Participation rights in practice: what are the power bases of worker representatives at the board?

Workers’ right to be represented on the board (of directors, or supervisory board) of their company is so widespread in Europe that it is deemed a core element of the European social model. Yet, very little is known about how those participation rights operate in practice.

This Policy Brief outlines some of the key findings of the first-ever questionnaire-based survey of worker representatives who serve on company boards in 16 European countries and in European Companies (SEs). It demonstrates that necessary conditions must be met for board-level worker representatives to be able to exert real power over corporate strategic decisions.