Cheers and boos for employee involvement: Co-determination as corporate governance conundrum

Employee involvement in a very general sense is by and large an accepted policy goal in the European Union. Its forms nonetheless vary considerably among Member States and sometimes include boardroom representation. Board composition, performance and incentive structures are core areas of the ongoing corporate governance debate in Europe and most other parts of the world. These two discourses are rather disparate. Recent EC legislation and jurisprudence do not proactively pursue an integrated approach. The following paper maps out overlapping areas of employee participation and corporate structure, explores some theoretical underpinnings for employee involvement from a contract-theory perspective and analyses issues specific to internationally engaged corporate groups. Finally, a transaction-based approach for modernisation of employee involvement is suggested. Preference is given to default rules that do not require employees to be represented at board level yet leave room for agreements to that effect. The plasticity of private law, the resilience of the corporate form and the governance-assisted employment relationship can defy petrification. Transaction-based employee involvement promotes a productive conjunction of corporate governance components consonant with the specific character of the employment relationship. An evolutionary approach to reform requires flexible legislation instead of deference to existing models. However, consensual model building needs proper enabling tools. Academic groundwork in private international law, contract, labour and corporate law is called for. © 2005 T.M.C. Asser Press.