Current practice and legal issues in EWC work

In preparation for the legislative process, a number of criteria relevant to various aspects of the revised directive were evaluated from December 2022 to December 2023. The analysis was carried out by the same consortium (including the EWC Academy) that produced a report in 2016...

Social dialogue to be strengthened

On 31 January 2024, the leading European employers' organisations and trade unions met with the EU's political leaders for a social summit at the Val-Duchesse castle on the outskirts of Brussels. This is where the social dialogue was launched in 1985 in preparation for the European Single Market...

Protection for platform workers rejected

On 16 February 2024, the Directive on the protection of persons working through digital platforms did not obtain the required majority of 65% of the EU population in the Council of Ministers. 23 countries (63%) voted in favour, only France was against, but Germany, Greece and Estonia abstained...

German veto brings supply chain directive to a halt

On 28 February 2024, the Council of Ministers failed to find a majority in favour of the directive on due diligence by multinational corporations in monitoring human rights and environmental regulations in their supply chains. The vote had previously been cancelled twice at short notice...

When will the euro be introduced in the Czech Republic?

On 6 February 2024, the government in Prague decided to prepare an analysis of the country's possible accession to the European Exchange Rate Mechanism II by October 2024. In order to adopt the euro, a country must have been a member of the exchange rate mechanism for at least two years...

First "green" collective bargaining in Spain

On 13 February 2024, the Spanish government submitted a draft bill on sustainable mobility in the workplace to parliament. Companies with 500 employees or more, or 250 per shift, must draw up plans for sustainable mobility in the workplace within 24 months of the law coming into force...

Pilot project for the 4-day week in Portugal

In June 2023, 41 companies reduced the working week to between 32 and 36 hours over four days with the same pay. Normally, a 40-hour week still applies in Portugal. Consultancy firms, technology and retail companies, a department in an industrial company and social organisations took part in this pilot project...

Amazon fined for unauthorised surveillance methods

On 27 December 2023, the data protection authority CNIL imposed a fine of €32 million on Amazon's logistics division in France (3% of turnover) for excessive surveillance of workers in its distribution centres. This includes the speed at which items are scanned and the idle time of the scanners...

EU law still has an impact in the UK

On 11 January 2024, the Aberdeen Labour Court (Scotland) retrospectively awarded around 300 former employees of the Stoneywood paper mill compensation averaging £4,000 (€4,600) per person, totalling £1.2 million (€1.4 million). In a test case, five employees had already succeeded in...

Employer may not limit the works council to online training courses

On 7 February 2024, the Federal Labour Court in Germany ruled for the first time on the question of whether an employer is only required to pay for online training instead of a face-to-face seminar for works council members for cost reasons. The airline Eurowings had refused to reimburse...

Fast track online procedure for EWC establishment?

On 5 January 2024, the Swiss pharmaceutics group Galderma invited the members of the special negotiating body to a two-hour video conference without interpreters at short notice, calling it a constituent SNB meeting. Completely surprised by the situation, the delegates refused to elect a chairperson as...

Supreme Court in London does not want to deal with EWC issue

On 24 January 2024, the UK's highest judges rejected the application by Adecco's EWC to allow an appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal for England and Wales of July 2023. The legal dispute concerns collective redundancies in Sweden and Germany in spring 2020...

New EWC for Franco-German manufacturer of waste containers

On 7 December 2023, an EWC agreement under French jurisdiction was signed at Sulo's headquarters in Colombes (near Paris). Sulo has its second headquarters in Herford (Westphalia), where the administration and the world's largest waste bin plant are located. The plastics manufacturer is owned...

Australian engineering service provider establishes EWC under Dutch law

An EWC agreement for Worley was signed in The Hague on 8 December 2023. The Sydney-based company specialises in project management and consulting in the resources and energy sectors and has 48,000 employees in 45 countries worldwide...

Swiss vending services provider establishes EWC in France

After two years of negotiations, an EWC agreement was signed for Selecta at a meeting in Madrid on 19 January 2024. The company, based in the canton of Zug, which is considered as a tax haven within Switzerland, operates vending machines for drinks and snacks in public spaces as well as...

Group split into two separate companies

On 11 December 2023, the Belgian chemicals group Solvay spun off its speciality chemicals division into an independent company called Syensqo. It is listed on the stock exchange and has had a European works council from day one. Separate EWC agreements were signed for both parts of the group on 23 November 2023...

Measures to address skilled labour shortages

On 24 January 2024, central management of the French aeronautics and electronics group Safran signed a pan-European agreement with the European Federation of Industrial Trade Unions (industriALL) in Brussels on professional integration of young people. It applies to over 53,000 staff in...

Key performance indicators on corporate social responsibility

On 4 December 2023, central management of the French aeronautics and electronics group Safran concluded a framework agreement with the International Federation of Industrial Trade Unions (industriALL). It applies to 83,000 employees worldwide and enhances the obligations from the 2017 agreement...

No official recognition of trade unions at international level

On 19 and 20 December 2023, 20 trade union representatives of the French industrial group Saint-Gobain from nine countries met in Paris. They discussed the impact of Industry 4.0 on employees in various parts of the world, and the closure of the glass plant in Eupen (Belgium) was also on the agenda...

Global social standards after sale

On 24 January 2024, the corporate management of Lipton Teas and Infusions concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Union of Food Workers (IUF). It includes a commitment to respect international labour standards for all 17,000 employees, including 13,500 on its own tea plantations...

Research on European social policy

The European Social Observatory (Observatoire Social Européen, OSE) in Brussels is one of the 100 most important social policy think tanks in the world. Since 1984, it has been analysing social and employment policy in the EU and its member states, from the effects of...

Safeguarding employee rights in the parcel industry

The German United Services trade union (ver.di) has launched a campaign entitled "Fairly delivered instead of delivered", calling on the German government to pass a law to safeguard workers' rights in the parcel industry. Three demands are listed in a petition: a ban on subcontracting companies...

Algorithmic systems should benefit people

AlgorithmWatch is a human rights organisation founded in 2016 and based in Berlin and Zurich. It analyses the risks and effects of automated decision-making systems on society and is committed to ensuring that algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) strengthen rather than weaken justice, democracy and sustainability...

Berlin Tech Workers Coalition

The "Berlin Tech Workers Coalition" supports workers in technology companies in the establishment of works councils, union member recruitment to achieve higher wages or in the fight against discrimination. The members work as bicycle couriers, content moderators, warehouse pickers and video game programmers...

Handbook to promote employment of women in the construction and woodworking sector

On 12 December 2023, the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers (EFBWW), together with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the University of Westminster, published a toolkit on gender equality in the construction, woodworking and forestry sectors. Women currently only account for 10% of all employees in this sector...

Involvement of the EWC in cross-border reorganisations

This dissertation was published on 15 January 2024 and deals with the question of how the European works council can effectively enforce its participation rights under German law. The author begins by explaining the history of the EWC Directive and then sets out the implementation of the German EWC Act in great detail...

Corporate reports on environmental and social aspects

On 17 January 2024, the Otto Brenner Foundation presented a working paper outlining a new approach to integrated business reporting that addresses environmental and social aspects in addition to purely economic and financial aspects. Since January 2023...

How can trade unions use the German Supply Chain Act?

At the end of January 2024, the DGB trade union education centre in Düsseldorf published a brochure on the opportunities offered by the law, which has been in force since January 2023. Since then, larger companies have been obliged to check their supply chains for human rights violations and...

16th conference for European works councils in Hamburg

Just a few days after the European Commission launched the legislative process to revise the EWC Directive in Brussels, almost 50 participants from eight countries gathered in Hamburg on 29 and 30 January 2024 to discover the details. Labour lawyer and expert on EWC law, Professor Filip Dorssemont...

Restructuring at Dutch payment service provider

The EWC Academy has been advising the SE works council of equensWorldline since 14 February 2024. The Utrecht-based company with 5,000 employees processes electronic payments for 250 banks in the EU and has been operating as a European Company (SE) since 2008...

EWC training at Dutch semiconductor manufacturer

On 6 and 7 March 2024, the EWC Academy held a training course for the European works council of NXP Semiconductors. The largest semiconductor manufacturer in Europe, based in Eindhoven, was a division of the Philips Group until 2006. After the spin-off, a separate EWC was established in 2007...

Strengthening European works councils in Austria

On 29 August 2023, the Austrian Supreme Court of Justice in labour and social matters dismissed an appeal by the central management of Mayr-Melnhof Packaging against the ruling of the Vienna Higher Regional Court of February 2023. This decision was communicated to...

Background information ahead of the European Parliament elections

In July 2023, the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation published an 18-page brochure presenting the institutions of the EU, in particular the composition of the European Parliament. It is elected every five years, the next time in June 2024. Germany sends 96 out of 750 MEPs...

US electric car manufacturer refuses collective bargaining agreements

Since 27 October 2023, more and more Tesla garages in Sweden have been out on strike. The IF Metall trade union initially called a strike for Tesla workers in twelve garages, but 100 garages are now already affected. Since 7 November 2023, there have been extensive solidarity actions by