In professional jargon one often hears about German- or French-type EWCs. The two terms refer to different compositions of EWC sessions. The criterion for distinguishing between them is whether management participates in the sessions of an EWC or not. In an EWC of the German type only the employee representatives are allowed to participate in the sessions. No delegates of the management are invited nor admitted to such internal EWC sessions. This approach stems from the German tradition of industrial relations and is closely related to the concept of the German works council or Betriebsrat, which is exclusively an employee body.

On the other hand, the French type of EWC comprises at its sessions representatives of both management and employees. They debate and reach decisions together. Moreover, in contrast to the German model, the EWC is most often chaired by a representative of the central management. Such a solution is not acceptable for German EWC members or trade unionists for whom works councils and EWCs are bastions of employee representation.

All in all, these two models are not very different from each other. This is due to the fact that in the German-type EWC such exclusively internal meetings are followed by a joint session with the management, during which all issues are discussed again. In the French-type EWC, on the other hand, it is a commonplace that the joint sessions of the EWC are preceded by preparatory meetings of the employee representatives. During these pre-sessions the employee delegates prepare the agenda, discuss points of special interest, agree upon strategy, and so on. Therefore, although the two models represent different philosophies and traditions of industrial relations they have relatively moderate implications for the functioning of EWCs.

An alternative and a compromise between the French and German models is a system of alternate chairmanship. In this structure the employees’ representative holds the chairmanship for a certain period of time, after which its counterpart on the management side takes over. Another alternative may be a system of joint chairmanship, in which the chair is a two-person office held jointly by employees’ and management representatives. The latter solution might have serious legal implications in case of a conflict between the EWC and the company management, however; in some cases, where the possibility of a joint chair is not foreseen by national legislation, the EWC might be hindered in bringing a case to court in consequence of having a management representative as the chairman.