Workplace Employee Representation and Industrial Relations Performance: New Evidence from the 2013 European Company Survey

Using cross-country data from the European Company Survey, we investigate the relationship between workplace employee representation and management perceptions of the climate of industrial relations, sickness/ absenteeism, employee motivation, and staff retention. For a considerably reduced subset of the data, a fifth indicator - strike activity - is also considered alongside the other behavioral outcomes. From one perspective, the expression of collective voice through works council-type entities may be construed as largely beneficial, especially when compared with their counterpart union agencies either operating alone or in a dominant position. However, if heightened distributional struggles explain these differential outcomes in workplace employee representation, it should not go unremarked that the influence of formal collective bargaining is seemingly positive.