The chairperson is responsible for conducting the conciliation proceedings. This includes establishing the organizational framework for the conciliation committee at the outset, in particular scheduling the conciliation proceedings and summoning the assessors. At the beginning of the conciliation committee meeting, the chairperson determines the participants and, depending on the conflict, either introduces the facts and dispute himself or allows the parties to present their respective positions.

One of the core tasks of the conciliation committee chair is dispute resolution, which takes the form of either social conciliation or a ruling by the conciliation committee.

Social conciliation means that the conciliation committee chair initially pursues the primary goal of mediating between the employer and the works council and, in some cases, leading them to mutually acceptable results. The personality, persuasiveness, and empathy of the chair play a major role in this process. If no agreement can be reached, the conciliation committee is called upon to bring about a settlement and thus reach a decision in the conflict. The chair has a decisive role in this process, as the ruling is made by majority vote of the conciliation committee. According to Section 76 (2) BetrVG, in addition to the chairperson, the conciliation committee consists of an equal number of assessors, who are appointed by the employer and the works council respectively.

The required legal selection criterion for the chairperson under Section 76 (2) of the Works Constitution Act (BetrVG) is that, in the unanimous opinion of the parties within the company, the chairperson must fulfill the criterion of neutrality. The choice should therefore fall on a person who is outside the company and has no interest in the outcome of the conciliation proceedings. This means that persons who are employees, members of the company management, union secretaries, or employees of an employers' association are not eligible for the chairmanship.

Further qualifications are not required by law, but are objectively necessary:

• Negotiation and conflict resolution skills, as well as
• in-depth knowledge of labor and works constitution law, and a basic understanding of the subject matter and operational requirements.

In practice, labor court judges or lawyers with additional qualifications, mediators, or human resources specialists are primarily selected as conciliation committee chairs. The nationwide first and leading further training course is conducted by the neutral training provider CampusArbeitswelt.