Works Council Elections 2022: Results of the IW Works Council Election Survey

In those establishments where an election was held, an unweighted average of just under 69 per cent of eligible voters took part, around 5 percentage points fewer than in 2018. At just over 27 per cent, the share of women elected to works councils is in line with the proportion of women among those entitled to vote. However, when it comes to filling the position of works council chair, women remain underrepresented. Overall, four out of ten works council members belong to a trade union, with union membership among workplace representatives higher in manufacturing (50 per cent) and significantly lower in the service sector (12 per cent). In almost half of companies, none of the works council members is in a union, a fraction that has increased considerably since the last elections. The greater the union influence, the greater the likelihood that the number of employee representatives that the Works Constitution Act stipulates be released from their other work is fully met or even exceeded.