Unlike the USSR or many other Marxist-Leninist states, the DPRK actually did away with the "one man management" of workplaces. It is often argued, that without grassroots control by workers or the party, it was easier for revisionists like Krushchev to destroy worker autonomy by increasing the liberties of the managers: In the end, this led to the restoration of the profit motive and the neutering of workers power. The DPRK chose a different path: 1961 the "one man management" was abolished, and the Taean Work System introduced, which is still operating today. This makes the DPRK the only existing country in the world with a genuine, fully established workplace democracy.
So, how does it work? First off, there is the democratic part. A workplace committee, elected by the workers in the enterprise, consists of 25 - 35 members, which are made up by common workers, engineers, scientists, managers and representatives of worker organizations (trade unions or women's organizations, for example). This standing committee then elects an executive committee, since arround 30 people are too many to efficiently run the place day-to-day, which consists of five people. Both the committee and the executive committee are supposed to strengthen the cooperation between workers, which also means: Coordination of the respective enterprise with the economic plan, unions, party functionaries and local councils to make economic planning sustainably democratic. Pay is set by the unions of the entire industry. In general, the administration of the enterprise has two columns, a practical one and an ideological one. While engineers, worker representatives or deputies of the respective departments oversee production, supply and worker services, party representatives and union members provide the ideological basis (political education, motivation, study groups for workers, special rewards for qualitative work and so on). The percentage of common workers in the committee is set to be 60% at least. That means, the common worker has the absolute majority should there be a disagreement.
These committees are not just elected. They are charged with reciprocal elaboration of problems open discussion with the entirety of the stuff when sich problems arise.
Secondly, there is the completely different arrangement of character of a North Korean workplace compared to capitalism or even most self-proclaimed socialist states, which is designed to overcome alienation as formulated by Marx. Workplaces are designed to be self-sustainable, which means they are supposed to overcome the separation of individual producers which allocate their surplus. North Korean workplaces have farmland (pic related) where they have their own factory-grown food, they are made ecologically as sustainable as possible (mostly hydraulic and solar energy), they have areas of recreation, like pools or gyms, in-built educational halls with computers with access to the national intranet; through unions and the such the workplaces even organize people's retirement funds or welfare. In even bigger installments, the workers actually live at their workplace: They only have to walk a few steps to their workspace, and also have access to in-built daycare centers - this results in the overcoming of the antagonisms of labor and motherhood, and ensures the complete liberation of woman.
country-data.com
writetorebel.com/2017/03/28/socialism-and-democracy-in-the-dprk/
imgur.com
(Chollima Industrial Steel Complex)
docdroid.net
Socialist Korea: A Case Study of Economic Development
youtu.be
Chairman Kim Jong-Un gives field guidance in a large cosmetics factory
Final note: Due to sanctions fabricated by imperialist powers, I don't try to say that the DPRK is an utopia or a paradise. The life of the average North Korean can in no way be compared to the life of a Swiss person, in terms of access to consumer products, for example.
