This article assesses the current position of Dutch works councils within their organizations and within the broader system of Dutch industrial relations. The authors use data from a recently conducted national survey on works councils to establish the impact that societal and organizational developments in the 1990s have had on the formal position and actual influence of the works council. These data show that, contrary to popular opinion, societal developments and the introduction of new management concepts have not had a negative impact on the position of the works council. An exception to this is the internationalization of firms, which curtails the range of works council influence. Further, the gradual increase in the actual influence of the works council that characterized the postwar period does seem to have levelled off in the 1990s.
The internationalisation of enterprises is expected to undermine national systems of employee representation. This paper assesses the extent to which this expectation can be confirmed. Using a survey of Dutch works councils, we compare national, Dutch multinational and foreign multinational firms. Using another survey, we then assess the role of European works councils within Dutch MNEs. The results of the first survey show that the influence of works councils in multinational firms, especially with respect to strategic policy, but also, to a lesser extent, regarding organisational and personnel issues is decreasing. From the second survey, we learn that European works councils have so far not compensated for this decrease in influence. We conclude that the undermining of employee representation at the national level can only be counteracted by a combination of further regulations at the European level, a change in (top) management attitudes in European MNEs and the close co‐operation of employee representatives within the respective countries and at the different levels.
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