Trade Unions and Representatives | HEUSER RECHT UND STEUERN
www.heuser.de • 05
Supervisory
Board
A supervisory board controls
and advises the management
of a company – it represents
the corporation. In Germany,
it is mandatory that the
supervisory board and the
executive board are separate
bodies.
According to the German Stock
Corporation Act (Aktiengesetz), every
PLC (AG), every limited joint-stock
partnership (KG a. A.) and every
corporation with more than 20 members
is obliged to implement a supervisory
board. This obligation can also apply to
limited companies (GmbH) – generally, if
a limited company has more than 500
employees/workers but also if there
is a determined increased common
interest in customer protection or codetermination
of employees/workers.
The voluntary implementation of a
supervisory board is possible and would
also be subject to the Stock Corporation
Act (AktG §52 GmbHG).
The composition of a supervisory
board varies dependent on the type of
company, its share capital, the number
of its employees and its sector. The
mandatory minimum of members
is three. Dependent on the abovementioned
factors, the mandatory
number of members can increase and
different groups are entitled to vote
particular members.