POSITION OF WORKERS IN CORPORATE TAKEOVERS

A takeover bid is one of the main methods of acquiring voting control in a listed company. By acquiring the voting control, the majority shareholder gains the power to influence or determine corporate decisions, which can significantly affect not only the position of the shareholders, but also the position of a much wider circle of stakeholders. It is not to be disputed that takeovers significantly affect workers' positions; therefore the paper analyses the regulatory framework governing the position of workers in takeover procedures in European and Croatian law. The analysed solutions are compared with the solutions adopted in Slovenian and French law. While Slovenian legislation has adopted solutions that are very similar to Croatian, the French legislator has given greater rights to workers both in the takeover procedure and in the post-bid period. The paper also presents the results of a survey conducted on the Croatian capital market on the use of workers' rights granted to them by the Croatian Takeover Act. It is concluded that workers exercise these rights, but to an insufficient extent.