Abstract
This article shows how both employers and the state have influenced macro-level processes and
structures concerning the content and transposition of the European Union (EU) Employee Information
and Consultation (I&C) Directive. It argues that the processes of regulation occupied by employers
reinforce a voluntarism which marginalizes rather than shares decision-making power with workers.
The contribution advances the conceptual lens of ‘regulatory space’ by building on Lukes’ multiple
faces of power to better understand how employment regulation is determined across transnational,
national and enterprise levels. The research proposes an integrated analytical framework on which
‘occupancy’ of regulatory space can be evaluated in comparative national contexts.