[2] There are three main views as to why codetermination exists: to reduce management-labour conflict by improving and systematizing communication channels;[3] to increase bargaining power of workers at the expense of owners by means of legislation;[4] and to correct market failures by means of public policy.
[6] The following is a list of 35 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and their practices of worker representation on corporate boards of directors.
As of the 1980s and 1990s, SWRCs were, in principle, broadly similar to continental European and Japanese workers' workplace councils in terms of rights and powers and consensus building.
Research based on interviews in 1997 suggested that in practice, SWRCs did have some real power, including some cases of dismissing managers.
The new board's head would represent the firm's owners and had the right to cast the deciding vote in instances of stalemate.
In private enterprise, the Port of London Act 1908 was introduced under Winston Churchill's Board of Trade.
[35] A 2021 study by the Bureau of Economic Research found that "the European model of codetermination is neither a panacea for all of the problems faced by 21st-century workers, nor a destructive institution that is dramatically inferior to shareholder primacy.
[40] The fascist government abolished codetermination in 1934, but after World War II, German unions again made collective agreements to resurrect work councils and board representation.
[44] However, after the Bullock Report of 1977 failed to pass and Margaret Thatcher won the 1979 election, almost all worker participation was ended.