JD Wetherspoon has promoted four of its managers to provide “more pub experience” to its eight-strong board of directors, after a series of run-ins with employees, politicians and investors.

The pub chain flagged the move during its full-year results in October, and on Monday it announced it had appointed four new worker directors – with two named as “employee directors with full plc director status, and two as associate employee directors”.

Employee directors remain something of an oddity in the UK – although at one point they looked set to become a new trend, with businesses involving more employees in decision making.

In 2016 Theresa May, while campaigning to become prime minister, promised to make big companies appoint them. In the end her proposals were watered down.

Wetherspoon’s founder and chairman, Tim Martin, said: “Pub and area managers, and other members of pub teams, have always participated in weekly decision-making meetings, which distil suggestions from the ‘frontline’.

“The appointment of employee directors will extend this approach to board meetings and will help to preserve the culture of the company for the future”.

The announcement comes after the chain – which has often divided opinion among the UK public – had been involved in a series of rows ranging from its communication with staff during the pandemic, its corporate governance and its founder’s sometimes outspoken views on topics such as Brexit.

At the start of the pandemic last year, Wetherspoon’s was pressed into denying it was “abandoning” its 43,000 staff after stating it could not afford to pay them during the Covid-19 crisis until the company had seen details of the government’s furlough scheme.

Martin also faced criticism last year for playing down the risks of people gathering in pubs during the pandemic and criticising the government for shutting them down.

He has also railed against the City’s focus on corporate governance, with one of his attacks running to more than 3,000 words as part of a statement to the London Stock Exchange that used only 20 words to outline the group’s recent trading.

Wetherspoon’s said it had received more than 100 applications for the new employee director roles.

The new employee directors are Debbie Whittingham, a regional manager for the West Midlands, and Hudson Simmons, an area manager for Sheffield – who both joined the company as shift managers in the 1990s.

The associate employee directors are Will Fotheringham, a regional manager for the Manchester area, and Emma Gibson, the pub manager of the Imperial, in Exeter.

• The headline and introductory sentence of this article were amended on 24 December 2021 because an earlier version referred to JD Wetherspoon “area managers” joining the board. As the article went on to make clear, of those who will join as full board directors, one is an area manager, the other is a regional manager. It was further amended on 20 January 2022. An earlier version said that at the start of the pandemic in 2020, Wetherspoon told staff it could not afford to pay them until the company “was reimbursed for their wages by the government”. This has been changed to “until the company had seen details of the government’s furlough scheme”. To clarify: on 23 March 2020, Martin told staff the company could not commit to paying them after 27 March 2020 and warned of a likely delay to further payments before the furlough money arrived.