Private employees, how profit distribution works in 8 questions and answers

No. It is the company statutes that define the management participation of employees. In public limited companies (or limited partnerships) organised according to a two-tier governance model - with a management board and a supervisory board - it is always the company statutes that may provide, if the case is regulated by collective agreements, for the participation in the supervisory board of one or more employee representatives, identified on the basis of the procedures defined by the agreements, in compliance with both the requirements of professionalism and honourableness required for board members and the provisions on subjective grounds for exclusion from the relevant appointment.

Lawyer Fabrizio Daverio, founder of the Daverio & Florio law firm, points out that 'the law merely provides for the possibility, not the obligation. the choice is left to the companies and the collective agreements the crux is and will be, therefore, in its actual application. There is in fact a double requirement: both that of the amendment of the company statutes and that of the stipulation of appropriate collective agreements (of whatever type). This intertwining of conditions makes its actual implementation unlikely'.

The articles of association may provide, where the case is regulated by collective agreements, for the presence in the board of directors and, where constituted in the board's internal committee (management control committee), of one or more members representing the interests of employees and identified by the employees themselves. The general requirements of independence, honourableness and professionalism also apply in this case; moreover, these members may not take up management positions within three years of leaving office (if not already held in the same company).

Companies may set up joint committees, composed of an equal number of company and workers' representatives, to draw up proposals for improvement and innovation plans for products, production processes, services and work organisation. Still on the subject of workers' organisational participation, companies can also provide in their organisational chart, in implementation of company collective agreements, the figures of those responsible for training, welfare plans, remuneration policies, and quality of workplaces. Enterprises with fewer than 35 workers may promote, also through bilateral bodies, forms of worker participation in the organisation of enterprises.

In joint committees, unitary trade union representatives or company trade union representatives or, failing that, workers' representatives and territorial structures of sectoral bilateral bodies may be consulted in advance on company decisions, express opinions and proposals on the substance of the decisions that the company intends to take.

For representatives serving on joint committees, training is provided, including joint training, of no less than ten hours per year, paid for by the company, bilateral bodies, inter-professional funds, and the New Skills Fund.