ILPC 2027

Sustainability has become a buzzword in politics and, increasingly, in research as well. In firms, the concept of sustainability is often translated into Corporate Social Responsibility (Fleming & Jones 2012). This approach can certainly promote the idea of sustainability, but in practice reality and rhetoric are often de-coupled. If CSR remains a project of management or if it serves as a legitimizing concealment of activities such as greenwashing, positive outcomes can scarcely be expected for neither society nor employees or other stakeholders. In contrast to essentially management-enforced CSR strategies, the German system of co-determination provides another approach to implementing sustainability in companies (Matten & Moon 2008). For example, works councils have - according to the Works Constitution Act - statutory rights to negotiate employer/works council agreements ('Betriebsvereinbarungen') and to co-determine management decisions that address the social, and in parts also the environmental, dimension of sustainability. Since participation processes and inclusion of stakeholders are often proclaimed as key factors for the implementation of sustainability processes, it could be argued that the strong legal regulation of co-determination in Germany facilitates a sustainable implementation of sustainability issues on the basis of employer/works council agreements. Due to co-determination, the underlying participation process is not just a product of management goodwill but a process in which diverse stakeholder perspectives, especially those of employees, can and are to be considered (Vitols 2011). In our paper, we analyse empirically how and to what extent employer/works council agreements on selected sustainability issues (occupational health and safety, qualification and skill development, environmental protection) regulate the implementation and institutionalisation process of sustainable practices - and thus seek to enforce sustainable sustainability. The study is based on a qualitative document analysis of 130 employer/works council agreements covering the manufacturing, the chemical and the supply and disposal industries. This research is part of a larger inter-disciplinary research project funded by Hans-Boeckler-Stiftung in which the authors combine the perspectives of organisational studies, workplace learning and labour studies. The analysis of employer/works council agreements contributes to answering the broader research question whether or how sustainability can be institutionalized in companies and whether substantial and sustainable changes of practices towards sustainability can be understood as a result of co-determination and employer/works council agreements. As a next step, case studies on the institutionalisation and anchoring of sustainability practices will be conducted in companies in which agreements on sustainability issues have been settled between employer and works council. Our research seeks to make a contribution to Labour Process Theory by exploring the role of works councils in sustainably enforcing labour conditions that meet the criteria of social and environmental sustainability. Initial findings show that, in most cases, employer/works council agreements are based on a combination of social and economic reasoning. The agreements differ widely regarding the level of process regulation. Agreements certainly are only a first step towards an implementation and institutionalization of sustainability processes. However, the mandatory inclusion of the works council in sustainability issues together with the practice of negotiating contracts between labour and management can be seen as an important catalyst for sustaining sustainability.