After the startup sector was considered a "no-man's-land" for co-determination in the first two decades of the 21st century, where employee participation was limited to informal chats over fruit and foosball, and the establishment of works councils was merely a pipe dream, the employees of more than 30 Berlin offices of well-known startups and scale-ups have, relatively suddenly, elected works councils for the first time since the late 2010s.

The motives for these works council initiatives are diverse. Often, it was anger over opaque and gender-discriminatory compensation, or growing concern about job security and declining career prospects. But frustration with the not-so-flat hierarchies of the tech industry also played a significant role.

After some initial resistance, these works councils have become an integral part of Berlin's industrial landscape. However, the day-to-day realities of co-determination are revealing the limitations of the elected bodies' legal rights, and frustrations are mounting.

In the workshop, after a brief presentation of the history of this small council movement, we will discuss the limits and perspectives of works council work with two works council members.