ABSTRACT
Workplace democracy is more likely to gain in importance for workers if it is moving towards more effective, meaningful and democratic worker influence. Participatory labour relations are distinct from adversarial ones in that they imply a penetration of the workers and or their representatives into the internal decision-making structure of a workplace. The basic notion of worker participation is that workers, directly or through representatives, take part in decision making that affects their working life, on the shop floor, at their workplace, in the enterprise, but also at other levels of decision making. Participation is a dynamic ongoing process of policy and strategy formulation, based on evaluation of experience, and taking into account opinions and expectations by workers, their leaders, management, employers, etc. African Workers Participation Development Programme (APADEP) workplace democracy research initially focused only on specific worker participation schemes, but eventually a much wider perspective was adopted.
