Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

ationalisation, and foster adaptive training in case of changing work processes within the
firm (ibid).
This chapter will attempt to shed light on the role of the employee representatives in
personnel reductions, age management, and singular fields of HRM. By doing this, I will
assess the validity of the findings of Backes-Gellner et al. (1997) cited above. I will try to
formulate the interests of the personnel management and of the works council with regard
to singular issues of personnel management, the pursued strategies, and the points of
disagreement or compromise. On the basis of those findings, I will assess hypothesis 7.
Of all firms in my sample, the works councils in the purview of ver.di (Firm DE-1,
Firm DE-2 and Firm DE-4) and Firm DE-3 had the largest co-decision power due to
codification in branch-specific Works Council Acts, and Firm DE-13, due to the fact that
the studied site was represented by a group works council (and not only an establishmentbased
one, like in the case of the other firms with many locations or belonging to a larger
group). Their cooperation, resp. conflict potential varied with regard to the issues at stake.
My interviews revealed a ´job division´ between the employee representation at firm
level and the personnel management in the recruitment process which is broadly in line
with the regulations of the Works Council Law. The works council members could
comment on the recruitment practice but often did not have insight into the first phase of
the selection process. Therefore, they could rarely report in interviews whether there were
any applications of persons 50 years of age and older. The personnel managers, in turn – in
cases when they were responsible for recruitment – could explain the reasons for the
concrete practice.
According to the Works Council Law and the Employee Representation Law (in the
case of the public sector), employee representatives participate in the personnel selection
process and can pose a veto or a recommendation in favour or against hiring a given person.
In practice, however, the extent to which such opinions are taken into account by the
management varies depending on the power position of the works council in the given firm
or branch and whether the relations with management are cooperative or conflictual.
Generally, works councils do not regard consultancy in recruitment as their primary activity
and are more interested in matters of employee exit policy or health management (Schäfer
2008: 293; Ahlers/Brussig 2004: 621). However, I noticed in my case studies that if works
council were engaged in that realm, they voted in favour of giving preference to former
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