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 Welcome to issue no. 3 / 2012 of EWC News. 6th October 2012
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The
Academy for European Works Councils (EWC Academy)
EWC
News appears four times a year.
You can find past issues in the newsletter archives.
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1.
New
highly explosive legal battle
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For the first time old agreement officially terminated Current developments at Hewlett-Packard bring to light the legal status of more than 400 European work councils which were created before 22nd September 1996. On 24th July 2012 the EWC of the US IT-group gave notice to terminate their old agreement which was concluded in May 1996 under Belgian jurisdiction. 95% of the representatives voted in favor. At the same time they decided to take legal action against central management before Brussels’ labour court for failing to carry out a consultation procedure.
According to article 14 of the new EWC Directive (article 13 of the old), agreements signed before 1996 or modified between June 2009 and June 2011 are excluded from EWC legislation. This was a concession given to employers during the legislative process and strengthens so-called “voluntary” EWC agreements, which were often concluded even below the standards of the old legislation. By providing the “threat” of having no works council for a period of up to three years, the new EWC Directive makes the termination of such agreements more difficult. As the first in Europe, the EWC of Hewlett-Packard could not be deterred anymore from this.
Triggered by substantial cutbacks in the workforce
On 23rd May 2012, the US management announced 27,000 layoffs out of its 325,000 world-wide workforce. 8,000 jobs are to be lost in Europe alone, despite good earnings and no overstaffing. As a consequence an extraordinary meeting of the European works council was held in Amsterdam from 12th to 14th June 2012, where central management however gave no exact figures. This resembles, at that time, the situation of the IT-group, Alcatel Lucent (see report in EWC News 1/2007). Their EWC won a court ruling in Paris in April 2007 which still remains today a benchmark for the business reporting obligations of central management to the EWC (see report in EWC News 2/2007).
With a view to starting a well-substantiated consultation procedure, the Hewlett-Packard EWC requested the assistance of experts. Central management however refused and regards the EWC, as in 2008, as a sort of “rubber-stamping assembly” (see report in EWC News 4/2008). It took legal action, when actual figures had been released in France and the Netherlands and layoffs actually begun in Spain without waiting for any opinion of the EWC. The case is comparable to that of Visteon, the US automobile supplier, who wanted to close a plant in Spain without consulting the EWC and was likewise taken to court (see report in EWC News 3/2011). The cases do however differ in the applicability of the new EWC Directive, which applies in the case of Visteon and not for HP.
Now new negotiations on EWC agreement
A formal termination of the Hewlett-Packard EWC agreement was inevitable for exactly this reason. Changes to the old agreement are now being negotiated for 18 months. If this fails, the EWC is dissolved at the end of 2013 and a special negotiating body (SNB) will be established to negotiate a full EWC agreement on the basis of the new legislation within three years. It remains to be seen whether central management will accept to continue under Belgian jurisdiction or prefer rather to dodge to the weaker British legislation. Currently two German labour courts are dealing with exactly the same issue (see report in EWC News 2/2012).
The opinion of EWC chairman, Udo Verzagt
Upcoming event on the subject |
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2.
Practical tip: How do EWC members inform the workforce?
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Under the old legislation, European works council members were only accountable for their work and for reporting back on any consultations to their country of origin, to their electorate or to their delegating trade union.
Since June 2011, and providing they are covered by the new legislation, European works councils have the collective accountability to all countries for which the EWC is responsible. According to article 10 of the new EWC Directive “the members of the European works council shall have the means required, to represent collectively the interests of the employees” and shall inform them “of the content and outcome of the information and consultation procedure”. This also applies to countries or sites, which are not represented in the EWC or which do not have any employee representation. In such cases the EWC not only has the right, but the obligation to inform the workforce directly.
Central or group works councils do not exist in every country
Generally speaking, communication runs smoothly in countries where the works councils of different sites are interconnected or in countries with only one site. How to manage however,
The new EWC Directive is clear: in all of these cases the European works council has the collective responsibility to fully inform all parts of the European workforce without exception. In practice however numerous questions emerge possibly involving substantial costs for the employer.
The new Directive offers numerous opportunities for further initiatives
The answers to these questions have a great significance for the reinforcement of transnational co-operation. With a more thorough application of the new legal situation it can also make sense for the employer to create work councils or national works councils where they do not already exist. Why should the EWC be blown up to a “mega works council”, when much more appropriate structures can be created locally?
Some practical examples
Already in 2005, the EWC agreement of Veolia Environnement, the French conglomerate, made provisions for the establishment of national social dialogue committees in all those countries having no central works council (see report in EWC News 1/2011). The SE agreement for the German Freudenberg group, from March 2012, not only includes the right of access to all sites but also provides for preliminary meetings between different sites and/or divisions within a country with a view to making the appropriate connection with the SE works council (see report in EWC News 2/2012). N.B.: the collective responsibility does not apply automatically!
Old agreements, which were concluded for the first time before September 1996, or those modified between June 2009 and June 2011 are excluded from the new legal situation. Renegotiation of the EWC agreement is absolutely necessary if it does not include sufficient provisions for this. |
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3. Exemplary company agreements
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Areva, the nuclear power-plant supplier, signed an agreement with French trade unions, on 31st May 2012, for measures to improve the quality of life. It concerns not only the reduction of stress, but also work-life balance, teleworking and part-time working models including parental leave. An action plan is to be drawn up in every site with more than 50 employees. The role of health and safety committees is also to be strengthened. A monitoring body will supervise the agreement and submit an annual report.
In the first place the agreement will apply only to France. In some cases such agreements are extended to the European level after an initial test phase. An anti-discrimination agreement in Areva has already been in place since November 2006 and a personnel planning agreement since April 2011 (see report in EWC News 1/2011), both on a European level.
An agreement on extended employee participation rights was signed on 4th July 2012 in Sant'Agata Bolognese (Emilia Romagna region) for the 980 workers of Lamborghini. The Italian sportscar manufacturer belongs to Volkswagen group and was transposing a framework agreement, which was concluded in October 2009 between the central management and the company’s World works council (see report in EWC News 4/2009).
The Italian employee representatives had previously been trained in 2011 for their expanded role with support of German works council members. The agreement provides for the establishment of bilateral working groups on topics such as organization of work, classification, health and safety as well as profit-sharing. The members of these working groups have the right to training and to experts. In the context of the traditionally conflict-oriented labour relations in Italy, the agreement can be considered as a milestone, since the employee representatives of the Lamborghini factory have a substantially stronger role. Volkswagen’s management is of the opinion that successful management of change and lasting competitiveness can only be achieved with well trained employee representatives. In Italy, Lamborghini therefore represents a counter-model to Fiat, where the industrial collective agreements are currently being undermined in a conflict with trade unions.
A social charter for BNP Paribas was signed, on 11th July 2012 in Paris, with contents substantially surpassing those commonly present in such agreements. It took 18 months to negotiate with the participation of the European works council. The social charter defines a framework for the organization of restructuring and the involvement of local works councils in all countries falling under the scope of the EWC. Employee appraisals are to be subject to European-wide minimum standards and workforce planning to be made transparent. Compliance to the agreement, in particular progress in individual countries, will be overseen once annually by the EWC in a meeting of its select committee. |
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4. Current reports on wages
and industry
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5. European Commission
initiatives
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Transnational company agreements are to be legally secured
Transnational company agreements exist since the year 2000, in a growing number of companies. They go beyond the limited scope of information and consultation within the EWC Directive by establishing binding regulations, for example on social minimum standards or the anticipation of change. At the beginning of 2012, 224 such agreements were registered in 144 companies and covering more than 10 million employees. Frequently the European works council is the initiator or is at least involved in the negotiation and the subsequent monitoring. Up to now, however, this new form of agreement is not legally water-tight. Are the agreements legally enforceable in all EU countries, including the UK? Who should be the contracting party: the European works council (= German model) or the trade unions (= French model) or both? (see report in EWC News 3/2010). So far, the employers' confederations have categorically rejected any legal regulation on this topic.
Already in 2006, a group of experts conducted an evaluation on the subject on behalf of the European Commission, and in 2008 the European Commission released its first paper on the topic together with an evaluation of the contents of agreements. There has been an on-line database of transnational company agreements since October 2011.
Social Democrats in the European Parliament push for a more comprehensive initiative  
This consultation could get an additional boost if the European Parliament passes a resolution which was requested on 8th June 2012 by the social-democratic parliamentary group in the Committee for Employment and Social Affairs. It goes far beyond the European Commission’s working document and contains 16 concrete recommendations for employee rights in restructuring. It would hereby provide European wide minimum standards for anticipating workforce planning, social plans and for severance agreements. Should the request obtain a majority in the Parliament, the European Commission would be forced to submit a draft Directive within three months or otherwise justify in detail the reasons for their inaction. However it is not at all certain that a majority will be reached during the vote which is planned for November 2012 during a plenary session of the European Parliament. No changes to the right to strike for the moment  On
11th September 2012 the European Commission withdrew its draft bill for
the monitoring of labour disputes which it had first submitted in March
2012. It had come under substantial criticism from trade unions.
Numerous parliaments from European Union countries had furthermore
lodged official complaints to Brussels, since the bill would have
unreasonably intervened in national affairs (see report in EWC
News 2/2012).
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6.
Latecomers
adopt new EWC legislation
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Finally results are to be seen following the warning from the European Commission, in November 2011, notifying three countries which had not yet transposed the new EWC Directive (see report in EWC News 4/2011). On 1st March 2012 the updated Greek EWC legislation was published in the official state gazette.
This followed several consultation rounds between the government and social partners. In the opinion of Greek trade unions the fourth version of the draft bill contained substantial improvements and was finally adopted as legislation. Although many companies have subsidiaries in Greece, only one company has established a EWC under Greek legislation: the Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling company. This listed company bottles beverages for the Coca Cola group and other companies and distributes them to Italy, Austria and Eastern Europe.
Italy 14 months late
At this stage, the Grand Duchy is the only European Union country that has not yet transposed the new EWC Directive. Although the draft bill has been before Parliament for consultation since November 2011, there are still some controversial issues such as the right to training for EWC members. Changes were made to the draft during the last meeting of the Employment and Labour Committee before the summer break on 6th July 2012. The final adoption of the legislation is imminent.
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7.
Updated EWC agreements
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Italian insurance acts faster than the Italian government
The EWC has been expanded from 37 to 43 members, with seven seats for Italy and six for Germany. It meets twice per year, whereby the second meeting is devoted to training without central management. Day-to-day operations are carried out by a steering committee. The EWC can also create its own working groups. If more than the half of the workforce in a country is affected by exceptional circumstances, the steering committee can request a meeting. This possibility concerning only one country goes beyond the minimum provisions of the new Directive and is based on provisions for social dialogue which were part of a European-wide social charter already concluded in November 2006 (see report in EWC News 1/2007).
The EWC agreement of Deutsche Post DHL (German post office) was updated on 24th May 2012 during a meeting in Berlin (photo). The EWC, created in 2003, is one of the few “mixed” councils in Germany. Apart from the 50 employee representatives from 30 of the European common market countries, 25 management representatives are also members. The assembly meets twice annually. The steering committee has similarly two chairmen: one employer and one employee representative.
The agreement not only integrates the new standards for information and consultation, but also describes in detail the flow of the consultation procedure. This is finalized only if central management has given a substantiated reply to the opinion. The quantity and quality of business reporting have been defined in detail. In addition there are extended training rights which typically come with a EWC under German jurisdiction. The EWC agreement gives the right to all employees in Europe to establish employee representations and EWC members a right of access to all sites.
New EWC standards now also for India
Extensively defined confidentiality rules are typical. The agreement even explicitly prohibits EWC members from holding press conferences. Any offending members may lose their mandate. Furthermore the exclusion of any renegotiation of the EWC agreement, following changes in structure of the company, according to article 13 of the new European Union Directive, is rarely seen in any continental-European texts (see report in EWC News 4/2011). On the other hand the scope of the agreement can be considered a positive point. Within the European and Middle-East region Colt has most employees in India, followed by the United Kingdom, Spain and Germany. India therefore has a voting member in the EWC. In the past, one ordinary plenary meeting of the EWC has already been held on the subcontinent. In Europe, 13 European Union countries and Switzerland are represented. The three member steering committee, with currently a German chairman, meets quarterly. Plenary sessions are held twice annually and last for three days. For conflict resolution there is a provision for an internal suspensive conciliation procedure. To a large extent the text adopts the definition of information and consultation from the new European Union Directive and in the future the EWC members have furthermore improved working conditions for their mandate.
We have put together a selection of EWC agreements on a Website for download.
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8. New European works councils
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The EWC agreement was signed in October 2011. It provides for one annual plenary meeting and four meetings of the steering committee, which is made up of two German works council members and one representative each from Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands. Based on the new German EWC legislation the right to training was fixed at six days per term of office, which the EWC members can also use, to participate individually in external events. Spanish infrastructure
company with clear
consultation rules
 After
three years of negotiation a EWC agreement was signed for Abertis on
23rd July 2012 in Barcelona. Apart from motorways, multi-storey car
parks and airports (including Luton in England) the company also does
business in telecommunication equipment as well as logistics. The
agreement is a benchmark for Spanish standards. It not only defines
clearly transnational responsibilities, but also describes the exact
flow of the consultation procedure including involvement of the
workforce.On the other hand, one of the weak points is the limited possibility for the select committee to meet together. The five members can only meet once per year immediately prior to plenary sessions, they are otherwise relegated to video conferencing. The EWC can establish its own working groups on topics such as health and safety. However these must not generate any costs and can only co-operate electronically. The EWC has a right of access to all sites throughout Europe and a right to training. Spain has eleven representatives in the EWC, France four, Sweden and the United Kingdom one each. Following texts are available only in Spanish:  Acid test for EWC rights in the
United KingdomEasyJet, the British airline with headquarters in Luton has had a European works council in place since end 2011 based on the subsidiary requirements of the new British EWC legislation. The negotiations for a EWC agreement to cover the 6,000 employees in seven EU-countries, which had begun in summer 2008, could not be concluded successfully. Under the old legislation the failure of such negotiations would have been a disadvantage for employees, whereas under the new it is exactly the opposite. The example of Europe’s second largest low-cost airline after Ryanair shows how important the new EWC Directive is for strengthening the employee position. In the meantime, Anglo-Saxon oriented management consultants strongly advise against the establishment of a EWC, “à la easyJet”, without the conclusion of an adequate EWC agreement. Already, in June 2008, the trade union Unite had complained about irregularities in the election of SNB members in the United Kingdom, which led to a first ruling of the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC). Unite took central management of easyJet to court on 12th January 2012 over training rights for EWC members and their funding. In the meantime the case has been withdrawn, since, up to now there are no legally defined standards which could also be applicable for other companies in the United Kingdom. It remains legally uncertain whether EWC members can freely select themselves their supplier for training in opposition to the opinion of the employer and nevertheless the costs be borne by the employer (see report in EWC News 2/2012). In the meantime easyJet central management has yielded to the pressure of the EWC and carried out a French style consultation procedure for the planned closure of its installation in Madrid. EWC members were able to receive detailed advice from business experts. Central management even accepted not to begin negotiations with Spanish trade unions until the EWC opinion was rendered. |
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9. The view beyond Europe
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| Saab agrees on world-wide minimum
standards
After long discussions, an international framework agreement for Siemens was signed on 25th July 2012 in Frankfurt-on-Main. It is based on the principles of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and emphasizes constructive co-operation with employee representatives throughout the world. This includes the freedom to establish employee representation bodies. Compliance to the agreement is controlled once annually by a delegation from IG-Metall and the German central works council. This includes meetings organized on a rota-basis with local employee representatives in different parts of the world. The particularity of this agreement is the fact that the European works council was not involved. The agreement was already getting its first practical test at the beginning of September 2012: local management at a US-based site had assigned special advisors to prevent the establishment of an employee representation. The activity is also called “union busting”. IG-Metall protested to central management in Munich for violation of the international framework agreement. Similar incidents are also reported time and time again from other companies (see report in EWC News 3/2010). Spanish building group commits to social standards
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An
international framework agreement was signed on 19th September 2012 in
Madrid between Obrascon Huarte Lain (OHL), and the Building and Wood
Worker's International (BWI). The agreement guarantees a social
partnership and collective bargaining for its 23,000 world-wide
employees. Central management and Spanish trade unions will review
compliance to the agreement once annually. The agreement provides
conciliation rules for any violations: firstly the problems are
discussed with local management, and subsequently within the monitoring
group at the company headquarters in Madrid (photo).|
10.
Interesting websites
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The multiplicity of languages is a great challenge for the European integration. Apart from the 23 official languages in the EU, there are also numerous minority languages e.g. Catalan. The European institutions in Brussels are major employers for translators and interpreters. Over the last few years and with financial support from the EU an on-line translation service has been developed, which can not only be used free of charge, but which differs qualitatively from other services such as Google or Babylon: it queries several programs simultaneously and presents the different results alongside each another. Entire web sites can even be translated. The translation service is coordinated by a research institute in Budapest. European
Labour Law Network
 The
European Labour Law Network has been acting since 2008 as official
counsel to the European Commission for questions concerning labour
legislation. The network, which is composed of scientists from all
EU-countries, runs its own website. This contains up-to-date
information on the developments in European and national labour law.
The network is administered by the Universities of Frankfurt-on-Main
and Leiden in the Netherlands.
Lobbyism in Brussels
International solidarity in the textile supply chain
We have arranged numerous other interesting web-pages into a collection of links.
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11.
New publications
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 Intercultural
Business Etiquette - not only for managers
A new edition of Business Knigge International (International Business Etiquette) was published In spring 2012, covering individually the most important EU-countries. Works councils members can learn in this book, why you have to plan more time in France, why, in England, small talk outside the meeting is nearly everything, how important empathy is, as a basis for any discussion with Italians, that the most important things are settled around the dinner table in Spain and why it's better never to interrupt a speaker from Finland. Body language and cultural pitfalls are presented in detail. There is a new chapter on appropriate etiquette in electronic communication. The book is only available in German. Upcoming event: Intercultural communication for works council members German-speaking
works council members will be trained from 27th to 29th May 2013 by a
specialist on intercultural communication. The seminar will take place
in Hamburg on board the Rickmer Rickmers, a museum ship on the Elbe. Labour relations in South-East
EuropeIn spring 2012, the regional project of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Belgrade, “Labour Relations and Social Dialogue in South-East Europe” released a national yearly review of eleven countries from the Adriatic to the Black sea. This includes the EU-countries Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria as well as the acceding country Croatia, which will join the EU as of 1st July 2013 (see report in EWC News 2/2010). The yearly updates for each country have already existed for some time. The country reports are supplemented by some articles on topics focusing on South-East Europe. Upcoming events: Seminars in South-East Europe A
German-Romanian conference for works council members will be held from
20th to 22nd March 2013 in Bucharest and from 3rd to 5th July 2013, EWC
members can get on-the-spot information in Croatia about the new EU
country’s labour legislation.
In June 2012, the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU), in Brussels published a review on the role and responsibilites of labour inspectors in 15 countries. Government authorities of this kind in Germany, Denmark and the United Kingdom have the least power, since they are only responsible for health and safety questions in the workplace. In most EU-countries, however, the responsibility of the labour inspectors goes a lot further; they monitor employment, working hours, wages and equal treatment for men and women. The national labour inspectors hereby take on the responsibilities that are attributed to the works councils in Germany.
The
European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) in Brussels released, in June
2012, the second country report on trade unions in Central and East
Europe (the first review of this series on the Czech Republic was
published in December 2010, see report in
EWC News 4/2010).
This comprehensive 98 page work digs deep into the history of the
Polish trade union movement, describes today's organization with its
internal divisions as well as the development of its membership. We
learn that only 10% of the Polish working population was unionized in
2010. The report appendix contains a time-table of major events in
industrial relations and an extensive trade union glossary. One of the
authors, Dr. Jan Czarzasty, was a speaker at the EWC Academy Hamburg
seminar in January 2012.
We have arranged further technical literature on a literature website.
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Country
review of labour inspectors
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12. The EWC Academy:
Examples of our work
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 Reporting system
for employee representativesDuring a project meeting, held in Budapest from 26th to 27th June 2012, members of the Donata Holding’s SE works council (photo) developed an Internet-based reporting system for business data and key employment figures. The tool was developed with support from the EWC Academy and aims at improving the use of the SE works council’s information and consultation rights particularly prior to any transnational restructuring. The SE works council of the perfume group is presently confronted with workforce relocations. Court proceedings have been underway in the Ludwigshafen labour courts since February 2012, for the violation of information and consultation rights (see report in EWC News 1/2012). The EWC Academy acts as adviser to the SE works council. Space travel division of EADS about to update EWC agreement  The
EWC Academy advised the Astrium EWC, during a plenary meeting held on
5th July 2012 in Bremen, on the possibilities to adapt the EWC
agreement to the new EU-standards. The European Astrium Space Travel
Committee - as the EWC is officially called - represents 15,000
employees of the EADS space travel division in Germany, France, Spain,
Great Britain and the Netherlands. Under the roof of EADS Holding there
are three further European divisional works councils, e.g. for Airbus
(see report
in EWC News 1/2012). Third French-German works council
conference in ParisApproximately 25 seminar participants came together on 18th September 2012 in the “Maison Internationale”, a historical building on the outskirts of Paris (photo), to discuss ways of safeguarding employment in times of crisis. This was the third time running that the meeting took place. Representatives from Finland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom were participating for the first time. Practical examples from TUI, the tourist group and the automobile supplier Bosch were on the agenda. On the previous day small groups of non-French speaking participants were able to familiarize themselves with the subtleties of French labour relations. A visit to a French works council trade-fair was programmed for the day after the seminar. German Italian EWC seminar in Bolzano  Employee
representatives from Germany, Italy and South Tyrol met on 27th and
28th September 2012 in Bolzano (photo), to gain knowledge on the
respective labour relation system of the other country. A German EWC
member reported on the activities of the Italian bank, UniCredit, on a
European level and Italian representatives from the EWC of the German
Volkswagen group. South Tyrol helped bridge the gap between the two
linguistic areas and facilitated mutual understanding.
 Training for British American
Tobacco EWCThe plenary meeting of the BAT EWC was held on 1st and 2nd October 2012 in Madrid. The EWC Academy gave training on the different systems of labour relations to around 25 representatives participating from almost all European Union countries. The world’s second largest tobacco company has its head office in London and established its EWC in 1996. |
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13.
Current training schedule
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The EWC Academy and its forerunner organization have been organizing and delivering conferences and seminars for the members of European works councils, SE works councils and special negotiation bodies since January 2009. So far 406 employee representatives from 173 companies have taken part including many of them for several times. This represents 17% of all companies in Europe with an established EWC. In addition there were numerous in-house training sessions. For the year 2013 a new brochure is now available, giving an overview of the planned events. Additional events and topics are in preparation. German-British works council conference in London (only few places left) 
For the second time already a conference is being held on 25th and 26th October 2012 in London. The meeting will be simultaneously interpreted. It is aimed at members of European works councils who fall under British legislation, as well as at employee representatives from Germany and other countries wishing to familiarize themselves with the British system. Conference for women on Gender Mainstreaming
Employee representation in international companies
5th Hamburg Conference for European and SE works councils  As every year since January
2009, a two-day conference is being organised in Hamburg covering the
following topics:Monday, 28th January 2013: Current trends in the EWC landscape - new court rulings and examples of EWC work Tuesday, 29th January 2013: Visit to the Airbus plant in Hamburg and presentation by members of the Airbus EWC In-house events Please find a summary of possible topics for in-house events here: |
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14. Imprint
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EWC News is published by:
EWC Academy GmbH Rödingsmarkt
52, D-20459 Hamburg
Authors collaborating on this issue: Werner Altmeyer, Manfred Bobke, Rita da Luz Distributor of the German version: 18,381 readers Distributor of the English version: 2,771 readers Distributor of the French version: 2,799 readers
Newsletter archive: www.ewc-news.com
We are always pleased to receive comments and suggestions in relation to this newsletter as well as reports on your EWC activities. Please write us at: info@ewc-academy.eu
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