Axel Hauser-Ditz

Collective employee representation in German companies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the distribution and the contextual conditions of statutory and non‐statutory forms of employee representation in Germany (works councils and non‐statutory employee representation (NSRs) respectively). It aims to contribute to the debate by proposing a theoretical model which improves our understanding of why works councils and NSRs exist in companies and by presenting an empirical analysis of the explanatory factors based on representative data.Design/methodology/approach – Based on a representative survey of 3,254 German private‐sector companies, descriptive statistics and regression models are calculated in order to identify the contextual conditions which promote or prevent the establishment of the different forms of employee representation.Findings – The data show that the distribution of works councils and NSRs differs considerably between industries. Works councils are more likely to be found in large and relatively old traditional‐sector companies ...