CODETERMINATION & WORKER PARTICIPATION 3: Training commentary Available to Purchase

We have called our new series Codetermination and Worker Participation. It is a huge field and what makes it difficult to grapple with is the fact that it is an indeterminate field at the present moment and the terminology means different things to different people. This is particularly true in the case of the term Industrial Democracy, a forceful‐sounding phrase which means what the user wishes it to mean. An important part of the training job is to define the field more precisely by separating the component parts and bringing about an understanding of each and how they cross‐relate. The area of interest is relatively new in Britain so we have to study what has happened in other countries where it is well‐established. In Germany its beginnings go back to the nineteenth century and in France the big change in attitude came with the liberation in 1944. It is only within the last two years or so that worker participation has emerged as an issue in Britain and even now it would be difficult to say how much demand there is for it or where this demand comes from. Employers with conventional hard‐line points of view have no enthusiasm for it since they see it as an erosion of management prerogatives. Trade unions are hostile to certain forms of participation which they see as direct inter‐action between employer and employee resulting in a side‐tracking of the trade union. So, who's for it? This is a good discussion point. And the answer you give to this question has a big influence on all that follows.