Twitter account needs approval of works council

In case of doubt, the establishment and operation of a Twitter account requires the consent of the works council in a company. This was decided by the Regional Labor Court in Hamburg at the end of last year. The reason for this is that a works council, if it exists, is not allowed to participate in employee monitoring facilities pursuant to Section 87 (1) of the German Stock Corporation Act (AktG). 1 No. 6 Works Constitution Act has a right of co-determination.

I have to admit that I had to think for quite a while about why this decision is actually logical. But at the end of the day, it is and it is also in line with the case law of the Federal Labor Court, which ruled similarly about 2 years ago, regarding the establishment of the Facebook page.

This is because the concept of monitoring is quite broad and is defined as a process through which performance or behavior-related information of employees is collected and, as a rule, also stored (or can be stored) in order to make it accessible for later perception.

Still wondering why this is the case with Twitter accounts and Facebook pages?

Well, relevant are not the writing of tweets, but the reply function of Twitter. Customers can provide feedback on the service or individual employees at any time, which would then be publicly accessible to everyone and could be subject to constant monitoring pressure by the employees.

Author: Marian Härtel

Marian Härtel ist Rechtsanwalt und Fachanwalt für IT-Recht mit einer über 25-jährigen Erfahrung als Unternehmer und Berater in den Bereichen Games, E-Sport, Blockchain, SaaS und Künstliche Intelligenz. Seine Beratungsschwerpunkte umfassen neben dem IT-Recht insbesondere das Urheberrecht, Medienrecht sowie Wettbewerbsrecht. Er betreut schwerpunktmäßig Start-ups, Agenturen und Influencer, die er in strategischen Fragen, komplexen Vertragsangelegenheiten sowie bei Investitionsprojekten begleitet. Dabei zeichnet sich seine Beratung durch einen interdisziplinären Ansatz aus, der juristische Expertise und langjährige unternehmerische Erfahrung miteinander verbindet. Ziel seiner Tätigkeit ist stets, Mandanten praxisorientierte Lösungen anzubieten und rechtlich fundierte Unterstützung bei der Umsetzung innovativer Geschäftsmodelle zu gewährleisten.