Company-based initial and continuing training measures as a field of activity pursued by employee representative bodies - self-conception, action strategies, effects
Klaus Berger
Translated by: Martin Kelsey (Global Sprachteam)
Insofar as initial and continuing training is not statutorily regulated or subject to collective wage agreements, the German Labour Management Relations Act makes provision for works councils to be accorded a series of co-determination rights with regard to the structuring of company-based training measures. Change processes within working environments have meant that vehicles such as a flexibilisation of training regulations have led to an expansion of this latitude in vocational education and training at a company level. Continuing training has become an important instrument of company modernisation and has resulted in considerable training pressure for many employees. By the same token, the requirements made of the works councils to act in the interests of the employees in this area also became greater. As far as the works councils are concerned, this task is made more difficult by the fact that company-based continuing training now incorporates the issues facing a work organisation which fosters learning by including workplace related and workplace integrated forms of learning rather than continuing merely to extend across traditional forms and provision. The increasing segmentisation of workforces means that works councils also need to exercise their protective function for groups of employees excluded from continuing training.
Training agreements and employee-oriented continuing training concepts are emphasising the role played by works councils as important stakeholders in the implementation of company-based training measures. The updating of the Labour Management Relations Act in 2001 also delivered legislation which accorded works councils greater significance in terms of their co-determination rights regarding company-based VET issues. At the same time, however, criticism has emerged that works councils are making insufficient use of their statutorily enshrined co-determination rights and that company-based training issues are tending to take on a subordinate role in work council activities (Bahnmüller and Fischbach 2006: pp. 102ff). Notwithstanding this, works councils are considered to exert considerable influence on initial and continuing vocational education and training.
Current studies are failing to provide an adequate response to the question of whether and how works councils and other forms of collective employee representative bodies not established on a statutory basis are embracing the increased significance of company-based initial and continuing VET as part of their task area and of how they (are able to) meet the requirements made of them in this field. Although a series of studies investigating the effect of works councils on company vocational education and training activities is in existence (e.g. Bellmann and Ellguth 2006), more recent investigations into how works councils realise their opportunities to exert influence are only contained in works studying negotiating relationships between works councils and management in overall terms (e.g. Hauser-Ditz et al. 2008). Studies which also make reference to the topic of the negotiation of company-based VET itself have not been greatly in evidence since the first half of the 1990's (e.g. Iller 1993). More recent investigations conducted in the wake of the updating of the Labour Management Relations Act in 2001 only exist in connection with the practical implementation of training agreements (Bahnmüller and Fischbach 2006). Because these favourable general conditions do not apply to the majority of works councils, the results of such investigations are not transferable to the issue we are addressing.
Developing continuing training perspectives
The aim of the research project proposed is to investigate the influence exerted on company-based initial and continuing training activities by works councils and other forms of collective employee lobbying not established on a statutory basis. A further objective is to accord due consideration to the various degrees of regulation which apply to initial and continuing VET and thus also take account of the different amounts of latitude which apply in terms of the structuring of training. The latter may be variably reflected in the way in which employee representative bodies fulfil their protective function and organisational task. In the case of company-based training, the project also intends to consider the role played by the Young People and Trainee Council (JAV). Within the field of continuing training, a further object of investigation will be the nature of the problem understanding developed by employee representative bodies with regard to informal continuing training forms and which types of participation may be in place. The task and problem understanding of works councils for the field of initial and continuing vocational education and training will be explored within the scope of company-related case studies. Negotiation strategies with management and the supportive and inhibitory general conditions these create will be traced. Negotiating results will be investigated with regard to their effectiveness. The aim is to use practical examples to show possible perspectives for works councils with regard to the employee oriented influencing of company-based initial and continuing vocational education and training activities as well as highlighting barriers which may occur if too many requirements are placed on the council. As far as possible, examples of good practice resulting from cooperation between employee representative bodies and management and examples of good negotiation results should also be emphasised.
