Work Councils

Work Councils - An effective channel for employee participation



Work Councils - An effective channel for employee participation

Introduction

The aim of this study is to offer an overview of the work councils and employee participation along with the functioning of these councils in the countries of France and Germany. We have taken Employee participation in two European countries. This is due to the reason that employee participation is given crucial importance in these two countries. Existence of work councils is an important, distinctive and may be even defining characteristic of industrial relationships. The definition of work councils vary from one country to the other in terms of decision-making, composition, thresholds, election procedures and power assigned to the work council. Work councils typically represent a firm`s workforce. They foster communication between management and employees. Their main objective is to establish cooperative and trustful relations within the organization. Work councils can have an influence on job satisfaction aspects of employees. They typically have codetermination rights to exercise. In this study, we have discussed employee participation in organizations and work councils. We have also discussed work councils in the countries of France and Germany. A comparative analysis of work councils in both these countries is elaborated in the last section.

Employee participation in Organizations

Employee participation does not correspond to unambiguous, single meaning nor do the related notions of economic democracy and industrial democracy, define the term of employee participation in an enterprise. Employee participation typically corresponds to a diverse and non-unitary set of rights of employees originating in agreements or law, or even in both of them (Wisskirchen, n.d.). The definition of employee participation varies from one country to the other.

The real definition of employee participation consists of diverse disciplines and notions. In most countries, employee participation is based on a distinction of powers and roles between employees and employers. Each of them has their separate responsibilities. This holds true even when there is a direct involvement of employees in decision of the enterprise (Arrigo and Casale, 2010, p.2). The models and forms of employee participation are dependent on various factors such as models of employee representation, the private or public nature of relationship of employment, enterprise`s organizational dimensions, systems used for administration of labour, relationship between contractual and legislative sources and so forth. Therefore, employee participation is a broad and complex classification which includes techniques and regulatory concepts that may be mutually diverse and numerous. Through this participation, employees seek to have their impacts on various decisions made by the companies that have employed them and can also share in a few of the financial and economic results of the finalized decisions. Employee participation also consists of collective bargaining, especially at the organization level, understood as a tool that can form the functions and decisions of enterprises.

Employee participation is usually of two forms. It can be direct as well as indirect. In other words, it can be active as well as passive. It is dependent on the way participation is established in the ...