Brussels, 12/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) held a major conference, bringing together the social partners (ETUC, BusinessEurope) and European institutional players. The conference, “On the Offensive for Stronger European Works Councils”, on 9-10 June, gathered some 250 participants to discuss the review of the directive on European Works Councils (EWCs) and how to improve the 840 EWCs throughout the EU which affect over 15 million workers. The first directive, dating from 1994, which was praised by most speakers, “made transnational negotiations possible, helped find joint solutions and meant that changes as a result of globalisation could be better managed,” said European Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Commissioner Vladimir Spidla. The reasons for reform are many: apart from some legal uncertainty (in cases of mergers or acquisitions), and the need to get rid of barriers to the formation of EWCs and to adapt to recent developments, “in 75% of cases, restructuring operations do not give rise to any information or consultation of the workers concerned,” ETUC Deputy General Secretary Reiner Hoffmann pointed out.
The European Commission's stated desire to build on what worked to adapt to new challenges was welcomed by Jorgen Honnest of BusinessEurope and by John Monks, ETUC General Secretary, who said that “the Commission proposal is a good starting point, and we hope it will allow us to move forward”. The new directive will seek to provide a balance between making EWCs stronger, in terms of their number, their role and how they operate, while retaining their flexibility, and their central role in the European social model. The challenge, then, according to Monks, will be to “move away from this 'capitalism casino'” and to strengthen EWCs at the heart of the European Social model, and to find out how far the new directive will go in recognising these much more highly developed EWCs than were provided for in the first directive, said a trade union source. Honnest said that he felt that the flexibility of the 1994 text that had brought “EWCs which are an added value for both employers and employees”, had to be retained. The commissioner acknowledged that the timescale for this project would be tight with the European elections in June 2009, but gave assurances that proposals would be made at the presentation of the “social agenda package” on 2 July. (A.D./transl.rt)