Proposal on Good Practice Recommendations regarding Worker Participation in Company Management in public debate until the end of the week
At the end of August 2018 the work group of the Slovenian Directors' Association for the field of worker participation in company management, whose member is also our colleague Dr Anja Strojin Štampar, has submitted for public debate a draft of a new autonomous legal act, namely Good Practice Recommendations regarding Worker Participation in Company Management, which are supposed to be used in companies in for more efficient worker co-management in company bodies as regulated by the Worker Participation in Management Act (ZSDU, Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 42/2007 – UPB1) and by the Companies Act (ZGD-1, Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 42/2006 and subs.), and as a complement to the existing good practice recommendations in the field of corporate governance (such as Slovene Code of Management of Public Stock Companies, Code of Corporate Governance of Companies with State’s Capital Investment, Practical Guide on Conflicts of Interest by the Slovenian Directors' Association and other best practice recommendations in the field of corporate governance). The recommendations are based on the premise that the workers’ representatives in companies’ management or supervisory bodies are obliged to perform their function both in the interest of the company (with the diligence of a conscientious and fair manager) and in the interest of the workers. Although these interests coincide in the long term, the realisation of worker co-management in companies’ management and supervisory bodies is not always simple in practice.
The recommendations concern the fields which are either not regulated sufficiently precise by the legislation or demonstrate some shortcomings in practice, and with the purpose of ensuring an efficient worker co-management they would need to be defined more precisely in the rules of procedure of worker’s council and company’s management and supervisory bodies:
- regulation of candidacy procedure and procedure of appointing workers’ representatives in supervisory body in the rules of procedure of workers’ council by determining the conditions and criteria for candidates for worker representatives;
- managing the conflict of interest and independence of workers’ representatives in supervisory body;
- regulation of the procedure of recalling workers’ representatives in supervisory body;
- communication of workers’ representatives in company bodies with workers’ council and protection of business secret;
- ensuring efficient participation of workers’ representative in supervisory body;
- ensuring equal payment of workers’ representatives and representatives of capital in supervisory body;
- regulation of candidacy procedure, appointment procedure and recall procedure and the rights and duties of workers director or workers executive director;
- regulation of the obligation to review the report on co-management at company’s supervisory body.
The recommendations were created based on a research of the Slovenian Directors’ Association among the members of supervisory boards and management boards in 2017 and based on a quality research in public stock companies, which was carried out by Dr Valentina Franca in cooperation with the Slovenian Directors’ Association in 2017 and 2018.
On Thursday, 13 September, we attended a consultation by the Slovenian Directors’ Association, where Dr Anja Strojin Štampar led a presentation and discussion on the proposal of recommendations. A public debate on the document, which will then be confirmed by the Management Board of the Slovenian Directors’ Association, remains open on the website of the Slovenian Directors’ Association (http://zdruzenje-ns.si/mediji/aktualne-novice/javna-razprava-priporocila-dobre-prakse-sodelovanja-delavcev-pri-upravljanju-druzbe/) until 27 September.
