The Performance of European Works Councils in Engineering: Perspectives of the Employee Representatives

Drawing on a structured survey of European works council representatives within the engineering industry, this paper identifies a number of shortfalls in the performance of European works councils. In particular, it shows that European works council representatives retain a national rather than a European point of reference and are critical of the integration of European works councils with other aspects of trade union organization and activity. In contrast, European works council representatives welcome the transparency within multinational companies introduced by the directive. The paper concludes in terms of a range of revisions that might usefully be introduced to improve the performance of the directive.