Trade unions are calling for more participation in Hesse

Letter of intent

The coalition agreement between the CDU and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen states: “We consider strong employee interest groups, employee representatives and trade unions to be important institutions for protecting the interests of employees vis-à-vis employers. We therefore want to further develop the Hessian Personnel Representation Act and, in dialogue with the trade unions, shape participation in the public service in a contemporary way. ”

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“Home office, mobile work, digitization, these are all things that had to be implemented quickly in the past few months,” said Thomas Winhold, head of the municipalities department at the Verdi Hessen service union. This was often done without adequate regulations. In future, however, it will be necessary for staff councils to be given a right of co-determination. For example, questions of data protection or insurance need to be clarified. The guiding principle must be: participation instead of just participation.

Karin Schäfer, deputy state chairwoman of the Hessen Police Union, complained about the enormous intensification of work on the staff councils, also due to the high number of jobs. In addition, the need for qualifications is high, for example due to the digitization of administrations.

There should also be co-determination when the employer awards orders, for example when company vehicles are fitted with new tires. “We would then like these companies to be true to the collective bargaining agreement, but so far we have not been able to have a say in this,” says Schäfer.

Peter Konstruner from the Education and Science Union (GEW) Hessen complained that staff councils often have too little time available for their tasks. There is only one to two hours of leave per week, which is “very poor”. Particularly in questions of occupational health and safety, the requirements have grown a lot in the pandemic, and there, too, more co-determination is necessary, so Konstruktor.

The demands of the DGB Hessen-Thuringia are fundamental. So far, codetermination has been regulated in such a way that in the event of a dispute an arbitration board made up of employees and representatives of the employer can only make a recommendation. But the employer has the last word. The DGB wants to change that and leave the final decision to the arbitration board.

The coalition agreement between the CDU and the Greens provides for an amendment and “contemporary development” of the Hessian Personnel Representation Act. Rudolph assumes that changes to the existing law will be feasible with the government coalition. However, he did not want to promise whether the required “cultural change” would actually take place.

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