The participation of employee representatives in decision making at company level is an important element of labour relations in the European Union. Board-level employee representation (BLER) is a form of workplace democracy, which can be seen as a response to contemporary challenges such as democratic deficit, social inequalities, dispersion of decision-making centres, climate crisis, digitization and automation of work, as well as fragmentation of labour markets and COVID-19 crisis. 
This project is trade unions subsequent response for the universal problem of social partners in EU which is lack of employee representation on the high level in undertakings. The project general objective is to promote transnational cooperation between social partners from Bulgaria, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey in supporting worker involvement in the anticipation and management of change by enabling employee representation to be included in the decision-making process at the management level through giving them a right to vote and enabling employees' representatives to access key information. 

The initiative aims to strengthen employees' involvement at board level by drafting recommendation for national and European legislation. Since implementation and extension of BLER rights are highly dependent on political circumstances, this project aims to highlight the non-political benefits of BLER solutions. BLER harmonisation processes proposed by this initiative and dissemination of knowledge and good practices in terms of information, consultation and participation will contribute to building a more democratic and successful society and economy and will stimulate employee involvement at the workplace. As part of the project, social partners will be acquainted with the perspective of German employers in the field of BLER solutions, and then, using their experience and acquired knowledge supported by research results, they will develop a number of universal solutions in this area and more broadly.

Project partners

•    Związek Zawodowy Pracowników Przemysłu Miedziowego (Poland)
•    Ogólnopolskie Porozumienie Związków Zawodowych (Poland)
•    Fundacja Instytut Spraw Publicznych (Poland) 
•    Sindikat kovinske in elektro industrije Slovenije (Slovenia)
•    OZ NKOS KOVO Metal (Slovakia)
•    Samostalni sindikat metalaca Srbije (Serbia)
•    Zachodnia Izba Gospodarcza - Pracodawcy i Przedsiębiorcy (Poland)
•    Federation of the Independent Syndicates of Miners (Bulgaria) 
•    Confederacion de Empresarios de Andalucia (Spain) 
•    Birlesik Metal Iscileri Sendikasi (Turkey)

Implementation period: August 2022 – July 2024

The project is co-funded by the European Union