Central Works Council
Open-knowledge reference entry
A Central Works Council also called a General Works Council (German: Gesamtbetriebsrat; GBR) must be established in German companies where two or more Works Councils exist within the same legal entity per BetrVG § 47(1). Sections § 47-53 of the Works Constitution Act (BetrVG) pertain to Central Works Councils and their functions.
Structure
As soon as two or more Works Councils exist within the same company (legal entity), a Central Works Council must be formed. By default, each Works Council represented in the Central Works Council may send 1 member if the local Works Council has 3 or fewer members, otherwise they may send 2 members to the Central Works Council per BetrVG § 47(2). The size of the Central Works Council can optionally deviate through a Central Works Agreement and or a collective agreement per BetrVG § 3. In the case of a Central Works Council with over 40 members, a Central Works Agreement between the Central Works Council and the employer is mandatory.
Competence
According to BetrVG § 50, the Central Works Council has "original competence" over issues that affect one or more workplace establishments and or that cannot be solved by a single Works Council. This also includes establishments without a Works Council. Additionally, a local Works Council may refer an issue to the Central Works Council.
The Works Constitution Act specifies that local Works Councils are not subordinate.
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This entry incorporates text from “Central Works Council” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.