Two Promises to Those Who Work: Voice and Ownership

Report

This Report is organized around the three missions assigned to the International Committee of High-Level Experts on Democracy at Work.

The first mission is to assess the current state of democracy at work in Spain, in light of the historical commitment enshrined in Article 129.2 of the Constitution. This involves, in Part I.A, a study of the Article’s historical development and a contextualization of the Spanish situation within the broader European framework. In Part I.B, it entails articulating a body of knowledge demonstrating that democracy at work can serve as an effective response to the major challenges facing humanity today, including extreme economic inequality, overexploitation of natural resources, and the prioritization of competition over cooperation, etc.

The second mission, addressed in Part II.A, is to chart a trajectory for transitioning the Spanish economy toward workplace democracy. The goal is to define a clear path for enterprises to move toward democratization. In this Report, democracy at work means empowering employees to influence major business decisions within the companies where they work. This empowerment can be achieved through the two avenues outlined in Article 129.2: the avenue of voice, granting workers the right to form representative bodies with decision-making power alongside traditionally shareholder-dominated boards, and the avenue of ownership, providing employees with direct decision rights as cooperativists or shareholders.

The third mission, covered in Part II.B, is to identify concrete public policy instruments, including taxes, subsidies, new financial tools, and legislation on employees’ rights, and to draft normative proposals that can foster productive public debate and connect these initiatives to the EU level. This mission also involves mapping institutional obstacles and developing the mechanisms necessary to support a culture of effective democratic practices in the workplace.

The structure of this Report follows the progression of these three missions. It presents factual evidence and robust economic and political arguments to demonstrate the imperative for public intervention in fostering workplace democratization, particularly in light of prevailing market and social dynamics that limit equitable and sustainable outcomes.