West Germany’s Workers’ Participation Law gave labor equal board representation

Evidence

When Horkheimer took on the Mannesmann contract, there was a legal dispute going on between the works councils and the board of directors of the Mannesmann holding company to decide whether or not the holding company, which already comprised a number of the companies separated by the Allies, was affected by the Workers’ Participation Law. The Workers’ Participation Law gave equal representation on the board of directors to representatives of the workers and to representatives of the owners of the company’s capital, and meant that a workers’ representative would become an executive director. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2056

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the 1951/1952 German Workers’ Participation (Mitbestimmung) Law mechanics in the context of the Mannesmann legal dispute.
• XREF: connects to: West German co-determination law mandated worker parity on supervisory boards. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 506