Joint Seminar WSI ETUI. Activities of the ETUI in the field of workers participation. Düsseldorf, 5-6 May 2015

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1 Joint Seminar WSI ETUI Activities of the ETUI in the field of workers participation Düsseldorf, 5-6 May 2015 Aline Hoffmann ETUI Unit 1: Europeanisation of Industrial Relations

2 Unit 1: Europeanisation of Industrial Relations Social Dialogue & Employment Law Stefan Clauwaert Isabelle Schömann (Christophe Degryse) Trade Union Renewal Kurt Vandaele Jeremy Waddington Workers Participation Aline Conchon Isabelle Schömann Romek Jagodzinski Stan De Spiegelaere Sig Vitols Jeremy Waddington Corporate Governance MNCs Strategies Aline Conchon Aline Conchon Sig Vitols (Jan Drahokoupil)

3 What do we understand Workers Participation to be? Articulation across levels and countries Trade unions Collective bargaining Workers participation Information Consultation Board-level employee representation Company law and Corporate governance Multinationals Strategy Policy-making & Regulation: actors, processes and institutions

4 Workers Participation Institution-Building Information and Consultation At the local and national level Particularly as provided for in over 35 pieces of legislation Under threat of deregulation (REFIT Programme) Transnational information and consultation European Works Councils (EWC) SE-Works Councils/ SE Representative Bodies (SE-WC) Connecting the dots Between I&C at different levels Links to Board-level employee representation? Links to collective bargaining?

5 Employment Law and Social Dialogue Transnational Trade Union Rights network (TTUR) Accession of EU to ECHR, ECJ Jurisprudence ETUC Netlex network of trade union lawyers, activate ETUC litigation strategy Monitoring EU social legislation Impact of crisis & reforms on employment law and workers rights. Regular Overviews and national reports Recent study on atypical employment forms (Monitoring of) European social dialogue Still weak vital signs

6 Trade Union Renewal: TU recruitment and organising Youth workers, non-standard workers Empirical data collection, closely linked to unions TU development in Europe New Member States Data collection on organisational profiles, and membership density Strike activity and collective action Unique collection of pan-european data

7 Workers Participation processes : Company law & corporate governance Exploring the company law jungle: helping to uncover Information and Consultation rights in EU legislation (aka the acquis communautaire ) The GoodCorp network: Sustainable company series Now Worker Participation in European Company Law series Takeover Bids Directive: I&C Rights in law and practice Cross Border Mergers Analysis of transposition Case studies of companies / countries Discovering substantial impact on board-level employee representation

8 Workers Participation Institution-Building Board-level Workers Representation (BLER) National level: Comparison and analysis of practice across countries Unique comparative research At European (i.e., cross-border) level, BLER has become internationalised Via the establishment of European Companies (SE Statute) since 2002: Increasingly via application of the Cross-Border Mergers Directive, here, the impact is still being studied, suggest similar or even greater scope but far patchier legislation EWPCC aims to understand this emerging process, identify and support multinational BLER and their trade unions in particular.

9 What s happening with cross-border BLER? Important implications for: The debate about Europeanisation of board-level employee representation What unions are (or are not) doing about it. The need for a European standard: ETUC resolution Practice: gaps in legal regulation E.g., election of BLER where there is no SEWC Regulation of BLER in countries without pre-existing tradition Clashes between national and European legislation Unclear rules for nomination, protection etc. Identification and support of European BLER It s not just about SEs anymore 9

10 Achtung: REFIT! Very wide ranging impact, highly intransparent Social Partner Consultation on possible consolidation of 3 I&C Directives (REFIT) I&C Rights in Health and Safety Workers rights in small and Medium-Sized companies Company Law Etc. Transverse project at ETUI to monitor the impact and progress of the REFIT.

11 EWPCC : the European Worker Participation Competence Centre Founded by ETUC Resolution in 2008, based in ETUI In response to the emergence of multinational boardlevel employee representation (aka BLER) Financed by a partial transfer of the remuneration received by some employee representatives on boards Goal: support the europeanisation of workers participation Taken to comprise information, consultation, and boardlevel workers representation provision of research, training, advice, materials for practice Board of Trustees mandated by ETUC sectoral federations, national confederations, ETUC GS 11

12 Interface with other parts of the ETUI Unit 2: Economic Governance, Labour Market collective bargaining, economic governance & developments, Unit 3: Health and Safety and Working Conditions workers participation institutions, employment law Education Dept, input to training, contact with practioners

13 Providing information Worker-participation.eu The gateway to information about workers participation in law and practice National industrial relations systems and comparative tools Includes health and Safety, financial participation, collective barganing, etc. Close monitoring of relevant European legislation and Social Dialogue, both existing and prospective EWC and SE-WC database: new portal under construction online access to all the ETUI s collections and documentation at And much more at

14 Database on EWC and SE-WC Agreements Internetmittel 14

15 Our flagship portal on workers participation 15

16 Online access to the ETUI s libarary and documentation centre 16

17 Thanks for your attention!