Documents codetermination 629 results

"During the 2008 financial crisis, board-level employee representation (BLER) was touted as an institution that could counter mismanagement with a stakeholder approach and thus improve the quality of corporate governance.

After the experience of the socioeconomic consequences of the Covid-19 global pandemic, today's growing concerns over the crisis in liberal and representative democracies have once again put worker participation and voice at the centre of interdisciplinary debates. Yet codetermination rights remain largely underdeveloped as a key dimension of EU industrial relations, with the issue of harmonisation moving on and off the EU agenda since the 1970s. How can this discrepancy be explained?

Revisiting worker representation on boards addresses this conundrum and advances comparative knowledge of BLER in Europe – which previous empirical research has demonstrated is not exclusively a German idiosyncrasy – by examining its sociopolitical significance as a concept and practice. It focuses on ten Member States which have often been underexplored in codetermination studies.

The aim of this volume is to provide a deeper understanding of current debates and practices around BLER and to assess the general prospects for development in this area of social policy at national and EU level. The book does not limit itself to acknowledging that the perceptions and practices of BLER remain largely anchored in national institutions, ideas and policy debates, but goes further to uncover parts of the underlying rationale behind this diverse and complex reality. The contributions draw on the EU acquis on worker participation and use different methodologies to quantify, map and evaluate the implementation, enactment and potential deployment of BLER.

For trade unionists, policymakers and researchers looking to orient themselves within the current debates and promote policies around worker representation on company boards, this book will certainly provide an invaluable compass."

"Considering the wide spectrum of meanings of the expression 'worker participation', the article focuses on the differences between some of the most significant experiences of employee involvement, starting with the 'benchmark model', the German co-determination system. The analysis of the German system, its origins, characteristics and rationale, leads on to a critical evaluation of the progressive movements from this 'strong' and mandatory form of worker participation: from the 'weak(er)' and negotiable European model to the simultaneous use of managerial and financial participation in a recent Italian Act, up to employee participation in the firm's profits (and risks), associated with a loss of rights, in the recent 'shares for rights' scheme in the UK.A comparative overview of these schemes weads to a final reflection on the difference between 'uses' and 'misuses' of worker participation, based on the ideals underlying the various forms of employee involvement."