3 working groups: Group 1 (French, French speaking Belgians) Group 2 (Dutch, Flemish speaking Belgians) Group 3 (Danes, Germans, Swedes)

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1 3 working groups: Building a Social and Green Europe for More and Better Jobs in the Construction and Wood Sectors Group 1 (French, French speaking Belgians) Group 2 (Dutch, Flemish speaking Belgians) Group 3 (Danes, Germans, Swedes) A EMPLOYMENT POLICY EFBWW POLICY OBJECTIVES ) Composition of the workforce: permanent, temporary, subcontractors, etc. 2) Conditions of employment for subcontractors 3) Use of posted workers, equal treatment 4) Gender equality POSSIBLE IMPLEMENTATION IN MY EWC G1: Information on the permanent workforce is given, as is information on temporary workers, but obtaining information on subcontractors is difficult. No information is available on the equality of treatment between workers employed by the group and posted workers. G2: Eternit has a fixed staff. Temporary workers are used in the event of illness. In the Netherlands, temporary workers help the company cope with peaks in demand. In Belgium, there is a growing tendency to subcontract, to the detriment of the fixed staff. G3: A great deal of work is being subcontracted. The labour agreements covering subcontractors differ from those covering company employees. No checks are performed on the use of posted workers. Additional input from coordinator: Recticel and Lhoist both have agreements governing the use of subcontractors. HELP REQUIRED FROM EFBWW OR MY NATIONAL TRADE UNION ORGANISATION Help is needed to obtain information on subcontracting and posted workers and documentation designed to meet the needs of posted workers. No information on what EFBWW and coordinators can contribute is available. Do they have enough time to support EWCs? We could do with a Europe wide monitoring system.

2 B Employment relationship 1) Trade union presence in all countries? 2) Collective bargaining in all countries? 3) Staff representative bodies at all sites? C Vocational training 1) Vocational training geared towards socioprofessional categories and gender 2) Career long vocational training 3) Recognition of acquired skills 4) In company training for young people (apprenticeships, traineeships, etc.) 5) Vocational training for older workers G1: Having a trade union presence is the norm in French and Belgian groups. The representative bodies are on hand at major plants, but not at smaller ones. G2: Belgium has a high rate of unionisation, but the Netherlands does not. Propose that executives participate as members of EWCs. Efforts to ensure that there are workers representatives in all countries. G3: Not all companies have agreements. Sometimes there are only sectoral agreements. It is difficult to find representatives everywhere when the group has workers in numerous countries. There are also problems with unaffiliated workers representatives (Great Britain). Additional input from coordinator: In Belgium, SMEs with 20 employees or more have workers representatives. In the Netherlands, appointing executives as EWC members poses a problem with respect to representation of the workforce as a whole. G1: Vocational training is discussed at national level, but not by EWCs. Efforts need to be made to exchange experiences. Additional input from coordinator: Lyonnaise des eaux had a specific working group on vocational training that stemmed from a specific working group. The EWC at GDF Suez, which is not covered by EFBWW, has an agreement on forward looking skills management. The GDF Suez agreement was negotiated with EFBWW s help by the Suez EWC (prior to the GDF Suez merger) Help is needed to verify that members belong to a trade union organisation affiliated to EFBWW. EFBWW must provide help to unionise workers. Coordinators are not sufficiently well informed about what goes on in group subsidiaries. Help is needed to devise a support programme to get to grips with this issue.

3 D Health and safety 1) Occupational risk prevention policy 2) Prevention policy geared towards the type of risk (accident at work and occupational disease) 3) Exposure to specific risks (asbestos, silica, wood dust, nanotechnologies, etc.) 4) Worker involvement in prevention policy 5) Participation in European health and safety days G1: The concern here is that not all countries use the same method to measure the health and safety problems raised. There is a dearth of information at global level, though most countries have information at their disposal. Some countries do take account of specific risks. No information is available on European Health & Safety Days. G2: Most groups have health & safety charters. Difficulties in interpreting the figures for different countries make comparisons problematic. G3: This is a crucial issue. We have extensive statistics, which are extremely precise. The problem is with groups that employ large numbers of subcontractors who are not made aware of the dangers, especially the risk of not wearing personal protective equipment. Additional input from coordinator: ETEX and Lafarge have set up a European Safety Committee. It would be ideal if all countries used the same indicators. The health & safety group is doing an excellent job. However, not much is known about what there is in this domain. EWC secretaries should receive information on work done by the health & safety group. Information on European Health & Safety Days should also be amassed. There is a need for information to help raise awareness about safety problems. The reports produced by the various EFBWW committees should be sent to the members of EWCs. Do not hesitate to contact Rolf Gehring at EFBWW about any health& safety problems.

4 E Comparison of collective bargaining practices and results and conditions of employment in Europe F Sustainable development 1) Development of green jobs 2) Development of environmentally friendly processes and products 3) Use of certified products 4) Level of investment in research and development G1: No information is available in this domain. G2: This is a highly complex issue. Countries have very different cultures and we will never succeed in defining a commonly applicable system. Additional input from coordinator: The Holcim group conducted a survey in all its countries to ascertain the levels of pay and expenditure of its workers. G1: Little information on jobs linked with the green economy is available. Information on processes and products stem primarily from competitions on innovation. Information is also provided on R&D policy. G2: Most groups do tackle this issue, but mainly from the economic and financial viewpoint. G3: It is early days yet where sustainable development is concerned, so things should gear up over the next few years. Workers representatives must be involved. Additional input from coordinator: The European Parliament is debating how to guide companies approach to CSR. This text opens up prospects of workers becoming involved in this domain. The secretaries of EWCs must be encouraged to do this. Help is needed to obtain information on practices in this domain.

5 G EWCs 1) Overview of seats that are empty or not occupied by a trade union representative 2) Establishment of national exchange platforms 3) Development of an international company trade union network 4) Creation of an international framework agreement G1: Some countries have no trade union representation. Nothing is being done to develop national platforms or a trade union network. G2: Workforce representation bodies differ from one country to another, so it is difficult to gain a clear picture. BAM has an international framework agreement. G3: In some companies it is difficult to have representatives in every country. This is the biggest problem. Contacts with people in very distant countries pose problems. EFBWW s help is needed to establish contacts Summary: EFBWW s objectives are not being pursued to an equal extent. More measures are implemented in health& safety than in other domains. Special effort is required in some areas (vocational training, comparing practices). We should play on the close relations between EFBWW and EWCs so that the priorities set out in the action plan are implemented by EWCs. There are major possibilities regarding information and training provided by EFBWW for EWCs. Above all, thought needs to be put into implementing measures and training, per sector of activity, that focus on the key issues in those sectors (health & safety, vocational training, sustainable development, etc.).