Weimar (dpa/th) – The staff councils of public administrations do not have to be asked for approval if a civil servant’s probationary period is planned to be extended. This emerges from a decision by the Thuringian Higher Administrative Court (file number: 5 PO 525/21), about which the court informed in Weimar on Wednesday. With its decision, the court reversed the contrary judgment of the administrative court in Meiningen.
The Meiningen court was of the opinion that the extension of the probationary period for civil servants was subject to co-determination. In this specific case, it was a police officer. The Thuringian Ministry of the Interior had taken the view that the extension of a civil servant’s probationary period was not subject to limited co-determination. Therefore, there should be no employee representation law participation procedure. It instructed the state police department to break off a co-determination process that had started. The staff council opposed this in court.
The Higher Administrative Judges have now determined that there is no so-called general competence of the staff representation in public administrations, which could be derived from the Staff Representation Act. The decision that has now been made is said to be of significance for the participation of staff representatives in all public administrations in the state of Thuringia beyond the present dispute. The Senate has therefore admitted the appeal to the Federal Administrative Court.
