New Technologies and German Co-Determination

Abstract

German co-determination has come to a crisis; this is true especially - although not exclusively - in the case of 'qualified' co-determination (within the mining and iron industry). The main thesis of this article is that, although development and use in enterprises of the new information and communication technology within the frame of computer-supported production, has not by itself caused the weakening of German co-determination, it has nevertheless brought the weaknesses to light and intensified them. The cause of the co-determination crisis in West Germany lies in its institutionalization, the legal regulation of the negotiation system and the latter's rigidifying effect on committee or council work. The system character of the new technology, its universal applicability and its process-like character no longer do justice to the traditional form of co-determination. The author proposes the organization of co-determination as a process, the linking of the traditional forms and institutions of co-determination to the employees' organized union participation, in order to intensify and stimulate German co-determination. Attempts in this direction may be seen during the latter part of the 1970s, e.g. in IG Metall's action programme 'Work and Technology', and in DGB's (German Federation of Trade Unions) co-determination initiatives, as well as in several projects on the humanization of working life.