This guide is intended to help people unfamiliar with the German system of labour relations to understand one of its key aspects, the system of employee involvement known as "codetermination" ("Mitbestimmung" in German). Codetermination is governed by a series of rules set out in legislation and provides employee representatives with clear rights to act in ways that benefit the employees who elected them.

This report summarises the results of the Böckler group of experts' "Workers' Voice" and shows that various forms of the Workers' Voice are distributed in Europe - as functional equivalents with similar features and objectives: representing workers' interests, protecting and enforcing workers' rights, and being proactively involved in management decisions.

This Mitbestimmungsreport is a brief presentation of a project supported by the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, entitled 'The effects of codetermination in the supervisory board on corporate governance'. The object of study was the role of company codetermination in German companies in relation to company performance and company decision-making during the recent financial and economic crisis. For this purpose companies with and companies without codetermination were compared.

The Expert Group on "Workers' Voice and Good Corporate Governance in Transnational Companies in Europe" was initiated by the Hans-Böckler- Foundation in 2015 and assessed the extent and role of different forms of workers' voice in transnational companies. The academic report revealed that workers' voice is a key element of corporate governance in several European member states and is an asset in various ways.

The scientific final report describes the topics that have been worked on by the Böckler expert group on Workers Voice: Good scientific arguments for anchoring it more strongly and legally binding to the benefit of „good corporate governance". In the supervisory and executive bodies of cross-border operating companies in Europe.

Workers'’ Voice is widely present among the largest 100 firms in Europe. 90 % of the largest firms participate in collective bargaining (CBA), 73 % have a European Works Council (EWC) and 44 % have Board-Level Employee Representation (BLER). 27 % have a European Company Agreement (ECA), and 23 % an International Framework Agreement (IFA).

This paper was published by the Hertie School of Governance. European policies on company law and market creation pose challenges for workers’ voice. The Expert Group on Workers’ Voice and Corporate Governance is tasked with addressing this issue and to have forward-looking discussions about possible solutions and strategies.