CODETERMINATION & WORKER PARTICIPATION 2: two tier boards and industrial relations

In the first article in this series Dr Vollmer, Labour Attaché at the Federal German Embassy in London, described the German system of worker participation and representation on supervisory boards and works councils. The article was entitled The German Model, 1973. We opened our series with this article because it is the most lucid and comprehensive account of the German model we have yet come across and it has the stamp of unimpeachable authority. However, that article was, and was intended to be, an idealised account of the system by an enthusiast for it. We invited Mr Dewi‐Davies Jones, a British authority on industrial relations in Europe, to comment on Dr Vollmer's idealised account from two points of view: is there a gap between Dr Vollmer's account and the way it works out in practice; and what, if any, are the obstacles to the adoption of the German model in Britain?