Worker representation on corporate boards of directors

Worker representation on corporate boards of directors refers to the right of workers to vote for representatives on a board of directors in corporate law. In 2018, a majority of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and a majority of countries and in the European Union, had some form of law guaranteeing the right of workers to vote for board representation. Together with a right to elect work councils, this is often called "codetermination".

Overview

Country	Law	Description
Austria	Labour Constitution Act 1975	A third of supervisory board from 300 employees in private companies. No employee threshold for public limited companies.
Belgium		No general law, but some public companies have employee representatives.
Bulgaria		No general law, but employees have rights to speak at shareholder general meetings.
Croatia	LL 2009 art 166	Employee representative on the supervisory board if the company has over 300 employees
Cyprus		No general law
Czech Republic		State owned companies (and private companies over 50 employees before 2014) have one third employee representation
Denmark	Companies Act 2010 s 140	Companies over 35 employees have between two and one third board membership
Estonia		No general law
Finland	1990 Act on Personnel Representation in the Administration of Undertakings	From 150 employees, there must be an agreement on employee representation. If there is none, one fifth of board members.
France	Commercial Code Art. L. 225-79	Private companies over 1000 employees in France or 5000 worldwide must have at least one or two board members. State-owned companies have one third.
Germany	Drittelbeteiligungsgesetz 2003 (One-third Participation Act 2003), Mitbestimmungsgesetz 1976 (Codetermination Act 1976), Montanmitbestimmungsgesetz 1954	Enterprises with over 500 employees must have one third representation on a supervisory board. Over 2000 employees, half representation, but the chair of the supervisory board is a shareholder representative and has a casting vote. In coal and steel companies shareholder representatives do not have a deciding vote.
Greece		State owned companies have one employee board member.
Hungary		From 200 employees, one third of supervisory board members are employees.
Ireland	Workers Participation (State Enterprises) Act 1977	State owned companies have one third employee representation.
Italy		No general law
Japan		No general law
Korea		No general law
Latvia		No general law
Lithuania		No general law
Luxembourg		One third employee representation in companies over 1000 employees or state owned.
Malta		No general law, except for companies owned by unions or the Labour Party.
Netherlands	Works Constitution Act 1971, amended in 2004	Over 100 employees, one third employee representation
Norway	Limited Liability Companies Act 1973	From 30 to 50 employees, one employee director. Over 50, one third of seats. Over 200, an extra employee seat. One director in companies with 30 to 50 employees; one third of the seats in companies with more than 50, with the possibility of an extra seat in companies with more than 200
Poland	Law on Workers’ Self Management of 1981	In state-owned companies employees have a third of supervisory board seats, and a seat on the management board.
Portugal	1976 Constitution, Arts. 30 and 33 and Law 46/79	In state owned companies, workers have a right to be consulted. In private companies work councils may elect representatives, but the number is determined by the employer.
Romania		No general law, but unions can be heard at meetings.
Slovakia		In companies over 50 employees, one third employee representation. In state owned companies, half the supervisory board.
Slovenia	1991 Constitution art 75, and 1993 law.	Companies over 50 employees, or with supervisory board, have one third to one half representation.
Spain	Law 41/1962, repealed 1980	Some state-owned companies retain two board members though it has not been compulsory since 1980 to have employee representation in private companies.
Sweden		Over 25 employees, around one third representation on boards.
United Kingdom	Cambridge University Act 1856, etc	No general law, except in universities, although Financial Reporting Council is introducing comply or explain rules for employee representation in the UK Corporate Governance Code
United States		No general law, although in Massachusetts manufacturing firm may voluntarily have employees on boards. Any collective agreement can achieve the same result.
Australia		No general law
Canada		No general law
Chile		No general law
Israel	1977 Law and a 1985 High Court decision, Dapey Shituf (Tel-Aviv 1985)	Worker representation in government companies
Switzerland		No general law, but there was employee representation in railways, and there is representation in postal services.
Turkey		No general law

See also

• European labour law
• UK labour law
• German labour law
• French labour law
• Indian labour law
• US labor law

References

• I Ferreras, Firms as Political Entities: Saving Democracy through Economic Bicameralism (2017)
• E McGaughey, 'The Codetermination Bargains: The History of German Corporate and Labour Law' (2016) 23(1) Columbia Journal of European Law 135
• E McGaughey, 'Votes at Work in Britain: Shareholder Monopolisation and the ‘Single Channel’' (2017) 46(4) Industrial Law Journal
• HJ Teuteberg, ‘Zur Entstehungsgeschichte der ersten betrieblichen Arbeitervertretungen in Deutschland’ (1960) 11 Soziale Welt 69
• HJ Teuteberg, Geschichte der Industriellen Mitbestimmung in Deutschland (1961)
• S Webb and B Webb, The History of Trade Unionism (1920) Appendix VIII

External links

• worker-participation.eu
• Z Adams, L Bishop and S Deakin, CBR Labour Regulation Index (Dataset of 117 Countries) (Cambridge: Centre for Business Research 2016))