works council
noun · Betriebsrat
Betriebsrat for a works council, but the German body is a different order of power, § 87 BetrVG gives it genuine Mitbestimmung, the employer cannot set working time or pay systems against it, and § 102 BetrVG makes a dismissal void where the Betriebsrat was not consulted first. The English works council, an information-and-consultation body, understates all of that.
Which translation, when
Why
A works council translates to der Betriebsrat, and the word travels while the institution behind it does not. A UK works council is an information-and-consultation body, the employer keeps the decisions, whereas the Betriebsrat holds echte Mitbestimmung, § 87 BetrVG, genuine co-determination on social matters such as working time, the arrangement of pay, holiday principles and monitoring systems, where the employer simply cannot act against the Betriebsrat, and a measure taken without its agreement can be unwirksam. The sharpest edge is § 102 BetrVG, the Betriebsrat must be heard before every dismissal, and a dismissal pronounced without that consultation is void, § 102 Abs. 1 Satz 3, regardless of its merits. Elected by the workforce, § 1 BetrVG, with rights to information and to economic consultation through a Wirtschaftsausschuss in larger undertakings, § 106 BetrVG, the Betriebsrat is a co-determination organ, not a forum. So works council is the right word and a misleading one, because the reader who hears the English institution underestimates what the Betriebsrat can stop.
Typical mistakes
- The Betriebsrat co-determines social matters, § 87 BetrVG, so treating it as a consultative works council understates a body the employer cannot override on working time, pay arrangements or monitoring.
- A dismissal is void where the Betriebsrat was not consulted first, § 102 Abs. 1 BetrVG, so a termination run past an English works-council reflex can fail on procedure alone.
- The Betriebsrat is elected by the workforce and independent, § 1 BetrVG, not an employer forum, so equating it with a management-led consultation body mistakes its standing.
What matters
Restructuring and dismissal procedure meet a body that can block: the Betriebsrat co-determines social matters, § 87 BetrVG, and must be consulted before any dismissal, § 102 BetrVG, on pain of the dismissal being void. The plan that treats the works council as a consultative formality has misjudged an organ whose silence can be a veto.
What the machine misses
Works council comes back as Betriebsrat in machine output, which is right, and that is the difficulty, because the word imports none of the power. A UK reader hears an information-and-consultation body, while the Betriebsrat co-determines working time and pay systems, § 87 BetrVG, and can void a dismissal made without its hearing, § 102 BetrVG. So a correct translation still misleads, the institution the German word names can stop what the English one could only comment on.
Examples
| to consult the works council | den Betriebsrat anhören |
| works council co-determination | die Mitbestimmung des Betriebsrats |
| the works council election | die Betriebsratswahl |
| a works agreement | eine Betriebsvereinbarung |