Employee involvement in companies under the European Company Statute (ECS) - Case study : GfK SE

GfK, the German-based market research company, transformed itself into an SE in 2009. Management saw the change as reflecting GfK’s international perspectives and structure, although it also had the side effect of avoiding a major change in the composition of the supervisory board. The transformation has strengthened the European character of social dialogue in GfK, as there are now two non-German members on the supervisory board, and SE works council brings together members from almost all European countries, where GfK operates – the threshold is five employees. The SE works council has already agreed joint European guidelines on one issue, and both management and employee representatives have a generally positive view of the change.