Consultation in Germany and the UK: Past, Present and Prospects

20 February 2025 - 17:30 pm - 19:00 pm

Online-via Zoom

This event concludes a series of three seminars we have organised in the recent past focusing on the prospects for employee consultation in a European context. The first was in May 2022 on Consulting Employees: Past, Present and Future to commemorate twenty years of the EU ICE regulations, with the second in January 2023 on European Works Councils: The Effects of Brexit. This one compares and contrasts trends and prospects in Germany and the UK.

Programme

17.30 Michael Gold (Chair) Introduction

17.40-18.00 | John Edmonds
Restricted Rights or Pragmatism: The Search for an Effective System of Consultation in Britain

John will examine the evolution of consultation in Britain since 1900 and suggest why Britain has taken a different route from most European countries. He will explain how British governments withdrew from any attempt to enhance, or even influence, the process and why British trade unions have always insisted that only they should represent workers in consultation with employers. He will argue that the present state of consultation in Britain is deplorably weak and speculate on how it might be strengthened.

18.00-18.30 | Ronald Staples and Michael Whittall
Navigating Co-Determination in Germany's Digital Era: Between Constraint and Empowerment

Michael and Ronald will survey the current landscape of industrial relations in Germany amidst digital transformation, focusing on the dual forces of constraint and empowerment within co-determination practices. Drawing on empirical research and practical experience from the union perspective, they will explore how digitalization challenges traditional co-determination structures and offers new opportunities for employee participation, highlighting a recent conflict that illustrates the tensions between technological advancements and established labour relations. Insights from their co-authored book Partizipation und Un_Gleichzeitigkeit (Participation: Synchronicity and Asynchronicity) provide a theoretical framework for understanding these dynamics.

18.30-19.30 Discussion

19.30 Close

Speakers:

• John Edmonds is a trade Unionist and author. Between 1986 and 2003 John was General Secretary of the GMB Trade Union. During that time, he was a member of the Executive of the European TUC, and GMB was the first British union to open an office in Brussels. Together with Eva Tutchell, John has subsequently written three books on women’s rights. The second edition of their latest book, The Stalled Revolution, will be published early in 2025.
• Ronald Staples studied sociology, theatre and media studies at the Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU) in Erlangen-Nuremberg. He previously worked as an actor in Vienna, Bonn and Marburg and as a researcher at the Institute for Labour Market and Occupational Research in Nuremberg. He is currently at FAU researching the transformation of work and co-determination, the relationship between innovation and organisation and how digitalisation is changing organisations. 
• Michael Whittall studied Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management. He worked as an industrial relations researcher at TU Munich, Nottingham Trent University and most recently at the Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuremberg. Since 2023 he has been trade union secretary at IG-Metall, and is intensively involved with the employees of Siemens Erlangen. His research focuses on German co-determination, European works councils and lifelong learning. 

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