“Amid growing employee activism, Google agrees to set up a workers council in Europe”, 19 March 2020

…Google's European employees are soon to be represented in an official work council that will better liaise between the workforce and the company…

… [A] group of 153 Google employees from 11 European offices kicked off the proceedings to establish a works council, and wrote to the company to request that the organization be set up.

Google agreed … to establish a Special Negotiating Body (SNB), which is made up of representatives from EU countries that are elected by employees.

The company … is required by law to create a works council if enough employees submit a request to do so. The European Commission … indicates that, for companies that have 1,000 employees or more, a request by 100 employees from two EU countries triggers the process of creating the council.

In addition to representing employees, works councils facilitate information and consultation on certain measures…

Google indicated that while the exact scope of the new organization is yet to be defined by the SNB, the works council will provide better transparency on transnational issues in Europe … This includes, for example, events that affect workers such as changes to ways of working in given countries.

A Google spokesperson told ZDNet: ‘We've always encouraged constructive and open dialogue with Googlers and we always will. Works councils are not new to Google – we've had one in France for over ten years.’

It is still unclear, however, whether a works council in Europe will give Google's workers a greater voice in overseeing their employers' doings. Judging by similar organizations that other tech giants have already set up on the continent, it would seem that the influence that the organizations can exercise is rather limited.