Workers’ Representatives in selected Central and Eastern European Countries: Filling a Gap in Labour Rights Protection or Trade Union Competition?

The institution of elected workers’ representatives has gained recognition from lawmakers in Central and Easter and European countries in the context of a declining unionization rate and a trend of decentralization of collective bargaining at the company level. However, despite the growing attention, the involvement of elected workers’ representatives in collective bargaining has proved to be sporadic and less effective than that of trade unions. In some cases, complicated solutions for determining the bargaining powers of workers’ representatives (as established by law) have created legal and practical uncertainties at the company level (Mihes 2020). With a few notable exceptions, although recognized by law, works councils have proved, in practice, a weaker alternative to trade unions. Innovative experiments of expressing a collective voice of unrepresented atypical workers, including those on digital platforms, are emerging timidly through social media. 

In this publication, ten legal scholars examine from different angles the research question whether elected workers’ representatives fill a gap in labour rights protection or represent trade union competition.