What does the Staff Council do?

In short, the Staff Council represents the interests of employees towards the department. The cooperation should be trusting and constructive, and confidentiality in the collaboration must be maintained.

The Staff Council is authorized to receive information on practically all matters concerning the university, is involved in personnel matters and has a right of co-determination in a number of matters. Among other things, it also monitors the pay grading and classification when hiring personnel.

Employees have the right to involve the Staff Council for support during staff interviews. You can always contact the Staff Council at any time in official and personal matters and also make suggestions for the work of the Staff Council.

Some important paragraphs from the State Staff Representation Act

(LPersVG; translated with a quick translation tool. The legal text itself is only available in German)

§ 2 Cooperation between the department, staff representatives, trade unions and employers' associations

(1) The department and staff representatives shall work together in a spirit of trust and close cooperation with the trade unions and employers' associations represented in the department in compliance with the law and collective agreements for the benefit of the employees and to fulfill the tasks incumbent upon the department.
(2) In order to safeguard the duties and powers of the trade unions represented in the office as set out in this Act, their representatives shall be granted access to the office after prior notification of the head or deputy head of the office, unless this is prevented by unavoidable necessities of the course of business, mandatory safety regulations or the protection of official secrets.
(3) The duties of trade unions and employers' associations, in particular the protection of their members' interests, shall not be affected by this Act.

§ 6 Protective provisions

Persons who perform duties or exercise powers in accordance with this Act must not be hindered in doing so. They must not be disadvantaged or favored because of their work; this also applies to their professional development.

§ 69 General duties and right to information of the staff representatives

(1) The Staff Council has the following general duties:

1. To apply for measures that serve the department and its employees,
2. To ensure that applicable laws, ordinances, accident prevention regulations, collective agreements, service agreements, administrative orders and other occupational health and safety regulations are implemented for the benefit of employees,
3. To receive suggestions and complaints from employees and the youth and trainee representatives and, if they appear justified, to work towards their resolution through negotiations with the management; the staff representatives must inform the parties concerned of the outcome of the negotiations,
4. To apply for measures that serve the equal treatment of women and men,
5. To promote measures for the promotion of family-friendly working conditions for employees by the department,
6. To promote the integration and professional development of severely disabled persons and other vulnerable persons, in particular older persons,
7. To apply for measures to promote the professional development of severely disabled people,
8. To work closely with the youth and trainee representatives to promote the interests of the employees named in § 58; the staff representatives may request proposals and opinions from the youth and trainee representatives,
9. to promote the integration of foreign employees into the department and the understanding between them and the German employees,
10. To protect the interests of remote workers.

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(2) Employees shall have the right to consult a member of the Staff Council during official discussions with the employees referred to in § 5 (5) and (3) and § 11 (3) in order to review breaches of duty which may lead to measures under employment or disciplinary law.

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§ 71 Duty of confidentiality

(1) Persons who perform or have performed duties or exercised powers in accordance with this Act must maintain confidentiality with regard to the matters of which they become aware in the process. The duty of confidentiality shall not apply to the other members of the staff delegation, the representatives of the trade unions represented in the office and the relevant employers' associations if and insofar as they are consulted in accordance with the provisions of this Act. It also does not apply to the superior department and the level representation formed within it or to the general staff council. The same applies to the relationship between the level representation and the General Staff Council and the Staff Council. Furthermore, the duty of confidentiality does not apply to the authorities responsible for occupational health and safety, the statutory accident insurance institutions and other bodies responsible for occupational health and safety within the scope of these tasks.
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§ 76 Service agreements

(1) Service agreements are permissible in all matters of staff representation law, provided they do not merely concern individual measures and do not conflict with legal provisions or collective bargaining agreements. They shall be adopted jointly by the department and the Staff Council, shall be recorded in writing, signed by both parties and publicized in an appropriate manner.  …

§ 78 Co-determination in personnel matters of employees

(1) The staff council's right of co-determination in personnel matters of employees extends to individual personnel measures and general personnel matters.
(2) In particular, the Staff Council shall have a say in the individual personnel measures listed below:

1. Recruitment, including the transfer of activities to be performed, classification,
2. Temporary or fixed-term employment contracts, except in the university sector,
3. Transfer to a higher or lower graded job for a period of more than two months, up- or downgrading,
4. Transfer to another job for a period of more than two months,
5. Permanent or temporary transfer of an activity that triggers an entitlement to payment of an allowance, as well as revocation of such a transfer,
6. Transfer to another department and redeployment with a change of place of employment for a period of more than two months within one year,
7. Secondment and assignment in accordance with Section 20 of the Civil Service Status Act for a period of more than two months within one year and revocation of such a measure,
8. Changes to contractually agreed working hours,
9. Rejection of an application for part-time employment or leave without continued payment of wages,
10. Reassignment to a job in accordance with job security regulations or after the end of leave without continued payment of remuneration,
11. Continued employment beyond the age limit,
12. Orders restricting the freedom to choose a place of residence,
13. Prohibition of secondary employment and imposition of conditions on secondary employment,
14. Assertion of claims for compensation if the employee applies for co-determination,
15. Issuing warnings if the employee requests co-determination,
16. Selection for participation in vocational training, further vocational training and vocational retraining measures if there are more applicants than there are places available,
17. Appointment and dismissal of training supervisors and trainers.

In the cases of sentence 1 nos. 14 and 15, the employee must be informed of the intended measure in good time beforehand and made aware of the right to apply.

(3) The Staff Council shall have a say in the following general personnel matters in particular:

1. Preparation and use of standard employment contracts, personnel questionnaires, except in the context of auditing, and personal files,
2. Preparation of appraisal guidelines,
3. Implementation of vocational training (vocational training, further vocational training and vocational retraining) and establishment of principles for the selection of training managers and trainers and their dismissal,
4. Issuing guidelines on the selection of personnel
   • a) for recruitment, transfers and assignments of other activities,
   • b) for the transfer of functions that trigger an entitlement to payment of an allowance,
   • c) in the event of dismissals,
5. Establishment of principles for the implementation of job advertisements, including content, location and duration.

§ 80 Co-determination in social and other internal as well as organizational and economic matters

(1) The Staff Council shall have a say in the following social and other internal matters in particular:

1. The establishment, administration and dissolution of social institutions, irrespective of their legal form,
2. Establishment of social plans, including plans for retraining to compensate for or mitigate economic disadvantages suffered by employees as a result of rationalization measures,
3. Granting or refusing social benefits, in particular support, subsidies and loans, provided that the employee applies for co-determination,
4. Allocation and termination of apartments and other premises available to the department, as well as general determination of the conditions of use,
5. Allocation of official and leased land and determination of the conditions of use,
6. Organization of workplaces,
7. Beginning and end of daily working hours and breaks as well as distribution of working hours over the individual days of the week,
8. Issues relating to the organization of remuneration in the department, including remuneration systems, the establishment of remuneration principles, the introduction and application of remuneration methods and their modification,
9. Time, place and manner of payment of remuneration and wages,
10. Introduction, organization and modification of the company suggestion scheme,
11. Regulation of order in the office and the conduct of employees.

In the case of sentence 1 no. 3, the employee shall be informed of the right to submit an application.

(2) The Staff Council shall have a say in the following organizational and economic matters in particular:

1. Introduction of new working methods and significant changes to or significant expansion of existing working methods,
2. Introduction, use, modification or extension of technical equipment and procedures that are suitable for processing or using employee data,
3. Introduction, application, modification or extension of procedures that are suitable for monitoring the behavior or performance of employees,
4. Measures to improve work performance and facilitate work processes,
5. Issues relating to the working time system and on-call and standby duty,
6. Arrangements for foreseeable overtime or foreseeable overtime, extension or reduction of the regular daily working time,
7. Occupational health and safety measures, including the creation of occupational health and safety programs and individual regulations that serve, even indirectly, to prevent accidents at work and occupational illnesses and to protect health,
8. Appointment and dismissal of data protection officers, medical officers or company doctors, occupational safety specialists, safety officers, biological safety officers and radiation protection specialists and officers,
9. Appointment and dismissal of equal opportunities officers and members of the complaints office in accordance with Section 13 (1) of the General Equal Treatment Act,
10. Drawing up the vacation plan and determining the timing of vacation for individual employees if no agreement is reached between them and the head of the department,
11. Preparation of administrative orders of a department for the internal, social and personal matters of the employees in its area of responsibility, unless the central organizations of the relevant trade unions are to be involved in the preparation in accordance with § 98 LBG,
12. Dissolution, restriction, relocation or merger of departments or significant parts of them,
13. Outsourcing of work from the department,
14. Determination of procedures and methods of performance and organizational audits, with the exception of audits by the Court of Audit,
15. Selection and commissioning of experts for audits in accordance with number 14,
16. Conclusion of employee leasing or secondment contracts,
17. Principles of job or post evaluation.

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