From climate collapse and industrial stagnation to popular discontent and the rise of authoritarianism, our democratic future and social fabric are under unprecedented strain. The report commissioned by the Spanish government, Two Promises to Those Who Work: Voice and Ownership, delivers a clear diagnosis: our societies face nine interrelated crises, from ecological overshoot and the disruptive rise of AI to the erosion of trust in institutions and predatory financialisation.
The insight that can give hope is that the various crises share a single common denominator: an extractivist corporate model that treats workers as disposable resources rather than citizens. Extending the democratic project into the economy by recognising workers’ access to voice and ownership – the two pillars of economic democracy – is the only structural antidote to a trend that will otherwise destroy political democracy.
A historic wave of progress
Democracy at work is neither a luxury nor a policy afterthought; it is an established pillar of the European social model, anchored in article 27 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, this principle has surged again from the margins of institutional policy to centre stage. In December 2021, the European Parliament passed a historic resolution calling for a comprehensive EU framework for democracy at work. When the Commission hesitated, in early 2023, MEPs took the rare step of triggering an initiative of article 225 TFEU (which confers on the European Parliament the power to request the Commission to submit any appropriate proposal on matters of implementing the treaties) to force the issue.
Months later, under the Spanish presidency, the EPSCO Council (Employment) chaired by the Spanish minister of labour, Yolanda Diaz, unanimously concluded that deepening democracy at work is essential to navigating the green and digital transitions. This political momentum has already delivered concrete breakthroughs. The 2024 Platform Work Directive broke new ground by curbing automated decision-making and protecting worker voice against algorithmic tyranny, and it was followed by a revision of the European Works Council Directive.
A voice and shared ownership plan
Released last February, the Spanish report on democracy at work offers a comprehensive roadmap to these challenges designed to transform the Spanish – and European – political economy to make it inclusive and sustainable. First, we must consolidate a three-tier model of voice within firms in order to strengthen the long-standing architecture of collective bargaining. The first among these is the workplace level: protecting day-to-day workers’ autonomy, health and safety. At the work-council level, timely and robust information and consultation rights, backed by mandatory, reasoned management responses, need to be secured, as do workers’ veto rights over AI deployment and algorithmic surveillance. At the board level, we need to guarantee direct worker representation on boards, following the standard set by a majority of EU member states (including Germany and the Nordic nations), to enable labour investors and their representatives to have a real say in the company’s governance. Strengthened trade unions will serve as the vital connective tissue across these tiers, ensuring that workplace democracy is coordinated industry-wide rather than confined to the boundaries of isolated firms.
Second, we must finally confront the question of ownership. It is time for European societies to tackle the deep economic inequality embedded at the core of their model. This means recognising those who work as genuine ‘labour investors’ by opening a path for them to share the wealth that they create, rather than merely watching that value accumulate for the benefit of others. By coupling board-level representation with statutory equity minima and new citizen wealth funds at regional, national and European levels, we can ensure that European firms are progressively owned by their workers and communities.
This dual plan will shield enterprises from predatory asset-stripping and short-term financialisation, laying the groundwork for a sustainable, locally-anchored productive sovereignty. As a central instrument for public intervention, the report introduces the Corporate Democratic Development Index. By conditioning corporate taxation, state subsidies and public procurement on a firm’s performance in workers’ access to voice and to ownership, this framework equips public authorities with a decisive mechanism to steer corporate governance towards workers’ voice and shared ownership.
The immediate battles: AI, quality jobs, and the right to disconnect
The immediate testing ground for this roadmap is unfolding in Brussels right now. Executive Commission Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu’s Quality Jobs Roadmap is paving the way for the forthcoming Quality Jobs Act, with social partner consultations set to close this autumn. Predictably, corporate lobbies argue that no new labour legislation is needed, pointing to the EU AI Act. This is a deliberate distraction: the AI Act regulates software products on the single market; it does not regulate power relations in the workplace.
Without binding new rules, article 26(7) of the AI Act remains a hollow promise, leaving workers subject to algorithmic firing, pacing and surveillance without mandatory prior consultation. Extending democracy to the workplace is the missing structural safeguard. Make no mistake: artificial intelligence operates as a technology of government and surveillance. In a democratic society, introducing new rules of government must require the consent of the governed. In this light, establishing a three-tier architecture of worker voice at work is needed more than ever. Simultaneously, the Quality Jobs Act must establish an EU-wide, legally binding right to disconnect – generalising the statutory models already proven in some countries (France, Luxembourg and Spain, for example) to eliminate the current 24/7, boundary-less workplace.
The window is now
We have arrived at a fork in the road. In the face of political fragmentation and competitive anxiety, the destructive reflex is to roll back corporate responsibilities, slash sustainability reporting and double down on top-down managerial control. Hence, the current train of omnibus regulations at the EU-level. On the contrary, real innovation, economic resilience and a just transition to fit our economy within planetary boundaries require moving beyond the current extractivist governance model. This will only be achieved with the active participation of all labour investors, via the mobilisation of their collective intelligence, tacit knowledge, consent and active participation.
By embedding these proposals into the Quality Jobs Act and championing both voice and ownership across the continent, Europe can start delivering on its core social promise again. It is time to extend democracy to where people spend the majority of their lives: at work. Only by ending people’s economic disenfranchisement can Europe catalyse true shared prosperity and revitalise our democracies.
Photo credits: Shutterstock/Mahmoud asad