ECGI Roundtable on Board Level Employee Representation Hosted by Imperial College

Click here to read the Roundtable Report from this event.

The Roundtable focused on the role of employees in corporate governance against the backdrop of the recent UK Green Paper on corporate governance. Board Level Employee Representation (BLER) is a reality in many European countries. In some cases BLER is voluntary, in other cases mandatory. How extensive is BLER in Europe? What are the advantages and drawbacks of giving employees a formal role in corporate governance? How are employee representatives nominated and appointed? What is the empirical evidence on the link between BLER and corporate success, or failure? Do BLER companies compete successfully in capital, labour and product markets? Should there be freedom of contracting in BLER or minimum mandatory standards? How does BLER interact with different forms of ownership?

Organisers

Franklin Allen, Imperial College London, ECGI and CEPR

Marco Becht, Solvay Brussels School, ECGI and CEPR

Schedule

Registration: 13:00

Lunch: 13:30 – 14:30

Sessions: 14:30 – 17:30

Drinks reception: 17:30 – 18:30

Dinner: 18:30

Contact

Programme queries should be directed to Marco Becht (Marco.Becht@ecgi.org) or Franklin Allen (f.allen@imperial.ac.uk)
Practical queries should be directed to Rebecca Moody (r.moody@imperial.ac.uk)

Programme Outline: 

The day is structured around introductory briefings from previously designated participants. These interventions are intended to stimulate further interventions and discussion between all attendees. The use of slides is possible but not necessarily encouraged. The prior distribution of written material is encouraged.

Briefings

(briefing speakers in parentheses)

Employee Involvement in Corporate Governance – The Theory (Franklin Allen)

BLER in Europe – The Institutional Facts (Lionel Fulton)

The European Company (SE) and BLER (Horst Eidenmüller)

The European Court of Justice TUI Ruling (Daniela Weber-Rey)

BLER from a Comparative Law & Economics Perspectives: Past and Future (Martin Gelter)

The Nordic BLER Model in a Comparative Perspective (Steen Thomsen)

Danish BLER in Practice (Jacob Møllgaard and Amira Laila Bada) 

The UK BLER Discussion (Peter Montagnon)

FirstGroup - A UK Plc with BLER (Silvana Glibota-Vigo and Jimmy Groombridge)

What is the impact of BLER on corporate behaviour and performance? The empirical challenges (Ernst Maug)