SAP and unions

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SAP SE employs 22,000 employees globally. Employees in Germany have been represented by a works council since 2006, and also have employee and trade union representatives in the Supervisory Board. Employees in Israel are unionised with Histadrut.

Contents

Germany

Works Council

On 23 February 2006, three employees at SAP AG in Germany initiated the legal process to form a Works Council. [1] All three of the initiators were members of IG Metall trade union. [2] In a vote held at the "works meeting" on 2 March, 91% of employees opposed the formation of a works council. German labour law guarantees the right to form a Works Council, so the three initiators petitioned the Mannheim Labour Court  [ de ] [3] on 5 March to appoint an electoral board. [1] On 14 March, [1] the SAP Supervisory Board responded by organizing another "works meeting" on 30 March, with a group of employees perceived as less close to the trade unions to administer the Works Council elections, making the court application redundant. Other companies, like IBM already had works councils. [4]

2006 election

On 21 June 2006, 65% of the 10,800 employees of SAP AG voted amongst 10 different lists fielding over 400 employee candidates. A 37 seats Works Council was established for the first time, with 16 seats going to "Wir für Dich" (We For You), 11 seats to "MUT" [note 1] and 3 seats each for the lists "Die Unabhängigen" (The Independent), "ABS" and "Pro Betriebsrat" (Pro Works Council) and the remaining 1 seat to "TEAM". The other four lists did not receive enough votes to win any seats. The initial 3 colleagues who started the election process were on the "Pro Betriebsrat" list. [6]

in December, the employer promoted a unified works council election at SAP Germany. At SAP Systems Integration (SI), separate elections were held at all 6 locations in Germany. In 2008, SAP SI merged with SAP Germany, resulting in a single Works Council. [1]

2022 election

In the Works Council election on 5 May 2022, 15 out of 45 seats, or one-third went to the IG Metall and ver.di trade union lists. Two trade union representatives chair the Works Council for the first time in SAP history. Eberhard Schick from the IG Metall "Pro Mitbestimmung" (Pro Codetermination) list was elected as the chair, and Anne Schmitz of the ver.di "Upgrade" list as the deputy chair. [7]

Supervisory Board

In 1989, one year after SAP went public, it organised Supervisory Board elections as required under the German Codetermination Act. The two elected employee representatives on the board were Gerhard Maier and Bernhard Koller. In the 1993 elections, the union seats went to the Christian Metalworkers' Union. [1]

Prior to 2014, SAP Group was legally structured as a German Aktiengesellschaft company, with a 16 seat Supervisory Board. In accordance with the Codetermination Act, half of the seats are reserved for the employer, with the remaining eight seats for employees, including two trade union representatives who are typically not employees of SAP. [8]

In 2014 the SAP AG was converted into SAP SE, a European Company ( Societas Europaea ; SE). Employee representation on the company Supervisory Board is required under the EU Employee Involvement Directive 2001 . Currently, SAP SE (across Europe) has 18 seats, with half reserved for employees. [8]

Court rulings

The German Federal Labour Court referred a question to the European Court of Justice (C-677/20), whether German legislation on trade union representation in Supervisory Boards is compatible with Article 4 of the Employee Involvement Directive, specifically whether distinct elections for trade union appointments must be maintained. The Court Advocate-General agreed that national laws with regards to trade union representatives and electoral procedures remained applicable even after the conversion into a European Company. [9]

A provision in the agreement between SAP and the Special Negotiation Body for the SE Works Council which has not been activated yet, would allow for SAP to reduce the Supervisory Board to 12 seats, of which six are reserved for employees, four in Germany specifically. While trade unions ver.di and IG Metall would able to nominate representatives, they would no longer be able to hold separate elections as previously done in the German Aktiengesellschaft form. [8]

Israel

The Israeli branch of SAP is unionised under the Cellular, Internet and High-Tech Workers Union of the Histadrut trade union federation. [10] A collective agreement signed in 2020 between SAP, and Histadrut covers 800 workers in Israel. [11]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ MUT stands for "Menschenverstand, Unternehmenskultur und Transparent" (Common sense, Corporate culture and Transparency) [5]

Related Research Articles

A works council is a shop-floor organization representing workers that functions as a local/firm-level complement to trade unions but is independent of these at least in some countries. Works councils exist with different names in a variety of related forms in a number of European countries, including Britain ; Germany and Austria (Betriebsrat); Luxembourg ; the Netherlands and Flanders in Belgium (ondernemingsraad); Italy ; France ; Wallonia in Belgium, Spain and Denmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IG Metall</span> Dominant metalworkers union in Germany

IG Metall is the dominant metalworkers' union in Germany, making it the country's largest union as well as Europe's largest industrial union. Analysts of German labor relations consider it a major trend-setter in national bargaining.

ver.di Trade union in Germany

Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft is a German trade union based in Berlin, Germany. It was established on 19 March 2001 as the result of a merger of five individual unions and is a member of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB). With around 1.9 million members, Verdi is the second largest German trade union after IG Metall. It currently employs around 3000 members of staff in Germany and has an annual income of approximately 454 million Euros obtained from membership subscriptions. The trade union is divided into 10 federal state districts and five divisions and is managed by a National Executive Board (Bundesvorstand) with nine members. Frank Bsirske was the chairman of Verdi from its founding in 2001 until September 2019, when Frank Werneke was elected.

In corporate governance, codetermination is a practice where workers of an enterprise have the right to vote for representatives on the board of directors in a company. It also refers to staff having binding rights in work councils on issues in their workplace. The first laws requiring worker voting rights include the Oxford University Act 1854 and the Port of London Act 1908 in the United Kingdom, the Act on Manufacturing Companies of 1919 in Massachusetts in the United States, and the Supervisory Board Act 1922 in Germany, which codified collective agreement from 1918.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doris Barnett</span> German politician and member of the SPD

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Trade unions in Germany have a history reaching back to the German revolution in 1848, and still play an important role in the German economy and society.

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Erzberger v TUI AG (2017) C-566/15 is an EU law and European labour law case, concerning the scope of free movement of workers, in relation to codetermination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franz Steinkühler</span>

Franz Steinkühler is a German business consultant and former trade union leader. He served between 1986 and 1993 as boss of the powerful "IG Metall" , which after 1990, following what amounted to a take-over of its hitherto separate East German counterpart, became the largest trade union in the western world, in terms of membership numbers.

A tech union is a trade union for tech workers typically employed in high tech or information and communications technology sectors. Due to the evolving nature of technology and work, different government agencies have conflicting definitions for who is a tech worker. Most definitions include computer scientists, people working in IT, telecommunications, media and video gaming. Broader definitions include all workers required for a tech company to operate, including on-site service staff, contractors, and platform economy workers.

The Works Constitution Act, abbreviated BetrVG, is a German federal law governing the right of employees to form a works council.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volkswagen and unions</span> Collective worker action at the German auto firm Volkswagen

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siemens and unions</span>

Siemens AG employs 311,000 employees globally as of 2022. Historically, Siemens supported and illegally financed the anti-union Works Council lists from AUB. More recently, the IG Metall has won the majority of Works Council seats. In the European Union, employees are represented on the Siemens Europe Committee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tesla and unions</span> Labor relations of the American car company

Tesla, Inc. is an American electric car manufacturer which as of January 2023 employs over 127,000 workers across its global operations, none of which are unionized. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has commented negatively on trade unions in relation to Tesla. Despite allegations of high injury rates, long hours, and below-industry pay, efforts to unionize the workforce have been largely unsuccessful.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Kronig, Ralf; Reich, Johannes; Schick, Eberhard (June 2019). "Partizipation und Mitbestimmung bei SAP: Eine Bilanz nach drei Jahren Betriebsrat" [Participation and Co-determination at SAP: A summary after 3 year works council]. Leben und Arbeiten in der IT-Branche [Life and Work in the IT industry](PDF) (in German). ver.di. pp. 97–114.
  2. ↑ Vogel, Sandra (20 April 2006). "Controversy over works council election at SAP". Eurofound . Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  3. ↑ "Erste Betriebsratswahl bei SAP mit hoher Wahlbeteiligung" [First Works Council election at SAP with high turnout]. heise online (in German). 22 June 2006. Retrieved 2023-02-12.
  4. ↑ Landler, Mark (2006-03-29). "SAP cool as unions gain foothold". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-06-13.
  5. ↑ "SAP AG - Die BR-Listen stehen fest" [SAP AG - The Works Council lists are fixed]. IG Metall Heidelberg (in German). Retrieved 2023-02-12.
  6. ↑ "SAP: Betriebsrat wider Willen" [Works Council Against their Will]. Manager Magazin (in German). 22 June 2006. Retrieved 2023-02-12.
  7. ↑ Kerkmann, Christoph (5 May 2022). "Softwarehersteller: Zäsur bei SAP: IG-Metall-Vertreter wird Vorsitzender des Betriebsrats" [Software manufacturer: Breakthrough at SAP: IG Metall representative becomes chair of the works council]. Handelsblatt (in German). Retrieved 2022-06-13.
  8. 1 2 3 Ales, Edoardo (2021-12-22). "Who is afraid of unions representation? Some considerations on the SAP SE case in the light of EU Labour Law". Italian Labour Law e-Journal. 14 (2): 71–83. doi:10.6092/issn.1561-8048/14085. ISSN   1561-8048.
  9. ↑ "Case C-677/20". Official Journal of the European Union . EUR-Lex. 1 January 2021. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
  10. ↑ "Israeli Tech vs. Israeli Unions: Two Local Powerhouses Set to Collide". Haaretz. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
  11. ↑ "SAP Management in Israel and the Histadrut Renewed the Collective Agreement". Histadrut . 14 December 2020. Retrieved 2022-06-14.

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