Abstract

The economic crisis, the structural change of global capitalism and the gradual weakening of the bargaining power of the trade union suggest to reflect on the participation of workers and the prospects for a different "industrial democracy". The paper analyzes the historical experience of the Uk, evaluating if, and to what extent, company law structure and debates in Britain, also on corporate governance, have taken into account employees' interests. The focus is on recent proposals, such as the one that worker representative should be included into the company structure in order to respond to the problem of excessive managerial pay. Moreover, the a. analyzes recent reforms on employee share ownership and argues that this kind of participation in itself is not the answer to the issues raised by the stakeholder debate. Finally, the article pays attention on the new Employee Shareholder status, that came into force in the Uk in 2013, with the aim to evaluate its possible impact on Italian legal system.