Exercising voice across borders: Workers’ rights under the EU Cross-border Mergers Directive

Since the passage of the 2005 EU Directive on cross-border mergers of limited liability companies, mergers between firms based in different countries have become an increasingly important form of corporate reorganisation in Europe. These mergers have great significance for workers’ rights to information, consultation and participation. A new book written and edited by Jan Cremers (TLS) and Sigurt Vitols (WZB-Berlin) contains the results of a study of workers' rights to information, consultation and participation in EU and national law covering cross-border mergers. Based on an analysis of available statistics, nine national legal regimes and seven case studies, the authors argue that the provisions for workers’ rights under the Directive are inadequate, both during the merger procedure and in the new post-merger entity. It remains to be seen whether the deficits identified in the study can be successfully addressed by the implementation of the EU Company Law Package, a new legislative initiative regulating different types of cross-border reorganisations.