There are several kinds of direct employee participation within companies in the Netherlands. Each particular kind of participation depends on the number of employees that work within the company based on an employment agreement.
Companies with 50 or more employees are obliged to establish a Works Council. Are there more than 10 but less than 50 employees working at your company? In that case, the establishment of an employee representative body (personeelsvertegenwoordiging) will be sufficient. Setting up an employee representative body is inevitable if requested by a majority of the employees.
If, in case of a smaller company, the entrepreneur does not set up a Works Council or an employee representative body (voluntarily), the law guarantees a minimum level of participation. The entrepreneur has to organize a meeting with all of his employees at least twice a year to discuss business affairs (personeelsvergadering).