The promise of European works councils: Twenty years of statutory employee voice

This chapter critically examines twenty years of research on
European works councils (EWCs). These are statutory,
company-level forums that bring together workers’ and
employers’ representatives for purposes of information and
consultation. It evaluates the extent to which EWCs have lived
up to the promise of providing a ‘voice’ to employees in
multinational corporations across Europe. Optimistic and
pessimistic prognostications are weighed against each other in
the context of the question of the extent to which EWCs have
‘added value’. The analysis we provide is framed through the
lenses of varieties of capitalism. We conclude that, in spite of
the challenges associated with cross-national information and
consultation forums—and there are many—EWCs have made some limited progress in giving employees a greater ‘voice’ in
the employment relationship.