Works meeting during working hours at baggage and passenger control at an airport

LAG Düsseldorf (12th Chamber), decision of 12 December 2024 - 12 TaBV 

Introduction

Works meetings must generally take place during working hours (see Section 44 (1) sentence 1 BetrVG). However, in some areas, such as passenger and baggage controls at airports, operations cannot be interrupted. Nevertheless, the employer cannot as a general rule require that works meetings only take place outside of working hours.

Facts of the case

A private company providing security services carries out passenger and baggage controls at an airport in North Rhine-Westphalia using aviation security assistants employed under public law. After the employer took the position that works meetings could not be held during working hours due to the nature of the operations, the works council initiated legal proceedings.

Among other things, the works council sought a declaratory ruling that any works or partial works meetings during working hours are permitted without restriction (global request).

Alternatively, the works council wanted to clarify that partial works meetings during working hours are permitted subject to the following conditions:

• A maximum of twelve partial works meetings in each "annual" quarter, i.e. relating to the calendar year;
• Distribution of these twelve partial works meetings over six days with two partial works meetings per day within the annual quarter;
• Maximum duration of each partial works meeting: four hours;
• Time window for the individual partial works meetings 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (during the early shift) or from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (during the late shift);
• Limited to the weekdays Monday or Wednesday;
• Maximum number of participants of 80 employees per partial works meeting;
• No partial works meetings during school holidays in North Rhine-Westphalia;
• Prior notification of employees interested in participating to the works council and - with a lead time of at least three months - to the employer regarding the specific date of the individual partial works meeting.

Decision of the LAG Düsseldorf

The LAG Düsseldorf dismissed the global request asserting that any works or partial works meetings during working hours are permitted without limitation as unfounded. The reason for this is that the request also included cases in which works or partial works meetings would necessarily need to be held outside of working hours. In principle, works meetings must take place during working hours. However, the law provides an exception if the nature of the business operation makes it absolutely necessary to hold a works meeting outside of working hours. In the present case, works meetings that are particularly long or take place during peak times, for example, could lead to a complete standstill of aviation security checks - and thus air traffic. These circumstances could prevent a works meeting during working hours as a technical and organisational impossibility. As a result, the complete lack of limitation regarding the timing of the works meetings or partial works meetings rendered the global request unfounded.

The LAG Düsseldorf upheld the works council's alternative request that partial works meetings should be permitted during working hours subject to the clearly defined conditions mentioned above. In the court’s view, the fact that passenger and baggage checks constitutes a sovereign task of danger prevention does not categorically preclude the holding of works meetings during working hours. On the contrary, partial works meetings can also be held during working hours under the proposed conditions; neither technical-organisational or work-organisational reasons nor economic concerns stand in the way, according to the LAG Düsseldorf. The disruption to passenger control would thus be avoided to the greatest extent possible and at the same time the employees' right to hold regular works meetings would be safeguarded. 

Practical note

Even in security-relevant areas such as aviation security control, an employer cannot as a general rule, require that works meetings take place outside of working hours. Rather, company meetings during working hours may also be permitted in this area. However, the individual case is always decisive: the assessment must focus on the specific operational circumstances of the individual company, not on the characteristics of the industry as a whole. 
In the event of court proceedings, it is the task of the works council to clearly define the conditions under which the works meeting should be permitted. A general request to authorise works meetings during working hours is generally unfounded, particularly in safety-relevant areas.