Workers rights were that good in the GDR? Many things that exist in modern Germany didn't exist in the GDR. The GDR first gave workers striking rights in 1990 shortly before reunification. Also you could end up in prison for unemployment. They used the Asozialengesetz (Art. 249, law against refusal to work) to also put undesirables like vagrants and undesirable subcultures like punks in prison on trumped up charges.
Also relatives who experienced the GDR say that while there were some workers rights on paper, they were effectively not enforced in many cases and party elites usually trumped workplaces, effectively making it not a workplace democracy.
Cooperatives tended to have better enforced workers rights. But most workplaces werent cooperatives but state owned collectives.
It was better on gay rights until reunification, even though social acceptance was polled lower than in the west. Trans rights were about as bad as in the FRG (lots of hurdles, need recommendations from multiple doctors who might be anti trans, a lot of out of pocket expenses, but not impossible). Women's rights were better in the GDR than in the FRG up until the 80s.