Calculating Worker Representatives and Staffing Adjustments

Determining the Number of Worker Representatives

A. Calculation Based on Workers Employed

The mandatory number of representatives is established by the Workers' Statute (ET):

• Personnel Delegates: See Article 62.1 ET.
• Works Committee Members: See Article 66.1 ET.

B. Workers Considered for the Employee Count

The following employees are included in the count:

• Workers with permanent contracts.
• Fixed-intermittent workers.
• Workers with fixed-term contracts longer than one year.

Counting Temporary Workers (Contracts Less Than One Year)

The remaining workers, whose contracts are agreed to have a duration of less than one year, are calculated based on days of service within the one-year period prior to the call for elections.

For every 200 days of work performed or fraction thereof, one additional worker shall be counted.

The regulation of elections to representative bodies of workers in the company provides that:

• Days worked, weekly rest days, holidays, and vacations are computed.
• If the quotient obtained by dividing the sum of days worked by all temporary workers (for a period not exceeding one year) by 200 exceeds the number of workers currently serving in the company at the date of commencement of the electoral process, the total number of these workers is taken into account.

Corrective Rules for Staffing Changes

A. Increased Staffing Scenario

When staffing increases, the consequence is the promotion of elections.

The purpose is to elect the number of representatives required to align the current payroll with the legal requirements for representation.

The mandate of the representatives elected under this scenario shall end on the same date as the mandate of the existing representatives.

B. Staff Reduction Scenario

General Rule

The general rule is keeping the existing number of representatives.

Exceptions

The number of representatives may be reduced only:

• By collective agreement, or
• By agreement between the company and the workers' representatives (this cannot be a unilateral decision by the company).

The agreement must adjust the number of representatives to the current number of workers and define the criteria for the reduction process. In any case, the reduction must respect the proportionality of polling stations, candidates, and elected candidates.

C. Transfer Scenario

The maintenance of office for representatives who are transferred depends on the survival of the supporting representation unit:

• If a company or workplace is transferred: The representative status remains.
• If an independent production unit transfers part of a workplace: This is a point of controversy. The jurisprudence of the Supreme Court (TS) generally upholds the extinction of the representative office for the transferred workers.