Employee Voice and Democracy: A Critique of National and Transnational Laws

Abstract

The theory of participatory democracy enables us to appreciate the relationship between employee voice and Western democracy. The workplace offers opportunities to see how participatory democracy is feasible in our day-to-day lives. However, it is only through legal obligations imposed by the state upon employers that universal rights to participate in workplace decisions can be conferred on employees. The author’s examination of participatory democracy and employee voice is developed in three parts. The first describes a participatory theory of democracy; the second presents an example of workplace democracy, drawing on Australian and European laws (as implemented in the United Kingdom); an..