The European union employee participation system in management decision making process: a survey about the effects of the system on Turkish employees in the multinational companies operating in Turkey

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to find out that if it is possible to create an employee participation system by establishing the European Works Councils (EWCs) in a hundred multinational companies operating in Turkey. In this research 35 multinationals are selected from the European Trade Union Institute for Research, Education and Health and Safety (ETu/-REHS) 2006 EWC Database which contains the name of 445 multinationals including 5 Turkish multinational companies and 181 of them that already have had an EWC in the central management operating in Turkey. This study, also, aims to discover if the companies' central EWC established in the EU countries has any member from Turkey which is representing Turkish employees. As Turkey started negotiations, in June 2006 after the decision of Council on 3 October, 2005 for full membership. The employee participation system is among the most important features of the EU Company Law and Sociall'olicy regulations and Turkey has to adopt the EU regulations to achieve full membership during the present accession period. The paper, also, aims to evaluate the key policy issues related to stakeholder approach and its some effects on Turkish and other multinational companies operating in Turkey. Today, Turkey is not a member of the EU and the European Economic Area but, stayed in the Custom Union since 1. June. 1996. Therefore the regulations do not directly apply to Turkey before the full membership. As some Turkish companies gained a community-scale undertaking position during the Custom Union and falling into scope of the EU legal provisions. The regulations can be important for Turkish undertakings in two sircumstances before the full membership; a multinational based in the EU and having a subsidiary in Turkey and a Turkish multinational having subsidiaries within the EU which fulfil the tresholds