Management, European Works Councils and Institutional Malleability

This paper shows that the majority of managers responsible for European works councils within multinational companies do not comply with the information and consultation requirements stipulated in legislation and cite stock market regulations as the principal reason for non-compliance. Compared to employee representatives managers also downplay the importance of articulation between EWCs and national institutions of labour representation. Managers are also shown to use European works councils as vehicles to achieve a wide range of managerial objectives. In combining these findings the paper illustrates the ‘malleability’ of European works councils and argues that further regulatory intervention is required if European works councils are to function as information and consultation institutions as originally intended by European Union policy-makers.

Publication year:2020

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BOF-publication weight:1

CSS-citation score:1

Authors from:Higher Education

Accessibility:Open