On 23 February 2006, three employees at SAP in Germany initiated the legal process to form a works council.
[2] In a vote held at the election meeting on 2 March, 91% of employees opposed the formation of an electoral board, the precursor to forming a works council.
[7] In 1989, one year after SAP went public, it organised Supervisory Board elections as required under the German Codetermination Act.
[8] The German Federal Labour Court referred a question to the European Court of Justice (C-677/20), whether German legislation on trade union representation in Supervisory Boards is compatible with Article 4 of the Employee Involvement Directive, specifically whether distinct elections for employee representatives and trade union representatives must be maintained.
The Court Advocate-General agreed that national laws with regards to trade union representatives and electoral procedures remained applicable even after the conversion of an Aktiengesellschaft into a European Company.
While trade unions ver.di and IG Metall would continue to be able to nominate representatives, they would no longer be able to hold separate elections as previously done in the German Aktiengesellschaft form.