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"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."

"El modelo de empresa-red constituye un desafío para los sistemas de relaciones laborales. Dicho modelo cuestiona el papel de las instituciones colectivas de trabajo, concebidas históricamente en el marco de una organización integrada verticalmente según el modelo fordista. En efecto, la empresa dispersa o el recurso a la subcontratación son contextos cada vez más habituales, en los cuales la organización del trabajo se encuentra disociada de la empresa en sentido jurídico y patrimonial, y donde se establecen relaciones de trabajo triangulares de facto entre empresa principal, empresa de servicios y trabajadores. La búsqueda de respuestas a esta problemática apunta a la reconstrucción de solidaridades entre los trabajadores, pasando por la acción de los representantes de los trabajadores. A partir de un estudio de casos llevado a cabo en dos industrias de flujo, la industria nuclear y la petroquímica, este artículo se propone analizar los efectos de la triangulación de la relación salarial a nivel de planta, y dos procesos experimentales de organización sindical y de negociación colectiva territorial que buscan dar respuesta a la problemática de la subcontratación. El artículo analiza los resultados y límites de dichas experiencias para reconstruir una “comunidad de trabajo” inclusiva de los trabajadores subcontratistas."

"The European Company Directive anchored board-level employee representation in European law for the first time. Rules negotiated between management and worker representatives became the primary source for formulating and designing such representation as an institution of European industrial relations. However, I show that negotiated rules on board-level representation provide limited institutional leverage for European workers. I examine the fragmented and incomplete legal framework applicable, the diverse forms and patterns of negotiated rules and their potential and limitations for supporting workers' power on boards."