Tasks of the Staff Council

Co-determination means that the department may only implement measures with the consent of the Staff Council. If the Staff Council rejects a measure within a two-week period, the department can initiate the so-called non-agreement procedure. Matters subject to co-determination include, among others:

•     Recruitments
•     Dismissals (with the exception of extraordinary dismissals and dismissals during the probationary period)
•     Upgrading and downgrading
•     Rejection of holiday leave (at the request of the employee)
•     Rejection of applications to participate in teleworking or mobile working
•     Refusal to authorise secondary employment
•     Conclusion and amendment of service agreements
•     Ordering additional work and overtime
•     Organisation of vocational training and further training
•     Organisational plans and changes
•     Regulation of order in the office and the behaviour of employees
•     Measures to prevent occupational accidents and other health hazards
•     Establishment, administration and cancellation of social facilities
•     Duration, start and end of daily working hours including breaks and the distribution of working hours over the individual days of the week.

Rights of participation 

The department is obliged to discuss certain measures in detail and in timely manner before implementing them with the aim of reaching an agreement, to consider any objections raised by the Staff Council and to justify to the Staff Council any decision that differs from the Staff Council's objections. Examples of this include:

•     Preparation of administrative orders
•     Reorganisation of department

If the staff council does not participate or does not participate sufficiently, the intended measure may not be implemented.

Consultation rights

The Staff Council can submit a substantive statement to its department on certain measures, with the right to a discussion of its opinion. The consultation usually takes place:

•     Planning area (job requirements for the budget)
•     Personnel planning
•     New buildingbplanning
•     Changes in working procedures.

Consultation is not dependent on whether the measures may have an impact on employee requirements or the nature of the work.

Information rights

The department has to inform the Staff Council comprehensively and in timely manner in order to fulfil its duties, i.e. the Staff Council must be provided with or given access to documents relating to the fulfilment of its duties. The exact information rights are set out in § 60 NPersVG (Lower Saxony Staff Representation Law).

Additional rights to information may arise from the principle of cooperation in a spirit of trust if this is necessary for the proper performance of duties and the pursue of interests.

Economic Committee

The department should set up an economic committee at the request of the staff council; this committee is responsible for discussing the department's economic matters and informing the staff council about them.

The exercise of these activities is based on the following legal principles:

•  Lower Saxony Staff Representation Law / Nds. Personalvertretungsgesetz
• Academic Fixed-Term Contract Act / Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz
• Collective labour agreement / Tarifvertrag
• Lower Saxony Higher Education Act / Nds. Hochschulgesetz
• Protection Against Dismissal Act / Kündigungsschutzgesetz
• Occupational Health and Safety Act / Arbeitsschutzgesetz
• Working Hours Act / Arbeitszeitgesetz
• German Constitution (Basic Law) / Grundgesetz
• Lower Saxony Data Protection Act / Nds. Datenschutzgesetz
• Maternity Protection Act / Mutterschutzgesetz
• Part-Time Work and Fixed-Term Employment Act / Teilzeit- und Befristungsgesetz
• General Equal Treatment Act  / Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz

and many more.