European Works Councils

The so-called recast EWC Directive finally became law in May 2009, after a protracted period of negotiations between BusinessEurope and the ETUC.  While the recast Directive failed to remedy a number of the weaknesses contained in the original Directive, it does strengthen the role of European Works Councils and the rights of EWC representatives.  The provisions of the new Directive come into effect on 5th June 2011 and will have ramnifications for a large number of existing EWC agreements and for all future agreeemts.

 

ADAPT can provide EWC representatives with training and advice on a range of issues including how to co-ordinate cross border action, influence company strategy and understand financial information.  In addition, ADAPT can act in the capacity of expert to the EWC itself and can guide representatives throughout restructuring or change at work.  ADAPT recognises the key role EWCs play in creating greater employee solidarity and seeks to promote and support them, but we understand the barriers in doing so. In fact our research shows that EWCs find it difficult to establish cross-border co-operation in the face of employer attempts to create competition between sites by using the threat of redundancies or closure for the less efficient ones.  We are currently involved in a number of European wide projects aimed at supporting trade union members upon the boards of EWCs and are working in partnership with organisations such as Astrees (France), Labour Associados (Spain), UNI Europa, and Euro-workscouncil.net (Germany) to name a few.

 

All of this work is aimed at improving the functioning of European Works Councils and improving employee engagement across multinational companies, which is particularly urgent given the current restructuring being undertaken as a direct response to the global financial crisis.  In addition to these general projects ADAPT can offer advice and training on specific EWC related issues.  

 

 

European Works Councils in Commerce 

Over the past 12 months ADAPT has been working with UNI Europa Commerce  (the European trade union federation representing workers within the commerce sector) to examine the effectiveness of EWCs in the sector and highlight areas for improvement, and is currently analysing EWCs within all the major commerce companies.  The final analysis will be available in the summer 2011.  UNI Commerce has already hosted EWC seminars in Denmark, Berlin and Paris at which EWC representatives formulated strategies to improve the functioning of their EWCs.  

 

    

David Tarren represents ADAPT at London EWC Conference.

Over 75 delegates from across Europe, South Africa and Australia met in London in 2010 to discuss how to strengthen the role of EWCs within the graphical sector. David was the expert for UNI Europa throughout the project and undertook research throughout the sector, and his final report is available by clicking here. Over the past two years David has regularly advised trade union federations on how to improve the efficiency and functionality of EWCs, particularly in light of the recast Directive. The event, below, was organised by UNI and supported by Unite the Union and other speakers included Simon Dubbins, the Head of Unite's International department and Claudia Saller, UNI Europa EWC Co-ordinator (centre photo).