McKinsey employees are apparently forcing a court decision on the works council

There is a problem at Germany's top management consultancy: three employees apparently want to force the appointment of an electoral board to set up a works council in court. This is what the “Handelsblatt” reports.

Accordingly, the initiators are initiating a decision-making process. A court spokeswoman for the Berlin labor courts confirmed the incident to the “Handelsblatt” when asked. The urgent procedure was therefore rejected and the date for the hearing in the main case was set for July 29, 2027.

According to the report, the appointment of an electoral board was initially unsuccessful because a majority of employees spoke out against it at a works meeting. "At a works meeting in our Berlin office, a two-thirds majority voted against the appointment of an electoral board in a secret vote," a company spokeswoman told the Handelsblatt.

According to information from Handelsblatt, the initiators are two men and a woman who work at McKinsey as a “Digital Expert” and “Director of Product, AI” in the Berlin office. In some cases, termination and remuneration procedures have been ongoing with them for a long time, with quality and chamber appointments already scheduled. A spokeswoman for the labor court confirmed this to the Handelsblatt.

A works council can be founded in any company with five or more employees, provided that a staff meeting decides to do so. If this does not work there, employees can have the court appoint an electoral board to set up a works council. However, courts must decide whether the step is permissible.

In the future, only work according to the rules?

The step would be historic for the management consulting industry. To date, none of the big four consultancies in Germany - in addition to McKinsey, these include Bain, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Roland Berger - have a works council. They regulate their operational matters such as remuneration, promotions and terminations without such an institution of co-determination.

McKinsey is therefore alarmed. A partner in the company, who did not want to be named, spoke to Handelsblatt about a “highly delicate matter.” He sees McKinsey's business model at risk if every new IT tool, promotion and termination process in the company has to be coordinated and everyone only does their job according to the rules.