Works council doesn't need swivel chairs, judges a court

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Castors and swivel joints: this is what the works council dreams of

Photo: © Heinrich Holtgreve / OSTKREUZ

What is the right seating for works council work?

For the employee representative of a beverage manufacturer in Rhineland-Palatinate, the answer is simple: they should be normal office chairs, rotatable, with castors, and ideally with armrests.

On meeting days, some of which last eight hours, during which presentations are also projected onto a screen, each participant can effortlessly adapt to any situation.

The management's approach is rather economical: In the company's works council office there were only three office chairs for the nine members of the committee, while six had chair legs.

And even if the price difference in the budget of a company with 200 employees shouldn't be noticeable, the whole thing ended up in court.

And now twice.

First at the Ludwigshafen Labor Court, then this summer at the Rhineland-Palatinate Regional Labor Court.

The German Lawyers' Association (DAV) has just reported on the case.

Worry about "unprompted rolling"

Both courts decided: The works council is not entitled to any equipment that is above the level of the company (file number: 5 TaBV 25/19).

And the standard in operation looks like this: no castors, no rotating seats.

The works council had argued that long meetings on such inflexible stalls could result in damage to health.

The judges didn't find it that dangerous.

The appropriate standard here is not an office chair as it is actually intended for permanent desk work.

After all, the workplace directive "Seating" (ASR 25/1) does not require that chairs in meeting rooms can be rotated.

In the meantime, the company had offered to replace the fixed chairs, which the judges in Ludwigshafen also found insufficient, with cantilever chairs - certainly more comfortable, but also not rotatable.

And even more expensive than the rolling office chairs, as the works council noted.

But they had one big advantage: They were already there and didn't have to be bought first.

It didn't help, the company's works council is not entitled to new chairs.

Both courts found that the works council had "let itself be guided in its decision solely by exaggerated considerations of convenience".

In return, the court documents give curious insights into the experience of the judges in the first instance.

They fear that seating furniture with castors will "seduce the works councils into rolling and turning without cause, which could significantly disturb the concentration of the participants in the works council meeting."

And where would you go if employees moved in their chairs?

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mamk / dpa