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Would you translate this as 'general works council' or 'workers council', or something else? The article I'm looking at refers to 'Gesamtbetriebsratsvorsitzende' (presumably the chairman) and later the 'Betriebsrat'...

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    Have a look at Wikipedia what "works council" is. - I guess the term "general" for "Gesamt" is acceptable and also the suggestion by dict.cc supports that.
    – Em1
    Commented Jun 11, 2012 at 12:22
  • Actually, to answer your question: Yes I would do so as dict.cc suggests.
    – Em1
    Commented Jun 11, 2012 at 12:24
  • To clear up any confusion you could add an asterisk which explains what a Gesamtbetriebsrat is in contrast to a Betriebsrat.
    – 0x6d64
    Commented Jun 11, 2012 at 13:30
  • Both answers seem plausible - thanks. Going with tohuwawohu's because of the reference.
    – neetso
    Commented Jun 11, 2012 at 18:50

2 Answers 2

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IATE, a european inter-institutional terminology database (“Inter-Active Terminology for Europe"), offers

Gesamtbetriebsrat: central works council

Betriebsrat (besides works council): works committee, employee committees

But i'm sure that "joint works council" as proposed by Takkat is a good match ,too!

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This indeed is a very German expression not only that it is composed of long nouns but also as it describes a very special worker's organisation in German companies. Here is my suggestion (from reading translations of various annual financial reports of larger German companies)

Betriebsrat: works council
Gesamtbetriebsrat: joint works council
Gesamtbetriebsratsvorsitzender: chairman of the joint works council

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