Co-determination and the digital product passport are two different arrangements that may happen to arrive on your desk at the same time. The European regulation determines what information about a product must be known and who must supply it; the Dutch Works Councils Act determines whether and how your employees are involved in changes within the organization. Whether co-determination plays a role in your company when implementing the passport therefore does not depend on the regulation itself, but on the question of whether your company has or must have a works council, and what changes internally when you implement the passport.
For many SMEs without a works council, formal co-determination does not change due to the passport as such. The co-determination obligation mainly affects companies that already have a works council, or that must legally establish one, and then specifically for the internal decisions that implementation entails. Not for the regulation itself.
Two tracks that are often confused
The regulation for the digital product passport governs product information: what must be known about a batch of steel, who compiles it, and how long it remains accessible. It contains no provisions on personnel, participation or working conditions. Co-determination in the Netherlands is governed by existing legislation that has been in force for some time and stands on its own. Both tracks can come together in practice, for example when you purchase new software to manage passport data, but one does not automatically follow from the other.
When does a works council get involved
Whether your company must have a works council generally depends on the number of employees. Companies with a works council also have to deal with advisory or consent rights on certain decisions, such as the introduction of new systems that affect work processes or the tasks of employees. Companies without a works council may, depending on their size, have an employee representation with a more limited role. The precise limits and rights are laid down in existing legislation on co-determination; for the current state of that, the SER or a legal adviser is the appropriate source, not the regulation on the product passport. At the page with frequently asked questions we briefly outline which topics often come together in our work, so you know where to look further.
What implementation within your company can affect
If your company already has a works council, it may play a role in choices you make during implementation, not in the regulation itself. Think of the choice for new software with which employees enter or verify data, changes in work processes on the shop floor, or systems that track who has entered which data. The latter quickly touches on the handling of personal data of employees, a subject that is separate from the product passport but in practice comes to lie alongside it. At the knowledge base, where we have researched topics by situation you will find the background to these kinds of questions, so you can assess the product issue and the personnel issue separately.
Smaller companies without a works council
If your company does not have a works council and there is no legal obligation to establish one, employee participation in the formal sense does not play a role in implementing the product passport. This does not mean that consultation with your employees is unnecessary: those who will enter the data or scan the QR code later often have useful input on what works in practice. However, this is an organisational choice, not a legal obligation. It is, however, good to think about how new software handles personal data, especially if that software keeps track of who did what; on the page on privacy and data you will find how that topic relates to the product passport.
This is not an answer to your specific situation
Whether and how employee participation applies precisely in your company, and what rights are involved, is a question for your works council, the SER or a lawyer who knows your situation. On ferropas.eu we describe the relationship between the digital product passport and topics that often relate to it, but we do not make a statement about your specific business situation.
Do you first want to know whether and when the digital product passport itself applies to your products, separate from the question about employee participation? Take the free product scan, which gives you an initial indication in a few questions and then read more at leisure on the topics that are relevant to your company.