Papillon
The map you can access by the link below will show you that employee representation at board level is by no means a limited concept, with 12/6/12 countries having widespread/limited/no representation rights.
Map: Board-level representation in the EU-27+3 / Board-level Representation / Across Europe / National Industrial Relations / Home - WORKER PARTICIPATION.eu
Whatever the challenges of Portugal (and there are many) at least employees are represented at board level.
If you look at Federation of European Employers numbers (2004-2006, latest available), one will see an average of 23 days lost per 1,000 workers, per year, in the UK versus 4 in Germany.
I would not draw a firm conclusion about correlation, since only an unwise person would attribute cause and effect on the basis of one set of numbers.
But in the period 2004-2006, the UK lost an aggregate of 69 days per thousand workers, versus 12 in Germany.
I would not even compare the US to Europe (for this subject), as the "employment at will" based legislation in many states means that the environment is completely different to Europe.
Maybe we could all club together and have the UK towed across the Atlantic? Might make a lot of people happy.
