Co-determination and working time accounts in the German finance industry

This article examines the workings of co-determination in the German finance industry through two case studies examining the introduction of working time accounts. It is shown that the accounts posed important new challenges for employees and works councillors that represented variants of long-existing negotiations around working time issues. The problems were clear and similar in both cases, giving rise to complaints to councillors, though not to managers. Councillors' responses differed in the two companies. In one, they successfully re-negotiated the agreement under which the accounts had been introduced. In the other, they did not succeed in doing so. The differences between the two representative bodies are analysed to reflect on a theory of employee representative influence.