Left-wing think tank the Jimmy Reid Foundation has called for a new Scottish industrial democracy with workers' places on boards of companies.

In a report published today, Working Together, the authors argue: "We cannot allow the national failures in industrial relations that we have recently seen in Grangemouth repeated."

The Common Weal model proposes that "all workplaces would have collective bargaining recognition of all trade unions no matter the level of trade union density."

The report calls for board-level employee representation in companies with 35 employees or more.

And workplaces with 35 staff or more should set up a "co-operation committee" with equal numbers of employee and employer representatives.

"This model works elsewhere in Europe and we are convinced it is possible to create a Scottish version," the authors claim.

The foundation also argues that Scottish companies with plants located abroad should allow for their subsidiary plants to have board-level employee representation rights and that companies headquartered outside of Scotland should allow for employee representation at their highest decision-making body stationed in Scotland.

Richard Leonard, political officer for trade union GMB Scotland, said steps to close the democratic deficit at the workplace were welcome but warned that "reforms should be founded on the firm cornerstone of trade union organisation and representation, not some compromised employee representative model."

He added: "The question is bound to be asked whether this could be better done at a UK rather than a Scottish level - as the Scottish government's own figures show 34 per cent of all private-sector employees work for companies owned outside Scotland and for larger enterprises this leaps to 64 per cent."