Contracting Employee Involvement: An Analysis of Bargaining Over Employee Involvement Rules for a Societas Europaea

Abstract

Following a slow start, the European Company (Societas Europaea – SE) has become a popular legal form amongst European firms. It is rendered attractive by corporate governance features such as the contractual freedom of capital and labor to design a firm-specific employee involvement regime. By analyzing what has been settled for in such agreements, we investigate whether national mandatory employee involvement rules are efficient and which factors impede firm-specific bargained-for solutions.

Keywords: European Company, Societas Europaea, employee involvement, contractual negotiations, contract governance

JEL Classification: J5, D23, K31