Brussels, 17/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - After three years of heated discussion, the Belgian EU Presidency acted out, during the evening of Monday 17 December, the agreement reached within the EP/Council Conciliation Committee on the directive relating to worker information and consultation (the "Renault" directive), as had been announced by Belgian Employment Minister Laurette Onkelinx after the work of the Social Summit (see EUROPE of 15 December, p.15). The directive, which was also welcomed by the Heads of State and Government meeting this weekend in Laeken, is an integral part of the Commission's approach on the management of industrial restructuring, compelling businesses to provide for genuine information and consultation of their workers before all major decisions at the company, especially those affecting jobs. This new legislative framework will take effect in three years' time but provides for longer transitional periods for small companies in Member States (United Kingdom and Ireland) with no history of formalised in-company information and consultation, that is, 5 years for SMEs with 100 employees and 6 years for those with 50 employees.
The directive provides that: 1) all companies must inform their workers in advance and consult them on matters concerning them and which affect the life of the enterprise; 2) companies do not have to divulge confidential information (financial for example) if this does not entail any adverse effect on the workers. If worker representatives consider that such non-divulged information should have been made known, then they may appeal to have such information divulged and it is up to the company management to prove that it was not in a situation to divulge the information; 3) sanctions must be effective, dissuasive and proportional to the lack of information. The directive is applied to all companies with over 50 workers. "Ninety-seven percent of companies therefore fall outside the directive because they employ fewer than 50 workers. Fifty percent of the value of employees concerned represent 50% of the total of EU employees", specified a Commission spokesman during a technical briefing.
"The agreement is a powerful signal to the attention of business leaders as it invites them to respect their workers in the same way as their shareholders", commented Anna Diamantopoulou, who felt that this is a "modern business tool" on condition that companies use it "intelligently".