Ten years of European works councils in Ireland: testing the regulatory capacity of soft‐style EU directives

Abstract

PurposeThe European Works Council (EWC) Directive reflects a shift to a softer style of governance which has been adopted by the EU in recent years. This article sets out to explore how successful this soft style governance is when implemented at the national level.Design/methodology/approachThe paper introduces the literature on the subject and shows that two main theses have been developed to date; one which favours the softer mechanism of governance and one which is critical of it. Two propositions are developed from the literature. The article explores them by examining them in light of the manner in which the Directive has bedded down in the Irish context. It does this through a micro and macro analysis of material available on the EWC in Ireland and a series of interviews. Ireland is regarded as a suitable arena in which to explore these propositions.FindingsThe article finds that the EWC Directive was implemented in Ireland in a manner which was deemed suitable for its smooth integration into the Irish context. However, the transposition’s flexible nature is such that it is unclear that it has made any significant contribution to Ireland’s system of industrial relations. It is suggested that the EU may not yet have developed a form of governance suitable for a disparate, expanding community.Originality/valueThe paper provides a micro‐analysis of how the EWC Directive has been transposed in one Member State (Ireland). It combines this with a macro‐analysis which enables us to compare the Irish transposition with other Member States. This approach indicates that the Directive has been applied in a very heterogeneous style throughout the Member States, which tends to reproduce indigenous industrial relations systems rather than reform or challenge them.