Introduction: Board-level employee representation in Europe: State of play

Abstract

Legislation underpins board-level employee representation in 18 European Union member states and Norway, but its characteristics vary greatly, restricted in some countries to the state sector and dependent in others on various company-size thresholds. We explore these variations as well as the initiatives taken by the Commission to introduce a harmonized system across Europe. We review evidence on the influence of board-level employee representatives before examining countries without board-level employee representation. We outline the articles in this special issue and conclude that board-level employee representation remains attractive to those concerned with improving corporate accountability because it allows influence at an early stage over strategic corporate decisions.