{"id":4633,"date":"2017-03-29T10:05:27","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T08:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/?p=4633"},"modified":"2017-03-27T15:58:48","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T13:58:48","slug":"codetermination-digital-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-trends\/codetermination-digital-era","title":{"rendered":"Codetermination in the digital era"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Codetermination is a corporate governance system which allows for greater employee participation in the running of a company. The system has a long history in Germany and is deeply entrenched in the country\u2019s corporate culture. Read on to learn more about codetermination in the digital era.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<h4 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">How does codetermination work?<\/span><\/h4>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Codetermination is a system which can help reduce the likelihood of workplace disputes arising between employers and employees. By giving employee-representatives the opportunity to participate in the management of the company, the differing interests of employers and workers can be more adequately addressed than in a company run solely in the interest of its shareholders.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Codetermination in Germany involves employees of companies being elected to a \u2018supervisory board\u2019 which is responsible for setting the overall direction of the company as well as electing a \u2018management board\u2019. The latter is tasked with taking care of the day-to-day operations of the company.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The following legal requirements apply to companies of different sizes:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>Companies with between 500 &#8211; 1,999 employees.<\/strong> One-third of members sitting on the supervisory board must be elected by the wider employee base. The remaining board members are elected by shareholders.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>Companies with 2,000+ employees.<\/strong> Half the members sitting on the supervisory board must be elected representatives of the wider employee base. The chairperson of the supervisory board, however, is always a shareholder appointee, meaning shareholder representatives have the potential to out-vote employee representatives if there is a 50:50 split.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Codetermination in the digital era<\/span><\/h4>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Current legislation governing codetermination in Germany is sixteen years old, so it doesn\u2019t adequately account for more recent technological developments. Voting for supervisory councils online is not yet allowed under German law. Employees are required to either show up at their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.com\/election-glossary\/polling-place\">polling place<\/a> on election day or go through the time-consuming process of applying for and casting their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.com\/election-glossary\/postal-vote\">votes by mail<\/a>. This has the effect of discouraging some employees from participating altogether. By allowing employees to effortlessly vote online, voter turnout can be increased leading to more legitimate supervisory councils. This is precisely what several labor lawyers in Germany are calling for. Moreover, companies themselves are keen to see online voting allowed because of the vast cost and time savings that ensue.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">We live in an age defined by digitalization, where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-trends\/digital-working-arrangements\">flexible working arrangements<\/a> facilitated through online technologies are increasingly the norm. It\u2019s time for German law to catch up with technology. It is also perhaps time for other countries to catch up with responsible German labor practice.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.com\/online-voting\/how-it-works\"><span class=\"s1\">Find out more about online voting with POLYAS here.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Codetermination is a corporate governance system which allows for greater employee participation in the running of a company. The system has a long history in Germany and is deeply entrenched in the country\u2019s corporate culture. Read on to learn more about codetermination in the digital era.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":4401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","ub_ctt_via":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[736],"tags":[1266,1264,79],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/work_digital_era.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Charles Harding","author_link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/author\/c-harding"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Codetermination in the digital era: German law trails innovative technology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Codetermination allows employees greater opportunities to participate in running companies. In Germany, the law is playing catch up with innovation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-trends\/codetermination-digital-era\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Codetermination in the digital era: German law trails innovative technology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Codetermination allows employees greater opportunities to participate in running companies. In Germany, the law is playing catch up with innovation.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-trends\/codetermination-digital-era\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"POLYAS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-29T08:05:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-03-27T13:58:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/work_digital_era.jpg?fit=860%2C300&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"860\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Charles Harding\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Charles Harding\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 Minuten\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-trends\/codetermination-digital-era\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-trends\/codetermination-digital-era\",\"name\":\"Codetermination in the digital era: German law trails innovative technology\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-29T08:05:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-03-27T13:58:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3b9240fa164074e2fc773e7fcd238148\"},\"description\":\"Codetermination allows employees greater opportunities to participate in running companies. 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The initiative Digital Single Market is already partly completed and has ambitious goals for a digital Europe. The goals of\u00a0Digital Single Market Greater\u00a0access for customers and companies to digital goods and services\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Digital Democracy&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"E-democracy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/digitalisation.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4575,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-trends\/flexible-working-arrangements","url_meta":{"origin":4633,"position":1},"title":"Work in the Digital Era: Pros and Cons of Flexible Working Arrangements","date":"22\/03\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week we had a look at some new and innovative forms of flexible working arrangements facilitated by digital technologies. Whilst such flexible working arrangements bring with them many benefits, they can also have drawbacks. 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