Right to employee participation (WOR)

Under certain conditions, employees are entitled to employee participation within the company. The core provisions governing the right to employee participation are set out in the Works Councils Act (‘WOR’).

The WOR requires employers to involve employees, to a certain extent, in important decisions that affect them. An employer is obliged to establish a works council if there are (more than) fifty people employed in their company. 

The obligation to establish a works council may also arise from a collective agreement or a scheme of terms and conditions of employment adopted by a public-law body. In the education sector, different rules apply with regard to participation, as these rules also guarantee the participation of parents or students. This is provided for in the Schools’ Participation Act and the Higher Education and Scientific Research Act.