But they also go further, to require the company to provide training to workers in unskilled jobs at the bottom of the workforce, and then to actually hire them into new positions. Tests for the new jobs have been changed, because of accusations that they were originally used as a barrier to keep immigrants from moving up the ladder. In Germany, it's not uncommon for people to be subjected to a special form of harassment designed to make them quit. The contracts spell out specifically what mobbing means, give examples of it, and make clear the company's responsibility and the procedures for stopping it. These agreements are enforced by the works councils.
Works councils negotiate over most conditions and work rules in each workplace.
In practice, the union tries to elect its members to works councils as well, to give it a voice in negotiations with the management of individual enterprises. IG Metall has an organization in each city and region. In most of them, workers have elected immigration commissions, which examine the situation of immigrant workers. There are over 1000 such elected commission members throughout Germany. The commissions hold meetings, often in union halls or the meeting rooms of the clubs and associations of various nationalities.