Employee participation in the workplace represents one of the most interesting elements of the Catholic Social Teaching (CST). In the paper, the author clarifies the historical development of the idea of employee involvement in the decision-making process and in the ownership of the company they work for.
He also presents both the theoretical and practical aspects of the reception of employee participation, specifically the German system of co-determination, several pastoral letters of the American bishops, and the Basque Mondragon Corporation. The author also attempts to explain the problem of the compatibility of employee participation with selected principles of the CST.
The paper points to a Personalistic dimension of the CST, which also includes employee participation.