Staff Council topics

Our work is divided into various subject areas, which we would like to present to you here. These areas of work include various committees as well as permanent and ad hoc working groups. For reasons of clarity, these are not listed individually.

In the area of"Recruitment procedures, personnel submissions and terminations", we pursue the goal of equal treatment in recruitment procedures and in the event of changes to employment relationships (increases, classifications, etc.). The same applies to the termination of employment relationships.

We check whether the legal requirements and internal regulations are being complied with. To this end, we monitor recruitment procedures, check personnel documents and prepare them for the weekly vote at the staff council meeting.

In the event of dismissals, we exercise our right to co-determination and consultation and support the colleagues concerned.

Company integration management (BEM) is offered by the department to all employees who have been unable to work for more than 6 weeks within the last 12 months. It is an open-ended process that is based on the voluntary participation of employees and requires their cooperation.

We will support and advise you if you need information on company integration management (BEM) or are unsure whether this format can be helpful for you in your current situation.

Our aim is to provide you with good support in cases of conflict and counseling. These can be conflicts between colleagues, with superiors or with the university management. To this end, we will always advise you confidentially and discreetly, accompany conflict discussions on request and explore possible courses of action together. The staff council members who offer conflict counseling are in close contact with the other PR departments for this purpose - after all, conflicts are sparked by issues such as working hours, grading or abuse of power.

When dealing with conflicts, we are guided by the University of Kassel's conflict level model and work together with external conflict counseling if necessary.

Conflict level model

The Staff Council is not permitted to offer legal advice. We can only provide legal guidance based on our respective training and experience. Trade union members can contact their trade union for legal advice, otherwise legal advice must be sought.

The aim of this area of work is to protect colleagues from abuse of power.

In the case of academic employees, the combination of fixed-term employment contracts and dependency relationships during the qualification phase can lead to an abuse of power by superiors - for example, when working hours, publication rights or assigned tasks are disregarded.

However, colleagues from technology and administration can also be affected by abuse of power. For example, when supervisors do not grant leave, stop communicating with affected colleagues or unilaterally distribute unpopular tasks.

In the area of abuse of power, we would like to work towards a general reduction in the causes of abuse of power. Suitable instruments are currently being discussed within PR.

Our aim is to enable colleagues to organize their working hours as closely as possible to their needs. This also means that colleagues who do not record their working hours are protected from abuse by their superiors. It is also important to ensure that increased demands do not lead to high work intensification, a lot of overtime and therefore an overload.

Suitable instruments for better regulation of working hours are currently being discussed within the PR.

At the University of Kassel, there are still a large number of temporary colleagues, especially in the academic, but also in the technical-administrative area. We are campaigning for more permanent positions to be cut and for internal colleagues to be taken into account in staffing procedures.

Together with the employee representatives in the Senate and the Hessian trade unions, we are working to monitor the agreement between the state of Hesse and the trade unions. This agreement was enforced in collective bargaining in 2024 and contains binding commitments to reduce the number of fixed-term contracts to be implemented at universities in Hesse.

Colleagues are complaining about overload in many areas of the university - they can no longer manage their work under the given conditions, among other things because positions remain vacant, there are no resources available or there is constant fluctuation due to high fixed-term contract rates. The threatened savings in the Hessian budget will exacerbate this situation.

At the request of employees, the staff council can be involved in overload notifications and support colleagues in finding solutions with their superiors.

The underfunding of universities is a central cause of overwork. In accordance with Section 3 of the HPVG, the Staff Council supports the Hessian trade unions in their activities to ensure adequate funding for universities.

Some central tasks within our university are outsourced to external companies (e.g. security and cleaning services). Other tasks are carried out by colleagues who are members of the university but are not considered employees (e.g. student assistants). These colleagues often work under far worse conditions than employees covered by collective agreements.

Although these groups of employees do not fall within the remit of the Staff Council, salaried colleagues are also indirectly affected by these outsourcings. For example, there are repeated complaints about poorly cleaned offices (cost pressure) or the fact that student assistants are taking over tasks from employees covered by collective agreements, thus enabling staff reductions.

In cooperation with the employee representatives in the Senate, the trade unions and initiatives on campus, the Staff Council is working to draw attention to these grievances and push for remedial action.

The aim of this area of work is to enable colleagues to combine their work with their family responsibilities. One lever for this is the service agreement for mobile work. We are lobbying the department to ensure that the service agreement can also be applied to work from neighboring countries - so that colleagues can also perform family care duties abroad, for example.

This department is committed to ensuring that the personal and data protection rights of colleagues are protected in digitalization processes. For example, the PR ensures that no software is used to monitor the behavior and performance of colleagues, even if this would be technically possible. In addition to the critical monitoring of individual digitalization processes, general regulations are to be laid down in the form of an IT framework service agreement to be negotiated in the near future together with the department.

With the aim of ensuring that employees work in healthy workplaces, this area supports construction measures or reviews the design of workplaces on request. In addition, mobility issues are monitored in this area (e.g. bicycle and car parking spaces).

With the aim of providing colleagues with comprehensive information about PR work and its context, this area designed this website and fills it with content. This department also organizes the staff meeting and drafts the newsletter. A staff council newspaper is planned for the future.

The aim of this work area is to ensure that colleagues can continue to develop in their profession and are supported in this by the department. At present, this primarily means representing the interests of colleagues in the relevant university committees.

The work of PR is invisible in many areas. Extensive areas of work include supporting staffing procedures and providing advice in cases of conflict.

We meet every Thursday morning for the weekly staff council meeting to vote on new appointments, upgrades, assignment to experience levels, continued employment and to discuss critical cases. At these meetings, we also deal with (probationary period) terminations in order to provide the best possible support to the colleagues concerned.

Resolutions from the other areas of work are also discussed and passed at the weekly meetings.