FirstGroup scraps boardroom role it pioneered – Daily Business

Transport operator FirstGroup, which pioneereed worker representatives in the boardroom, will no longer have employee directors.

The Aberdeen-based company said Ant Green, a 55-year-old bus driver, would not be standing for re-election to the board at its annual general meeting and the role will retire with him.

He will be the last in a line of employee directors at First Group which has had them on its board since the company launched in 1989.

It said the decision was triggered by structural shifts in the transport sector. “As the UK bus and rail industries enter a period of significant change and we restructure the group accordingly, the board has reviewed the framework for engaging with colleagues and providing employee feedback to the board,” it said.

In place of an employee director, the group will have a designated non-executive director to ensure that the voice of the workforce is heard in the boardroom.

Employee directors were championed by Theresa May during her premiership as she saw them as a means to rein in the excesses of some chief executives.

Frasers, the retailer, and Mears Group, the social housing maintenance and care services company, have had employee directors since 2018. Pubs group JD Wetherspoon has four.