When can a works council be established and how ver.di can help
A works council is particularly important in larger companies when it comes to representing employees' interests. If you plan to set up such a council, ver.di can help you. But first of all you should know when you can set up a works council.
From when you can set up a works council
When you can set up a works council depends on the size of the company. You can only set up an employee representative body if you have at least 5 employees who are entitled to vote. Up to a company size of 20 employees entitled to vote, the representation consists of one person.
From 20 to 200 employees who are entitled to vote, several people are deployed to represent interests. A professional works council must be set up from 200 employees who are entitled to vote. This means that one or more members of the council must be permanently released from work in order to devote themselves entirely to representing the interests of the employees.
However, not all employees are entitled to vote. Executives are excluded from the election. Employees under the age of 18 are also not entitled to vote. Year of age as well as temporary workers who work for less than three months in the company. Employees entitled to vote include all other employees, regardless of whether they are full-time employees, trainees, part-time employees, temporary workers, marginal employees or field workers. It is irrelevant when the employees came to the company.
This is how ver.di can help you
If you would like to set up a works council, ver.di can give you a lot of support so that you can get off to a good start without major complications.
If you contact the ver.di union as an employee, they can hold a professional electoral meeting in your company. The advantage for you is that the identity of those who want to set up the works council remains anonymous. This makes sense because not all bosses are enthusiastic about the idea of having an employee representative in the company.
If you are faced with the question of how to set up a works council, then ...
There are three voting procedures, depending on the size of the company. If your company already has advice and there are fewer than 50 employees, ver.di can be used to hold a simplified, one-step election procedure. If there is no works council for the same company size, a simplified two-stage election process is usually carried out. For companies without employee representation and with more than 50 employees, there is a normal electoral process.
If the choice was successful, i.e. the employee representatives have been determined, the ver.di works council supervisors will help you with the further organization. If you are not sure, you can also arrange a non-binding consultation beforehand, during which the procedure will be explained to you in detail.
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