A European project for employee board-level representatives: issues, roles and responsibilities

With the adoption of the Directive on employee involvement in the European Company (SE), the topic of employees' representation on the boards of companies has become an important element in the debate on employee participation. To study this issue, a European project is bringing together employee board-level representatives from ten Member States to exchange experiences and information, to identify issues of common concern, to learn from each other and to compare the different systems of employee involvement in place in the participating countries. The project is also addressing the challenge posed by changes in corporate governance and how the role and the responsibilities of employee board-level representatives, as company directors, are changing. This article outlines the objectives of the project, the progress to date and, in particular, the key concerns that have emerged from the work on the project to date.