WORKERS FINANCIAL PARTICIPATION IN THE EUROPEAN-COMMUNITY

The present article summarizes the recent experiences in workers' fina ncial participation in the member countries of the European Community, as contained in the PEPPER Report prepared for the Commission of the European Community in 1990-91 as part of its Action Programme for the implementation of the Social Charter. Within the category of financial participation, two broad categories of schemes were included: profit- sharing and employee share-ownership. An overview is given of the prev alent types of schemes applied in EC countries, diffusion of particula r forms, characteristics concerning enterprise size and sectoral distr ibution, percentages of employees involved and effective benefits accr uing to employees. With the notable exceptions of France and the UK, e mployee financial participation is for the moment not very diffused. N evertheless, the Recommendation on employee participation in enterpris e results, adopted by the Council of European Communities in July 1992 , encourages member states to grant fiscal and other incentives to fir ms adopting financial participation schemes, which may lead to measure s facilitating their further spread throughout Europe.