevailing codetermination law carry less weight.