General Staff Council

Introduction and contact

The General Staff Council (GPR) is the body responsible for representing your interests when it comes to measures that affect both academic and non-academic staff. Typical areas of activity include occupational health and safety, overarching collective bargaining areas such as regulations on holiday leave, general rules to protect the rights of people with disabilities and much more.

The GPR is involved in such measures planned by the department. Similarly, the General Staff Council can suggest measures for consideration using its right of initiative. This also means that you as an employee can make suggestions for improvements to your working environment through us at any time. Talk to us! In the event that your concern is assigned to one of the partner staff councils in the somewhat complicated jurisdiction regime of staff representation law, we will take care of the internal coordination - always in consultation with you. You can contact us via the general e-mail address gpr@europa-uni.de, submit your request via a member you know or arrange a personal meeting. As every employee has the right to communicate with the staff councils, such discussions are automatically recognised as working hours and, above all, are strictly confidential. We look forward to being there for your concerns.

Whatever form you see a need for action - we are here to help!

General Staff Council

Tasks

The General Staff Council is an independent body alongside the Staff Council for Non-academic Staff (NWPR) and the Staff Council for Academic Staff (WiPer). It performs its duties in matters that affect all Viadrina employees, regardless of whether they are employed as academics or non-academic staff. In contrast, the NWPR and WiPer are responsible for individual labour law matters or matters that only affect one of the two groups due to their specific situation.

In the areas in which the GPR is responsible, the university management can only take certain measures with the involvement (co-determination or participation) of the GPR.

Currently, the GPR is working in working groups and in discussions with the university management on issues such as teleworking/accommodation regulations, the Remuneration Transparency Act, personnel development at Viadrina and the structural process that has been initiated.

Other areas of responsibility include:

  • Occupational health and safety and accident prevention (avoidance of occupational accidents and accidents at work)
    • Design of workplaces,
  • Working time regulations,
  • Work organisation (safeguarding employees during restructuring),
  • Regulation of order in the office,
  • Construction measures,
  • Environmental protection,
  • Data protection,
  • Health protection (addiction problems, bullying, burn-out),
  • Further education and training,
  • IT procedures that affect both areas,
  • Budget restructuring,
  • Compliance with collective labour agreements.


In many matters, the GPR liaises closely with the NWPR and WiPer. We also attach great importance to constructive cooperation with the central Gender Equality Officer, the Family Affairs Officer, the Comissioner for Data Protection and the liaison officer for severely disabled employees.

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