The Establishment Of European Works Councils

First published in 1999, this volume evaluates the context, role and development of EWCs through eight case studies and asks whether EWCs will promote the Europeanisation of Industrial relations. The EWCs were the first European institution in the field of social policy and went far beyond simply requiring national implementation of a common framework. They were innovative in their requirements for a judicious blend of subsidiarity, shared responsibility and flexibility. This study represents the culmination of research carried out between September 1996 and September 1997 and sets out to anchor a number of qualitative case-studies in a systematic, nationally comparative approach.

This title was first published in 2001. The emergence of the European Works Councils (EWCs) is one of the most important developments in international industrial relations and the most significant intervention by the European Union in the industrial relations field. This volume is the second of three studies into the establishment and operation of EWCs conducted by the authors. It examines the development of a typology of EWCs and explores the prospects for establishing networks of EWCs, using case studies drawn from the food, banking and insurance sectors. The book is an informative text for researchers, academics and practitioners who wish to locate empirical material and practical experience in a developmental and theoretical framework.

First published in 1999, this volume evaluates the context, role and development of EWCs through eight case studies and asks whether EWCs will promote the Europeanisation of Industrial relations. The EWCs were the first European institution in the field of social policy and went far beyond simply requiring national implementation of a common framework. They were innovative in their requirements for a judicious blend of subsidiarity, shared responsibility and flexibility. This study represents the culmination of research carried out between September 1996 and September 1997 and sets out to anchor a number of qualitative case-studies in a systematic, nationally comparative approach.

This book covers the key themes related to the introduction, growth development and future of European Works Councils: the European Works Council Directive itself, European Works Council Agreements, Employers' strategies for managing European Works Councils in practice and trade union strategies for the development of European Works Councils. The book features contributions from key writers in the field and covers both theoretical models and questions of practice.

In 2016 it will be 20 years since the first European Works Councils (EWC) directive came into force in the EU. In the same year, the European Commission is planning an evaluation of the EWC recast directive that will undoubtedly lead to debate on the need for further review of European regulation of EWCs. The year 2015 also marks the fifteenth anniversary of adoption of the EU directive on workers’ involvement in the European Company (SE). This publication provides a broad selection of key figures on the basic characteristics of EWCs and SE WCs and the companies in which they operate. It covers both the demographics (e.g. development over years, establishment, sectoral distribution, etc.) as well as selected aspects of content analysis of agreements (composition, competences, meetings, facilities and resources). The book provides food for thought about the importance of this European institution, its potential effects on the Europeanisation of industrial relations, and its future development. The statistical data provide insight for practitioners (works council members, trade union coordinators, experts, trainers) and stakeholders into the distinctive features and characteristics of EWCs and SE WCs.

This title was first published in 2002: Negotiated Europeanisation is the final study in a three-volume series on European Works Councils by an international research group. The first two studies have already been published by Ashgate. The current study is rooted in an analysis of the establishment of EWCs under Articles 5 and 6 of the 1994 EWC Directive. This is now a mandatory procedure and completes the development of EWCs from bodies set up purely by voluntary negotiation to bodies set up within a binding statutory procedure. The study is based on cases of five (named) major European firms in a variety of industrial sectors. As well as a detailed consideration of how negotiations using the mandatory procedure took place, there are more general reflections on the 'quality' of the actors involved, the negotiating process and the outcomes. As well as their analytical value, these observations offer a number of practical pointers on the establishment of information and consultation arrangements internationally. The study also asks why EWCs have been set up in only one third of eligible companies and why the pace of establishing new EWCs slowed after the mandatory procedure came into force in September 1996. This part of the study is based upon a pan-European questionnaire and offers the first empirical findings on this issue. European Works Councils exemplify a new mode of regulation at the European level, not only within industrial relations but in the field of European integration more widely conceived - Europe as a multi-level system of governance within a framework of devolved subsidiarity. This study is of both academic and practical interest, particularly in view of the continuing process of change in this area, exemplified in new Directives on the European Company Statute and information and consultation at national level.

European works councils will have to be established in companies and groups of companies of a significant overall size and with a significant presence in at least two different Member States. It is clear that the number of affected companies, undertakings or establishments and certainly the overall number of affected workers is very high. European works councils are therefore an important phenomenon in European industrial relations. Practitioners and academics the world over need a handy instrument providing easy access to information regarding the European Directive and its significance and implementation in Member States of both the EC and the EEA. This book provides such a tool with regards to Belgium. The national legislation of Member States remains of the utmost importance, even though the establishment of a European works council within a given Community-scale undertaking or group as such is not governed by national, in this case Belgian, law. The involvement of Belgian employees in the transnational information and consultation process will, to a large extent, be subject to Belgian law in those European works councils that are established in companies or groups with subsidiary establishments in Belgium. In those cases, for example, Belgian law determines who will represent the Belgian employees in the negotiations of the Special Negotiating Body, and Belgian law determines the protection of the employee representatives in terms of wages and dismissal, etc.In light of all this, a combined study of both the European Directive and the Belgian implementing legislative measures is warranted.