FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www obes gr

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr EUROPEAN WORK COUNCILS (EWC) Dip. Ing. Panos Katsampanis OBES trainer 02/0207 1

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr AIMS EWC in the new European countries Transfer of experience of existing EWC 2

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr ACTIONS • Round table in Athens 25/9/06 • Round table in Sofia 8/12/06 • Transnational conference Athens 2/2/07 • Exchange of experience between trade unionists about EWC • Web site development www. obes. gr The main points and the conclusions will be present to Ministries, European Commission etc. 3

www. obes. gr FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERNCES IN THE EUROPEAN LABOUR CULTURE • Are there differences in industrial and trade union culture in the EU member states? • Yes, we have to learn the differences in order to cooperate effectively and to achieve our members aims • Don’t forget that the multinational companies follow the same company policy and rules in all European countries. 4

www. obes. gr FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS WORK PLACE EMPLOEES REPRESENTATION BODY • TRADE UNION AND WORK COUNSIL • COLLECTIVE BARGAINS (SALARIES) ARE FEDERATIONS (TRADE UNION) RESPONSIBILITY ΝΟΤ WORK COUNCILS 5

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr COMPOSITION OF THE REPRESENTATION BODY • EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES (NORWAY, DANMARK, FINLAND, FRANCE, BELGIUM, LUXEMBURG) • ONLY EMPLOEES (ALL OTHER COUNTRIES) WORK COUNCIL = BETRIEBSRAT = COMITE DE ENTERPRISE 6

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr TRADE UNION STRUCTURE IN EUROPE • STATUS (SWEDEN) • SECTOR (GERMANY) • PROFESSION (BRITAN) • POLITICS, RELIGION (FRANCE, SPAIN) 7

www. obes. gr FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS EUROPEAN INDUSTRIAL RELATION “MODELS” • GERMANIC (GERMANY) • AGLO – SAXONIC (BRITAN) • SOUTHERN EUROPEAN 8

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr SO WHAT IS COMMON IN EUROPE? EUROPEAN DIRECTIVES AND REGULATIONS THAT THE MEMBER STATES TRANSPOSE TO NATIONAL LAWS AS: • 94/45 EUROPEAN WORK COUNCILS • 2002/14 INFORMATION AND CONSULTATION • 2157/2001 AND 2001/86 EUROPEAN COMPANY ATTENTION TO THE TRANSPOSITION PROCESS (e. g. election process) 9

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr WHAT IS A EUROPEAN WORK COUNCIL (EWC)? EMPLOEES REPRESENTATION BODY IN COMPANY LEVEL WITH RESTRICTED ROLE IN: • INFORMATION • CONSULTATION • NO COLLECTIVE BARGAINS 10

www. obes. gr FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS WHEN A EUROPEAN WORK COUNCIL IS ESTABLISHED? • WHEN A UNDERTAKING OR GROUP OF UNDERTAKINGS HAS AT LEAST 1000 EMPLOEES AND 150 EMPLOEES IN TWO MEMBER STATES AND THE EMPLOEES WANT IT. 11

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr CURRENT STUATION IN EUROPE (A) How many European undertakings are covered by the 94/45 directive? 2204 undertakings with 21 millions employees How many EWC are existing? 780 undertakings with 13 million employees 12

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr CURRENT STUATION IN EUROPE (B) 400 AGREEMENTS FOR EUROPEAN WORK COUNCILS ARE ARTCLE 13 AGREEMENTS (BEFORE SEPTEMBER 1996) 380 AGREEMENTS FOR EUROPEAN WORK COUNCILS ARE ARTCLE 6 AGREEMENTS (AFTER SEPTEMBER 1996) 13

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr COUNTRY OF ORIGIN OF THE MULTINATIONALUNDERTAKING GERMANY BRITAN USA FRANCE BELGIUM HOLLAND SWEDEN SWISERLAND 31 ITALY FINLAND JAPAN 146 97 94 82 46 45 43 30 28 21 14

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr THE ESTABLISMENT OF A EWC 1. Written request of at least 100 employees from two countries to management 2. A Special Negotiation Body is created in 6 months period (3 -17 elected employees one from each country) 3. Maximum 3 years negotiations 4. In case of no written agreement as result from the negotiations, a EWC is created according to the subsidiary requirements of the 94/45 directive 15

www. obes. gr FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS SUBSIDIARY REQUIRMENTS OF DIRECTIVE 94/45 1. EWC members 3 -30 elected employees representatives (at least one from each country) 2. EWC has the right to be informed and consulted by the central management once per year on transnational matters (two countries and more) 3. Selecting committee of maximum 3 persons 4. Additional meetings of the EWC and the central management in case of exceptional circumstances (closure of establishments, relocations, collective redundancies) 5. Expert and costs 16

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr CONTENT OF THE AGREEMENT 1. Covered undertakings 2. Composition of the EWC, number and allocation of seats, terms of office 3. Functions and procedure for information and consultation 4. Venue, frequency and duration of meetings 5. Financial and material resources. 6. Duration of the agreement and procedure for renegotiation. 17

www. obes. gr FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS ISSUES OF THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE EWC WITH CENTRAL MANAGEMENT 1. Structure, economical and financial situation 2. Business, production and sales development 3. Situation and probable trends of employment 4. Substantial changes in organization, production methods, transfers of production, mergers, cut-off or closures of undertaking and collective redundancies. 18

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr WHAT IS INFORMATION AND CONCULTATION EWC DIRECTIVE ΙΝFΟΡΜΑΤΙΟΝ no definition CONSULTATION Exchange of view and establishment of dialogue between employees representatives and management. EUROPEAN COMPANY DIRECTIVE ΙΝFΟΡΜΑΤΙΟΝ Time, manner and content must permit employees representatives an in depth assessment CONSULTATION Time, manner and content must permit employees representatives to express an opinion which may be taken into account in the decision making process. 19

www. obes. gr FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS EUROPEAN COMPANY 2157/2001 AND 2001/86 FOR THE EUROPEAN COMPANY Employees of a European company could set up a representative body, similar to the EWC, with rights for Information – Consultation – Participation. 20

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr EWC AND EUROPEAN COMPANY European Work Councils and the Representative Body in the European Company are connecting with the protection of employees rights, incompany democracy and the management privilege. 21

www. obes. gr FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT REPORT ON EWC 17. 6. 2001 Α 5 -282/2001 “The first weakness which has recently been the focus of public interest concerns the timing of information and consultation………. . In many recent cases such meetings have not taken place in good time. ” 22

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr EWC PROBLEMS • Not enough information • Insufficient consultation • Rare meetings (one per year) • Difficulties in communication • Different opinions and views. • Forum for exchange of views or employees representation body? 23

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr EWC CRUSIAL POINTS • Meetings (president, agenda, employees pre-meeting, follow up -meeting, frequency, duration, communication, extra meetings, expert, training, costs) • Structure (covered companies, seats, new member states, new undertakings, country allocation of seats, shared seats, observers, mergers, future? ) • Select committee (seats, allocation, frequency, working groups, costs) • Transnationality • Confidentiality and communication with trade unions 24

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr NEW TERMS • Corporate Social Responsibility • Code of conduct • Corporate Government 25

www. obes. gr FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS Corporate Social Responsibility • Corporate Social Responsibility is a concept that suggests that the companies have a duty of care to all of their stakeholders in all aspects of business operations 26

www. obes. gr FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS Corporate Social Responsibility criteria • Respecting industrial relations • Workers representation systems and particularly EWC • Life long training, health and safety, quality and respect of regulations • Working with social partners in cases of changes and redundancies. • Annual social balance • Auditing process by independent evaluators 27

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr Code of conduct • Code of conduct, or code of ethics, is a set of business principles for the personnel responsibilities and authorities, and also the obligations and values that the company has to respect in order to avoid conflict with the law or the ethics. 28

FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS UNIONS www. obes. gr Corporate Government refers to methods, laws and policies that direct, control and administrate the relations between the shareholders, management and the board of directors in a company. 29