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Worker Participation

Worker Participation (intro text)

Workers invest specifically in the company that employ them and are equally exposed to firm specific risk. Accordingly workers need to participate in the governance of the firm above and beyond the mere respect of the contractual terms that bind them with the company, be it the employment contract or the collective agreement. Legislations on worker participation are most developed in civil law jurisdictions, notably in continental Europe, where workers’ employment contracts and collective agreements are usually supplemented by institutional representation in the firm. Worker representation mechanisms (also known as “worker participation”) can take various forms: elected employee representatives sitting in “works councils”, in occupational health and safety committees, board level employee representatives.


  • International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
  • Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC)
  • Global Union Federations (GUFs)
  • International Institute for Labour Studies (IILS)
  • Bureau for Workers' Activities (ACTRAV)