On 2 February, MEPs will be asked to support in plenary the report by Denis Radtke (EPP, German) on the revision of the 2009 European Works Councils Directive.
In December, the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs had broadly supported, by 33 votes to 6 with 8 abstentions (see EUROPE 13074/29), the MEP’s request to review the way in which workers in these companies with more than 1,000 employees operating in at least two different Member States are informed and consulted.
MEPs have since debated the text at the January plenary with Social Affairs Commissioner Nicolas Schmit, who reiterated the Commission’s commitment to following up on the vote quickly.
According to the procedure, the Commission is obliged to open a consultation within the European social partners and to legislate, if necessary.
Denis Radtke’s report does not seek to completely overhaul the European Works Councils Directive, but to tackle its main weaknesses. He wants to review the sanctions policy, which is currently “ridiculous” for large publicly listed companies, he said on 19 January.
To date, “penalties for failure to consult workers in most Member States consist of financial penalties that range from €23 to €187,515 and therefore in many cases fail to be effective, dissuasive and proportionate”, the report says.
It is also necessary to be able to act when a company does not wish to give information, particularly of a confidential nature, with clarification at European level, he explained on 19 January.
The report therefore calls on the Commission, in the context of the revision of Directive 2009/38/EC, to require Member States “to clearly define in what cases confidentiality is justified in order to restrict the access to information”.
The EPP member does not necessarily want more EWCs either, but rather of a better quality, with more information upstream and a revision of the term ‘consultation’ in this sense.
His draft report still focuses on access to justice and finally asks the Commission to review this legislation from 2009 by January 2024.
Commissioner Nicolas Schmit, however, had already expressed his reservations during the debate on 19 January, saying it was difficult to give the Commission a fixed timetable when it must allow the consultation phase with the social partners to take place.
European employers opposed to revision
However, BusinessEurope, the European employers’ organisation, is opposed to a legislative revision.
In particular, it rejects the revision of the rules on sanctions and new measures that could slow down companies’ decision-making.
In an op-ed published on 31 January, the Swedish workers’ unions supported the European Parliament’s approach of strengthening the right of EWCs to be informed and consulted, while respecting the autonomy of the social partners.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/55k (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)