There is an ongoing discussion about the necessity to grant a seat on the boards of directors to the unions, and there are both proponents and opponents of the idea to have a representative of the union join the board (Fossum, 2009).
The main argument of the opponents is that having a union representative on the board will make the process of decision-making easier, as the decision will be made in agreement with the company’s employees. In some European countries, there is a legislation adopted to ensure that the employees are represented by the union at the meeting of the board of directors (Waddington & Conchon, 2015). This legislation was adopted to guarantee that interests and rights of workers are protected, and management does not make any decisions without prior notifying the company’s employees.
At the same time, there is an opinion that the union should not be granted a seat at the board of directors, and the main reason for that is that employees are a hired personnel, and it is one of the company’s resources that can be used in business operations. If the company needs to decrease the number of workers, management needs to have an opportunity to do that without prior discussing this decision with the union.
The company’s main goal is to earn money and maximize profit, and not to create perfect working conditions for employees. Employees are interested in doing less and getting paid more, and this is not what the company is interested in.
Company’s management and labor union have different positions and they try to achieve different aims. This is the reason why participation of the union at the company’s board of directors is not the best idea. Top managers and union representatives will spend all the time at arguing about decisions that can influence employees. And this is the main reason why union should not be presented at the meetings of boards of directors.
References
Fossum, J. A. (2009). Labor Relations, Development, Structure, Process. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Waddington, J. & Conchon, A. (2015). Board-level employee representation in Europe. Routledge.
