> It is the same in France, but they are still powerless because they are not present on the company's board unlike Germany

Not exactly powerless, some decisions and some changes need to be accepted by the worker's councils. But they cannot make decisions and force the company to go in a certain direction.

Grand parent might refer to the fact that German companies with > 2000 employees have to have a supervisory board where 50%-1 vote a held by representatives of employees: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitbestimmungsgesetz

Interesting side note, in mining and steel companies by law the vote is split 50% between employee and owner representatives and there’s a neutral member as tie breaker. This is often justified by safety arguments but actually stems from the WW1 and WW2 experience of these industries were pushing for war (good for business) and a neutral member was thought to temper these tendencies.

who are the neutral members? where does one find them, and how is their neutrality ensured?

Seems like a nontrivial task.

They’re usually (former) politicians. For example RAG AG has the former president of the federal parliament as the neutral member.