The ‘why’
Since the beginning of the European integration process there has been a clear commitment to provide employees in Europe with the right to be involved in company decision-making. From the 1970s this has led to the adoption of a number of European directives supplementing and enhancing national worker participation rights. Not least wWith the recognition of workers’ rights to information and consultation as EU fundamental rights (TFEU), adoption of the European Works Council Directives (94/45/EC and the Recast 2009/38/EC), the European Company (SE) Directive (2001/86/EC) and the Framework Directive (2002/14/EC) on information and consultation, and other legal instruments (not least in the health and safety area) the relevance of the European legislation has significantly increased.
With more and more companies operating Europe-wide (or even globally) as well as with the ever increasing degree of restructuring affecting companies and their workers the transnational level of employee interest representation is becoming more and more increasingly important. This To meet the challenge requires that company management, employee representatives and their trade unions effectively deal deal increasingly with cross-border questions of worker participation on different levels.
This website seeks to meet the increasing need for accurate and easily accessible information on issues related to transnational workers’ representation.by giving its users It provides users with access to what is happening at European level in the field of employees' rights to information, consultation and board-level representation (participation) as well as offers selected insights into relevant developments in national industrial relations.
Information available on worker-participation.eu includes:
European Works Councils (EWC) and SE Works Councils (SEWC)
European Company (SE)/European Cooperative Society (SCE)
Board-level Employee Representation
Information, Consultation & Participation Framework
Corporate Governance & EU Company Law
EU Social Dialogue
EU-27 National Industrial Relations
EU Social Dialogue
The website also provides you with information on the EU-27 industrial relations backgrounds, which differ significantly from one Member State to another. The website is intended to contribute to a better mutual understanding by offering basic information on all EU Member States in respect of trade unions, collective bargaining, workplace representation, health and safety, board-level representation, and the selection procedures and training rights for EU-level bodies (European Works Councils, SE Works Councils). With the ‘Compare countries’ tool it is possible to quickly compare countries with regard to one or more of these topics.
Sources for the website contents
Contents of worker-participation.eu are (among others) results of the work ETUI’s unit ‘Europeanisation of Industrial Relations’ and the expert networks run by the unit staff:
Worker Participation Europe (formerly SEEurope)
GoodCorp
Transnational Trade Union Rights
For whom?
worker-participation.eu is designed as a European information platform. It is primarily addressed to national and European practitioners of worker participation, and their trade unions and experts, but also to the an interested public, political institutions and academia.
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Further reading:
Logging on to employee involvement
