On Monday 29 April, the Member States meeting in the Social Affairs group of the EU Council will discuss a new compromise put forward by the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council on the revision of the European Works Council (EWC) Directive (see EUROPE 13381/8).
The new text, dated 24 April, clarifies the definitions of ‘employees’ and ‘workers’ and responds to certain comments raised by the Member States, for example on the operating costs of European Works Councils.
A new recital has been added on this subject. The special negotiating bodies, the European Works Councils and their members on their behalf should have the necessary means to cover the costs of legal representation and participation in administrative or judicial proceedings. Member States should provide for these costs to be borne by the central management to the extent that they are reasonable or should take other measures to ensure that European Works Councils are not de facto prevented from participating in administrative or judicial proceedings due to a lack of financial resources.
The recital adds that “this could be done for example by example by requiring allocation of an appropriate operational budget to the European Works Council, by setting up solidarity funds at national level, by providing insurances covering legal costs, by granting access to legal aid in certain circumstances or through other provisions in line with national laws and practices”.
The text also specifies the type of information dealt with by EWCs: it concerns “the structure, economic and financial situation, probable development and production and sales of the Community-scale undertaking or group of undertakings; the situation and probable trend of employment, investments, and substantial changes concerning organisation, anticipation of change and management of restructuring processes including those linked to the green and digital transitions, the introduction of new working methods or production processes, transfers of production, mergers, cut-backs or closures of undertakings, establishments or important parts thereof, and collective redundancies”.
The new compromise also revisits the possibility of suspending a management decision if the consultation process is not carried out on schedule.
It is important, “taking into account the degree of urgency of the matter, that information and consultation take place in good time and that the European Works Council and the employees’ representatives are given sufficient time to express their views in order to ensure the effective exercise of the rights provided for in this Directive”. The directive “should not prevent undertakings from adopting decisions in case the opinion of the European Works Council has not been provided within a reasonable time”.
There are also additions on the gender balance of EWCs, with the idea of “a growth path to a gender-balanced composition of the European Works Council, which might comprise intermediate progressive objectives”, with the reference to the objective of having 40% of women in EWCs being maintained.
Link to the compromise: https://aeur.eu/f/bzf (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)