Stakeholder Engagement in European Companies

Edited by Hanne S. Birkmose, Dean, Faculty of Business and Social Sciences, University of Southern Denmark and Karsten Engsig Sørensen, Professor of Law, Department of Law, Aarhus University, Denmark

• Contents1 Introduction to Stakeholder Engagement in EuropeanCompanies 1Hanne S. Birkmose and Karsten Engsig SørensenPART I WORK REPRESENTATION2 Worker representation in supervisory boards 13Achim Seifert3 Worker influence when participating in supervision andmanagement of a company 35Troels Michael Lilja4 Workers’ rights to interfere with the appointment of companydirectors 62Mijke Houwerzijl5 Corporate assembly in Norwegian companies 83Tore Bråthen6 Employee participation in UK corporate governance 102Andreas Kokkinis and Konstantinos Sergakis7 The underutilization of employee participation: examiningthe barriers 125Mette NevillePART II OTHER FORMS OF WORKER INVOLVEMENT8 Works councils as stakeholders: the European Works Counciland the Dutch Works Council 154Joti Roest9 Employee involvement through information and consultationduring cross-border conversions, mergers, and divisions 177Thomas Papadopoulos10 Employee share schemes 200Veikko VahteraPART III INVOLVEMENT OF OTHER STAKEHOLDERS11 Corporate sustainability due diligence and the involvement ofstakeholders 214Karsten Engsig Sørensen12 Whistleblowing – stakeholder impact on corporategovernance and compliance 238Klaus Ulrich Schmolke13 Strategic litigation against companies by NGOs representingstakeholder interests 261Hans De Wulf14 NGOs and other stakeholder groups’ influence as participantsin AGMs 282Christoph van der Elst15 Debtholder influence in corporate governance 309Suren Gomtsian16 Data creditors: the rise of new stakeholders in the dataeconomy and their role in corporate governance 333Florian Möslein