Experts in European employment law say that GM should make very, very nice to Opel’s works council in Germany. If not, GM could face months of costly delays, including court proceedings, before it can undertake the massive restructuring—including plant closings and up to 10,000 layoffs—that it says is needed to rescue Opel.
Works councils, which represent all the employees in a given company, have existed in Europe for decades. Legislation in many countries has given them teeth, and in Germany and France those teeth are sharper than elsewhere. GM management will have the last word on economic and strategic decisions on Opel’s future, says Bjoern Gaul, a partner in the Cologne office of the German law firm CMS Hasche Sigle, who is not representing any of the parties in the matter. But the works council can throw up many obstacles before that decision becomes effective.
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