European Works Councils Case Studies

Transcription

18
European Works Councils
Case Studies
Volker Telljohann ed.
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................5
Volker Telljohann ...................................................................................................................................5
The operation of European Works Councils ............................................................................................7
Volker Telljohann ...................................................................................................................................7
Securitas AB, Sweden................................................................................................................................21
Olle Hammarström................................................................................................................................21
IKEA...........................................................................................................................................................27
Invensys – making progress in a very uncertain world .........................................................................33
Lionel Fulton.........................................................................................................................................33
HSBC – the EWC as an interesting side-show........................................................................................41
Lionel Fulton.........................................................................................................................................41
VF Corporation – the EWC that died .....................................................................................................49
Lionel Fulton.........................................................................................................................................49
British Airways – management doesn’t see the point ............................................................................55
Lionel Fulton.........................................................................................................................................55
GKN – differing national perspectives ....................................................................................................63
Lionel Fulton.........................................................................................................................................63
De La Rue – looking for real consultation...............................................................................................73
Lionel Fulton.........................................................................................................................................73
The Marazzi case.......................................................................................................................................79
Volker Telljohann, Davide Dazzi..........................................................................................................79
Siemens, Stockholm, Sweden....................................................................................................................99
The Riva Group.......................................................................................................................................105
Volker Telljohann, Davide Dazzi........................................................................................................105
The Merloni Group .................................................................................................................................129
Volker Telljohann,Davide Dazzi.........................................................................................................129
Whirlpool Group .....................................................................................................................................151
The EWC of Air France..........................................................................................................................173
Peter Kerckhofs ...................................................................................................................................173
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Fortis EWC ..............................................................................................................................................199
Peter Kerckhofs ...................................................................................................................................199
The Etex EWC.........................................................................................................................................211
Peter Kerckhofs ...................................................................................................................................211
The Eni Group.........................................................................................................................................223
Degussa EWC ..........................................................................................................................................247
Peter Kerckhofs ...................................................................................................................................247
The EWC of BP Oil .................................................................................................................................275
Peter Kerckhofs ...................................................................................................................................275
Bayer EWC ..............................................................................................................................................297
Peter Kerckhofs ...................................................................................................................................297
The Italian Food Group..........................................................................................................................327
Volker Telljohann ...............................................................................................................................327
The EWC of AstraZeneca.......................................................................................................................343
Peter Kerckhofs ...................................................................................................................................343
The EWC of Gamma Holding................................................................................................................353
Peter Kerckhofs ...................................................................................................................................353
3
Introduction
Volker Telljohann
Approximately 740 agreements concerning the setting up of the European Works
Councils (EWC) according to the EU directive 94/95/EC have so far been signed. EWCs
represent the most outstanding initiative pertaining social dialogue at a European level.
Nine years after the implementation of the directive this contribution tries to give some
indications with regard to a qualitative inventory on the operation of EWCs and on the
results that these new workers’ representative bodies have so far led to. It is based on the
results of a research project which has been carried out in cooperation with the European
Trade Union Confederation.
The objective of the research project was to look at the ‘inner life’ of the EWC, that
is, the structures and processes of communication and patterns of interaction within
EWCs. This not only covers formal arrangements but also informal networks of
information and communication within and between EWCs.
Consequently, the project set out to offer a qualitative investigation into the
ensemble of processes of communication and interaction which condition and influence
the constitution and shape of EWCs through a systematic, case-study based analysis of
the subjective dimension of interests, motives, expectations and perceptions of the actors
involved and of the barriers to socio-cultural interaction which characterise the realities
of the operation of EWCs. Furthermore, the research project was based on a transnational
and comparative approach analysing structural framework conditions and parameters set
by national systems of industrial relations.
The focus of the empirical study was on the four dimensions of communication and
interaction which determine the development, character and efficacy of EWCs and in turn
also affect each other. These are:
• those internal to EWCs (formal and informal co-operation between EWC members),
• EWCs and management,
• EWCs and national structures of employee representation,
• EWCs and trade unions.
The aim of the project was to arrive at some generalisable propositions as to the logic
of constitution and the dynamics of development of this new institution in transnational
industrial relations. Furthermore, it was intended to provide indications for the
improvement of effectiveness and efficiency of EWCs’ work, through a field analysis of
a significant number of cases.
On the basis of the research results we will try to find answers to the following
questions:
• Which conditions need to be met by an EWC in order to become an effective body of
interest representation?
• Which kind of measures are required to activate EWCs characterised by a low level of
effectiveness and to further develop those that are already working effectively?
The empirical research was based on 50 case studies covering all relevant sectors.
This approach should allow to draw generalisable conclusions with regard to the
qualitative dimension of EWC activities.
The analysed cases included both, failure and success stories in order to be able to
provide a useful contribution to the dissemination of best practices concerning EWCs’
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operation, on one hand, and to suggest the solution and prevention of certain problems
and errors in the future, on the other.
In this volume Peter Kerckhofs analyses the representativity of the sample of 50
EWCs considered within this project in order to verify whether there is a basis for
generalisable conclusions. Volker Telljohann gives a general overview of the problems of
functioning of the EWCs. The contributions by Lionel Fulton and Olle Hammarström
draw some general conclusions from a national point of view. These contributions show
to which extent EWCs are influenced by the national models of industrial relations.
Finally, some selected case studies carried out within the project will be presented.
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The operation of European Works Councils
Volker Telljohann
Methodology
In the following we shall present some results of the research project that has dealt with the
working of the European Works Councils (EWC). Within the scope of the research fifty case
studies have been performed distributed across various sectors and EU Member States (see the
contribution by Peter Kerckhofs in this volume). For each case study there have been interviews
with a representative of the European Works Council in the country in which the group has its
head office and a delegate of the EWC in another country in which the group is present with an
affiliated company. This approach has allowed us to identify the differences that exist within the
EWC in regard to the evaluation of its own functioning. Furthermore, the union representatives
who have taken on the role of coordinator have been interviewed. The coordinators have the task
of following and supporting the European Works Council on behalf of the respective European
federations or in some cases also on behalf of the national union.
Within the scope of the research it has been analysed the role of the founding agreement of the
EWC for its functioning and, moreover, the various levels of interaction of the EWC. The aspect
of the interactions particularly concerns:
The dynamics within the EWCs,
The relationship between the EWCs and trade union organisations,
The relationship between EWCs and the national bodies of interest representation,
The relationship between the EWC and the management.
Furthermore, it has been examined which concrete activities are performed by the EWC in order
to identify its actual role. The latter aspect of the analysis concerns the development of the EWC
activities and thus their actual role in the course of time: we have analysed the way in which the
EWC activities have developed since their foundation until today.
The role of the founding agreements
As regards the importance of the agreements it can be seen that there is not necessarily a direct
bond between the quality of the agreements and the working of the EWC. If a good agreement
does not represent a guarantee for the quality of the EWC activity, then vice-versa there are cases
in which the agreements are mediocre and, in any case, the activity of the EWC is rather
advanced.
A further aspect concerns the renewal of the agreements that in some cases has brought about an
improvement in the contents. Seeing that most of the agreements have been signed before the
directive was implemented one might suppose that in the meantime many agreements would
have been renewed. In reality, in most of the cases the renewal of the agreement has not yet
taken place. In the cases in which a renewal has taken place we can distinguish between two
possibilities: the one in which the existing agreement has simply been extended and the one in
which the renewal has led to some modifications, at times significant ones, of the contents of the
agreements.
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The extension of the EWC rights as the result of a renewal of the agreement regards, for
example, issues such as the presence of trade union representatives at the EWC meetings, or
more generally, the role of the union in regard to the EWC. Under different agreements it is
stated that the trade union organisations obtain positions as effective EWC members. Other
examples of improvement in the EWC agreements concern the right to
organise training courses for the EWC members;
extend the representation within the EWC to the candidate countries;
introduce select bodies inside the EWC;
organise moments of assessment after the yearly meeting with the management;
be able to visit the group plants;
set up commissions or work groups that deal with specific issues, such as health and safety,
vocational training or equal opportunities.
The extension of rights on the occasion of the renewal of the agreement generally represents a
recognition of the previous informal practices.
The various levels of interaction of the EWC
THE DYNAMICS INTERNAL TO THE EWC
As regards the internal dynamics, the interest of research concerns the relationship between the
delegates coming from industrial relations cultures that are often very different from one another.
Furthermore, we have analysed the role of the select committees inside the EWC, along with the
relationship between the delegates belonging to the parent company and the delegates of the
subsidiaries present in the other European Union countries.
In order to improve internal cohesion and, as a consequence, the actual working of the EWC, it
would be desirable to valorise the preparatory meeting more in future, which may play a
fundamental role, not only in preparing the meeting with the management, but also to develop
the cohesion within the EWC. In the positive cases, through an exchange of experiences between
the delegates of the various countries of an EWC, there occur learning processes on the subject
of other industrial relations cultures. One of the major problem at the start of the activity of any
EWC indeed concerns the lack of knowledge in regard to the different national contexts in which
the other EWC colleagues work. The preparatory day should thus take on an important function,
above all in regard to the fostering of the knowledge of the situation in other countries, but also
in regard to the chance to organise an exchange of good practices. In some cases, certain positive
experiences achieved in a national context have been taken by colleagues in other countries to
spark their work as national delegates.
The select bodies play an important role in facilitating communication, above all between the
yearly meetings and, thus, in many cases they succeed in guaranteeing a certain continuity in the
operation of the EWCs. There is nevertheless the risk that the communication will only take
place among the members of the select committee, tending to exclude the other members of the
EWC. It might also happen that the management will try to substitute the EWC with the select
committee, thus trying, for example, to shorten the timescale in the case of restructuring.
As regards the means of communication, there is still in some case the problem that not all the
members of the EWC can be reached during the working time. Then there are the differences
between white and blue collar workers. Whereas nearly all the white collar workers have e-mail
available to facilitate communication, the blue collar workers often have considerable difficulty
accessing this technology. As regards the blue collar workers then there is a need to find
solutions that will make it possible for them to be easily and quickly reached.
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Lastly, there is the language problem. The results of the research suggest that between one yearly
meeting and another the delegates must make do by themselves and they do not always find
satisfactory solutions. In some cases these communication difficulties represent a real limit.1
In order to improve the working of the EWC it is also essential to guarantee time off that can be
used on activities linked to the EWC. Generally speaking, the total hours is calculated in such a
way as to assure the participation in the yearly meetings and hours are not set aside for work in
between the yearly meetings. Not conceiving of an hours total for the activities within the scope
of the EWC is an indicator of the scarce consideration afforded to this representative body.
In the interviews many members of the EWC have also stressed the need for an exchange of
experiences with colleagues from other EWCs. This need is due, amongst other things, to the
fact that moving on the European field is very often a novelty for the delegates. So they have to
move in a new and complex field. Such complexity and the uncertainties deriving from it make
necessary a comparison with other colleagues. From this point of view the initiative taken by the
Italian Trade Union Confederations of creating a portal represents an important contribution
towards fostering this kind of exchange.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE EWC AND THE BODIES OF
INTEREST REPRESENTATION AT COMPANY LEVEL
The relationship with the representative bodies at company level is still characterised by a certain
distance between the EWC and the bodies of interest representation at company level. Only in
very few cases there is a systematic information from the EWC on the results of the meetings. In
many cases the delegates who are part of the EWC inform the trade union representation of their
own plant, but there is no proper strategy ensuring the systematic information for all the bodies
of interest representation. Even in countries like Italy where you can find in most cases a central
coordination of the company-level bodies of interest representation, these are seldom used to
spread the information concerning the activities of the EWC. Today there exist new forms of
communication: for example, it would be useful to develop an electronic newsletter or create an
intranet EWC site. Until now these means have been little used. It can thus be stated that the
integration between the EWC and the bodies of interest representation at company level is still
poorly developed. In order to increase the recognition of the EWC also within the scope of the
national industrial relations it is indispensable to develop a more systematic information policy
vis-à-vis the company-level bodies of interest representation, but also in regard to the workers
themselves.
Another critical aspect consists in the fact that the EWC is experienced by the bodies of interest
representation at company level as a body having scarce importance for everyday work.
Furthermore, the right to information and consultation is considered to be highly limited. As in
most EU Member States the company-level bodies of interest representation have stronger rights
in most cases delegates continue to consider the respective national systems of interest
representation far more effective and, as a consequence, they are sceptical in regard to devolving
functions and competences on a supra-national level.
1
In view of the review of the EU-directive some rights should be inserted by which the language problem can be
resolved. For example, a budget could be set aside so that the EWC can pay for translators and interpreters.
Furthermore, it would be appropriate to introduce a right to training in order to study a language.
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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE EWC AND THE MANAGEMENT
The quality of the relationship with the management is determined by the quantity, the quality
and the speed of the information, on the one hand, and by the presence or absence of consultation
processes on the other. Four management strategies can be identified. There are extremely
negative experiences in which an EWC had been set up and subsequently never met. In these
cases employee representatives and/or trade unions might take into consideration to take legal
action, in order to oblige the management to comply with the signed agreements. Then we can
observe some management strategies that could be defined as minimalist. In these cases the
management tries to keep its obligations without conceding anything more than that. Another
kind of strategy is characterised by the attempt to manipulate and control the EWC for the
management’s strategic objectives. When the EWC does not have its own well defined strategy
the risk is that the attempt at manipulation and control will lead to an internal division or to the
role of subordination of the EWC. This risk above all arises within the scope of the restructuring
processes.
Lastly, there is a management strategy that can be defined as constructive. The relationship
between EWC and management is characterised by the fact that the management shows it is
available to grant some entitlements that go over and beyond the contents of the European
directive. The relationship between the EWC and the management is thus based on reciprocal
advantages. This constructive attitude is translated, on the one hand, into new rights and
instruments for the EWC and, on the other, into effective consulting procedures, understood as
the chance to influence the management decisions.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE EWC AND THE TRADE UNION
ORGANISATIONS
The relationship between EWC and the union organisations is very complex as it takes place at
various levels: the EWC indeed relates itself to the European federations, the national branch
level trades unions and, in some countries, also to territorial and regional bodies. In certain cases
union pluralism can make relations even more complex.
In general, it can be stated that the relationship between the EWC of domestic groups and the
union organisations is positive and a rather close one. The relationship with the union is judged
to be useful and in many cases there is a strong demand from the EWC members for union
support, not only during the meetings with the management, but also in between the yearly
meetings. The company members of the EWC often ask, for example, for some support from the
union on the subject of European policies. The request for support is probably due to the fact that
the representatives of the union organisations generally have more experience in the field of
European-wide industrial relations and that, furthermore, they dispose of specific, in-depth
expertise that makes them better equipped to evaluate and interpret the data provided by the
management during the yearly meetings. Nevertheless, there are also countries in which EWCs
prefer a certain autonomy with regard to their relationship to external trade union organisations.
Evidence for this kind of orientation we find for example in Sweden and in certain sectors in
Germany.
There is not just the EWC request for support vis-à-vis the union; vice-versa, even the union
increasingly sees the usefulness of the EWC as a source of information and, at times, as a place
of coordination. Indeed, the union organisations may need the information that is provided
during the meetings with the management and also the information on the union situation in
other countries. Furthermore, the EWC can help them to organise the European-wide union
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actions, as has happened for instance, in the case of Ford, General Motors and Fiat where the
union, in this case the European Metalworkers Federation, called industrial action in response to
the strategic choices of the central management. Furthermore, it should be stressed that in several
cases the EWC, in close cooperation with the union, has also already signed agreements. It
cannot thus be excluded that the European trade union federations, in cooperation with the
national unions, may attempt to use the EWC more effectively in order to conquer a Europeanlevel bargaining function, above all within the scope of restructuring processes. Hence, by
recognising the potential of this new representation instrument at European level it does seem
that there is an ongoing trend among the trade union organisations that heads in the direction of
trying to increase the value of EWCs. As a consequence, some unions have started to change
their strategy towards the EWC by investing more in this new organism.
As regards the cooperation between the EWC and the union organisations there are different
approaches. There are trades unions that entrust the supporting policy to their international
office, while there are other unions that entrust this task to the department that follows the group
or the sector from the collective bargaining point of view. Besides these differences from the
union function standpoint, there are also some differences in regard to the union levels: there are
unions that entrust the supporting policy to the national bodies, while others entrust them to the
territorial bodies. All of these choices are based on their own rational and for this very reason the
true objective should be to seek the highest possible level of integration between the different
functions and the various union levels interested in the EWC issue. The choice of entrusting the
international office with the supporting function is reasonable because it deals with European
policies and thus manages to give some emphasis to the European dimension, while the
collective bargaining department could give its priority to the specificities and the problem issue
of the sector or the group. From the point of view of the organisational levels, the national bodies
could guarantee more visibility and experience, instead by entrusting the supporting function to
the territorial bodies there could be the advantage of a closer and more immediate relationship
between the EWC and the union. As a matter of fact, in nearly all the cases analysed in which the
territorial bodies are the ones that provide support to the EWC, the judgement of the EWC itself
in regard to the relationship with the union has been rather positive.
As regards the formal role of the union vis-à-vis the EWC it can be seen that there exist some
differences between the various sectors in the different countries. In certain industries we find
many cases in which the unionists are full-members of the EWC, in other sectors, on the other
hand, we almost exclusively find cases in which the unionists participate in the EWC activity as
external experts. One reason for these differences is probably to be sought in the different
industrial relations cultures and traditions.
If, on the one hand it is true that as regards the relationship between the EWC and the union
there is in general a positive and constructive relationship, on the other there may nonetheless be
some problems. One sort of problem that may arise above all when the unionists are fullmembers of the EWC, is that the unionists might become absolute protagonists, dominating in
this way the EWC activity. In systems characterised by trade union pluralism like for example
Italy and France another problem concerns the competition between different unions. There are
some EWCs in which the EWC-members coming from the company have become aware of the
risk that the friction between the unions could be reproduced inside the EWC. Such a trend
obviously implies a serious risk for the efficacy of the EWC work. Furthermore, the reproduction
of conflicts between the national unions within the EWC triggers misunderstandings and
disappointments, especially among the foreign delegates.
The problem of trade union unity can also represent a problem in those cases in which unionists
do not take part in the EWC meetings. In these cases there may be a situation of limited
integration between the EWC and the union in that the communication only occurs among the
various EWC members and their own trade union of reference. The reduced communication
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represents a problem above all when not all the unions are represented through one of their
company delegates, as often happens in the EWC of the foreign groups.
As regards the relationship between trade unions and EWCs another phenomenon is worth
mentioning. It seems that the national unions often focus on following the EWCs of their own
country. The members of the EWCs whose parent company is abroad are, instead, often not
followed up at all. This approach implies that on the one hand these delegates do not obtain
support or any indications concerning orientation, and on the other, that the union waives a
source of information that previously it did not have at its disposal. Indeed, from this point of
view, it seems to be paradoxical that the unions concentrate their resources on the EWCs of their
own countries, which generally do not provide any significant added value in relation to the
information sources already existing within the scope of the industrial relation systems at
national level, while they neglect the national members of the EWC of the foreign groups, which
could instead represent a real added resource for the union.
The case of the Italian agro-food industry
STRATEGIES OF INTEGRATION AND COORDINATION BETWEEN
TRADE UNIONS AND EWCS
In the following the integration of EWCs in the Italian industrial relations system and in
particular their relationship with the external trade union organisations will be analysed. The
cases analysed were chosen in the Italian food processing industry.
It is of some interest to look at the results regarding agro-food groups having head offices in
Italy, such as Barilla and Parmalat. In these cases the level of integration between the EWC and
the outside union is highly developed. This integration is due to the fact that during the
negotiation phase the special negotiation body has succeeded in introducing in the EWC
agreement the right for the outside union to be able to appoint a certain number of union
executives as components of the EWC. By means of this right the Italian union assures itself a
direct involvement in the EWC activity and through it also a control over the development of
EWC strategies. Thus the union manages to overcome the limits imposed by the directive which
provides that the EWC members must be employees of the company or of the company group.
It is interesting to observe that in other sectors as well, such as the chemical and energy
industries, the EWC agreements foresee the chance to appoint union executives as well as
members of the EWC.2 It thus seems possible to talk of a fully-fledged Italian model of the
EWC that differs from the two kinds of EWC which are generally referred to in the literature: i.e.
the French model and the German one that differ due to the presence or absence of the
management representatives in the EWC. The Italian model is characterised by the leading role
of the external trade unions that is typical of the one-tier system of interest representation. This
model is not, however, always shared by the members of the EWC coming from other countries
characterised by different industrial relations models. In various cases, the representatives
coming for example from Scandinavian countries tended to be opposed to the direct involvement
of the outside union in the EWC and claim the autonomy of the EWC.
It should be underlined that the right to appoint representatives of the external union does
not only concern Italy, but, as in the case of Barilla, all the countries represented in the EWC.
2
With these EWC experiences the request to guarantee the presence of the external trade union structures in the
EWC put forward by the ETUC is thus anticipated.
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These members of the national unions are added to the representatives of the European
Federation ECF-IUF which, as concerns the Italian groups, delegates its presence to a
representative of the Italian unions. As regards the EWCs in Italian groops to be coordinated on
behalf of the European Federation, the three Italian unions Fai-Cisl, Flai-Cgil and Uila-Uil share
the Italian groups amongst themselves. In taking on the role of representative of the European
Federation, Fai-Cisl and Uila-Uil generally choose the national union executive who also deals
with the collective bargaining in the respective groups. The Flai-Cgil has instead changed the
criteria for choosing its coordinators. By privileging the criterion of decentralisation, now the
coordinators are singled out at the level of the territorial trade union organisations, and in
particular of that territorial body where the group has its head office. In the case of Barilla, for
example, the coordinator is the General Secretary of the Flai-Cgil of Parma. In this way there is
an attempt to assure a proximity both in terms of the location where the strategic decisions are
taken, and in terms of the bodies of company-level interest representation.
It can be reassumed that as regards the criteria for the identification of the members of the
EWC and the coordinator on behalf of the European Federation, the Flai-Cgil adopts the criterion
of decentralisation and proximity to the head offices. Instead the other two unions declare they
want to continue privileging the criterion of competence and experience through the presence of
the national union executives in the EWC.
Also with regard to the identification of the Italian components in the EWC, generally
speaking the three unions of the food industry apply different criteria. The Fai-Cisl and the UilaUil generally also appoint national union executives as members of the respective EWC. This
approach is not only applied in the Italian groups but also in the cases of more important foreign
groups as for example Danone. Whereas in the past also the Flai-Cgil would appoint national
union executives, since 2001 this union has changed its basic approach to interaction with
EWCs, abstaining from the practice to appoint unionists in favour of a larger presence of
company representatives.
The approach of Fai-Cisl and Uila-Uil actually favours the integration of the contractual
function with that of representation. Besides the problem of centralisation of the competencies
and the greater distance to the company structures of interest representation, in the future there
could also arise a problem of resources. As the number of EWCs is destined to grow, in the
future it might become increasingly difficult to cater for the new EWCs as well with the current
staffing of the national unions. These different integration orientations between the unions and
EWCs imply difficulties with regard to a common approach and consequently the chance to
create synergies between the three unions also proves to be limited.
As we have seen Fai-Cisl and Uila-Uil motivate their choice with the greater experience,
competence and visibility of the national union executives as compared with the territorial trade
union officers and company-level representatives. According to the two unions, through the
presence of the external unionists a more effective utilisation of the rights to information and
consultation is assured. According to the Flai-Cgil, on the other hand, the policy of competence
centralisation by the Fai-Cisl and the Uila-Uil have the problem that the distance between the
national union executives on the one hand, and the company representatives and the workers, on
the other, is too large, so that often no feedback occurs from the national unionists. In order to
avoid such a distance between the EWC and the company representatives and the workers
themselves, the Flai-Cgil would rather see its members in the EWC coming from the RSU (Joint
Trade Union Representation). Furthermore, the Flai-Cgil is pointing out that the European
directive 94/45 itself lays down that the EWC members must be employees of the enterprise or
the group of enterprises. In order to overcome the problem of competence, the Flai-Cgil deems it
necessary to start up a process of increasing the members belonging to the RSU. Lastly, this
approach by the Flai-Cgil implies that the presence of the trade union in the EWC should be
guaranteed exclusively through the delegate member of the European Federation.
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It can thus be summed up that through the presence of the outside unionists in the EWCs a
good level of integration is certainly guaranteed between the EWCs and the trade unions. This
model is in any case characterised by at least two limits. The first one consists of the fact that
this model is applied especially in the EWCs of enterprises or group of enterprises with head
offices in Italy. In the EWCs of foreign groups the Italian unions are not always present. In these
case they depend on the information received from the company representatives present in the
EWCs. But it can be observed that in many cases there is no systematic feedback from these
representatives. Instead when it does take place the information often only circulates in the
structures of that union which the respective EWC member belongs to. But also in this case it is
likely that the communication flow stops at provincial level without ever reaching the regional
and national structures. Generally speaking, there is not even one piece of information from the
other two trade unions. It can thus be argued that in the Italian experience the process of
integration between EWCs and trade unions has above all developed in the groups that have their
head office in Italy. But even in these cases the relationships almost exclusively come about
with the national structures of the unions. In only two cases the union representatives did not
belong to the national structures, but to the provincial structure in one case, and to the regional
structure, in the other.
It thus seems that the Italian union is investing both politically and in terms of resources
above all in the EWCs of the Italian groups and less in the EWCs of the foreign groups. The
objective behind this choice probably consists in maintaining the control within the scope of the
industrial relations at group level, even through the adaptation of the EWCs to the Italian system
of interest representation. If the above-mentioned choice by the Italian unions can be explained
from the political point of view, it is less so from the functional point of view. In the cases of the
Italian enterprises or groups of enterprises for the Italian unions that have through the rights
defined in the collective agreements the chance to be informed and consulted in regard to the
strategic decisions of the central management, the EWC meetings do not generally represent a
real added value as concerns the chance for greater involvement in the management’s decisionmaking processes.
The situation is different in the case of the EWCs of the foreign groups. In these cases the
meetings of the EWCs could represent a real added value in that they represent an opportunity to
access information which Italian trade unions could only get to with difficulty otherwise. There
is thus a paradox: there is a greater investment in EWCs that can only give a very limited added
value, and less is invested in those EWCs that theoretically could give a higher added value.
More generally, another problem arises. The fact that there is no systematic evaluation of
the experiences of the Italian members of the EWC, either at national, regional or sectoral level,
indicates that the union has not yet developed a policy for the systematic utilisation of these new
structures. The only assessment at sectoral level is organised at European level by the industry
federation.
THE ROLE OF TRADE UNION REPRESENTATIVES IN EWCS
In the evaluation of the EWC activities the judgement of the unionists who are members of
EWCs, on the one hand, and the judgement of the EWC members from company-level structures
of interest representation, on the other, do not always converge. In many cases it is especially
the latter who give a much more critical judgement than that of their union colleagues. The
explanation for these divergences could be linked to the fact that the Italian members of the
EWCs belonging to the company-level structures of interest representation feel that where the
external trade unionists are present in the EWC they often tend to dominate the EWC activities.
At the same time the employee representatives tend to feel excluded from the decision-making
14
processes and cut out from the communication flow at the central level of the trade union
structures.
Another problem regards the lack of support provided by the external trade union structures. This
lack of support is especially true of the delegates who are part of EWCs of groups with foreign
head offices, or in the case of Italian groups, who do not work in the head quarters of the group.
In many cases these delegates feel left alone, with no support from the external union structures.
These delegates’ problems generally lie in an inadequate preparation. Not having any European
level experience and not disposing of adequate instruments for dealing with this new task, they
have problems performing their role effectively. The problems of the EWCs concern for example
the technical weaknesses in managing the information procedures and in starting up the
consultations. Furthermore, they are asking for targeted training on specific topics like European
policies and comparative industrial relations.
Generally lacking is a policy of sensitisation on the part of the unions as regards the importance
of the EWCs and the instruments and rights at its disposal. Consequently, at times the
preparation of the meetings with the management by the employee representatives seems to be
insufficient. During the preparatory meetings of the employee representatives it is not always
possible to properly define the objectives and the strategy for the meeting with the management.
This means that the albeit limited rights of the EWCs are not effectively utilised.
Both the centralising of the EWC activities by the members belonging to union structures, and
the lack of a liaison with the external trade union structures in other cases, and finally also the
inadequate preparation can be the source of demotivation on the part of the EWC members
belonging to company-level representation structures.
The fact that the Italian members of the EWCs belonging to the representation structures at
company level express a more critical judgement than the members belonging to the external
union structures could be the result of a way of running the EWCs that sees the union executives
as the leading players of the EWC activities while the other members of the EWCs tend to be
marginalized. This approach often implies a centralisation of the initiative at the level of the
unionists and as a consequence the risk of an actual exclusion of the other EWC members. This
risk seems to be particularly strong in countries with a one-tier system of interest representation.
The challenge, therefore, consists in developing the right equilibrium between the role of the
trade unionists, on the one hand, and the role of the company-level representatives, on the other.
THE INTEGRATION OF THE EWCS INTO THE NATIONAL SYSTEMS
OF INTEREST REPRESENTATION
Another problem regards the integration of the EWCs into the national systems of interest
representation. The cases analysed have shown that in most of the cases the EWCs take on the
appearance of a structure disconnected from the shop-floor and reserved to an elite of pioneers.
The information and consultation at European level thus risks remaining far-removed from the
shop-floor. Furthermore, also from the joint trade union representations and the workers
themselves the issue of the EWC is not very much felt.
An aspect that influences the integration processes between the European and national
levels of information and consultation regards the characteristics of the Italian representation
system. The integration must come about in a context characterised by a one-tier representation
system. This model means that in the Italian case there is often a dominant role of the external
union. The leading role of the external trade unionists that we also find in the EWCs is another
element that increases the distance between the company representation structures and the
workers.
15
The problem of integration seems to be particularly relevant in the cases in which the parent
company has its head offices abroad. In these cases the Italian members of the EWC coming
from the joint trade union representation run the risk of being isolated both in regard to the
external union and in regard to the company representation structures. This situation of isolation
is due to the fact that information channels have not been developed for the company-level
representation structures on the one hand, and for the external union structures, on the other.
As a whole, the judgement of the Italian delegates in the EWCs, and in particular that of the
delegates coming from the joint trade union representations, is disappointing. From the point of
view of the Italian delegates in the cases studied, the EWCs have not played a significant role.
The delegates rarely say that the EWCs have produced an added value for their work as
employee representatives. One of the most important reasons seems to be the lack of an actual
integration between the various levels of information and consultation.
THE CONTENTS OF WORK OF EWCS
In the cases analysed in the Italian food industry there were no cases of real consultation let
alone bargaining. Except for one case none of the Italian delegates interviewed reported
experiences of commissions inside the EWC or of theme-based groups on single issues. Not even
in the cases of groups that had gone through restructuring processes was there the involvement of
the EWCs. The argument in these cases consisted in the consideration that the restructuring
processes were limited to the respective national contexts and consequently could not be the
subject of discussion with the EWCs.
But also as regards the information processes, in various cases both the quality and the
timeliness are qualified as being inadequate. Being determined to maintain its prerogatives in
most cases the management tries to limit the EWCs scope for action. In some cases the
management’s interest in the EWC instead more concerns the chance in general to utilise this
new structure as an instrument for the creation of a corporate identity, and in particular to
achieve consensus in regard to its strategies of competition at European level.
On the other hand, even the EWCs do not use their rights completely. In most cases the
EWCs are characterised by a substantially passive behaviour and have thus not taken on a
purposeful role. Indeed, it appears that the right to information an consultation laid down by the
European directive is only half-used. The cases in which consultation procedures have taken
place are very few and far between. Furthermore, it can be added that, within the scope of the
cases studied, the EWCs have never interpreted the consultation right radically, developing
proposals differing from those of the management. There are various explanations for such
passive behaviour of EWCs in regard to the existing rights. In general it is the result of a lack of
internal cohesion due to the different industrial relations cultures and traditions present within
the EWCs. As a consequence the employee representatives do not succeed in deciding on the
strategic objectives to be pursued by the EWC. In certain cases the passive behaviour of EWCs
can also be put down to an inadequate training for EWC members.
It is significant that many of the interviewees believe that the EWCs are an important
structure because they allow for an increase in the knowledge of other European situations. The
main interest in the EWCs by the employee representatives is in many cases of an understanding
kind and particularly regards the information on the industrial relations systems in other
countries and the diverse role and penetration of the unions.
We can thus observe an under-utilisation by the members of the EWCs. From the point of
view of the Italian EWC members generally EWCs have not produced any added value for their
16
work as company representatives. As a consequence, among the EWCs analysed, there is no case
that had already developed an identity as a European-level representative structure.
AN OUTLOOK
The level of integration of the EWCs in the national system of industrial relations is still very
weak. The joint trade union representation and the decentralised union structures remain
essentially outside the EWC experience. As regards Italy, so far only a few integration
instruments have been developed. The information on the EWC activities is often provided
informally and much depends on the personal initiative of the EWC members.
In the cases in which we are faced with a strong territorial concentration of branches of foreign
groups that belong to the same sector, as in the case of the food industry in Emilia-Romagna the
systematic gathering of information through the EWC instruments could not only be an
instrument in the hands of the unions for more effectively setting up their strategy at local and/or
national level, but could also provide indications in regard to the need for answers at the level of
industrial policy. From this point of view it could thus be useful to set up a regional observatory
on the activities of the various EWCs in which there are regional employee representatives.
Furthermore, it might be worthwhile for the decentralised trade union structures to reflect upon
the possibility of regaining through the EWCs, at least in part, an influence on the industrial
relations that had been lost following the processes of acquisition by the foreign groups. Such a
use of the EWCs presupposes the development of a systematic integration strategy of the EWCs
in the system of industrial relations at the various levels. The creation of effective liaisons
between the EWCs and the territorial union structures implies the need for training pathways
both for the union executives and for the respective EWC members who come from a given
territory. It would also be useful to create a network of all the EWC members of a given territory
and the respective officers of the union structures at territorial and regional level in order to
foster the integration between the centralised and decentralised tiers.
It is interesting to observe that among the Italian unionists who are members of an EWC there is
a certain propensity to confer a bargaining function to the EWCs. Instead less thought is devoted
to the prerequisites necessary in order to be able to assign such a task to the EWCs. From the
political and bargaining point of view, a deeper discussion should be launched on the prospects
for a bargaining function of EWCs. In particular, in those EWCs in which there are members
belonging to different systems of interest representation, i.e. a one-tier and two-tier system of
interest representation, it is possible to find divergent standpoints with regard to a potential
bargaining function of EWCs. It can be hypothesised that the members of EWCs who belong to
the two-tier representation systems are more sceptical in regard to a bargaining function of the
EWC.
Beyond the discussion on the role and the function of the EWCs it is necessary to guarantee a
certain level of functioning of these structures. From this point of view it would be important to
guarantee a functional information and communication system, both inside the EWC and
between the EWC and the outside union structures in the various countries. Furthermore, it
shows to be important to spread the knowledge of the various industrial relations systems, and in
particular of the bargaining systems in the various countries represented in the respective EWCs.
A potential bargaining process also implies a more thorough preparation in order to guarantee
the visibility of the EWC in regard to the bargaining results achieved in the various countries
represented by the EWC. Lastly, the EWCs will have to develop an adequate strategy in order to
be able to achieve the possibility to negotiate with the central management.
It can thus be summed up that an integration strategy should come about on three levels, and in
particular between the
17
different EWCs present on the regional territory through the creation of a network;
EWCs and the union structures at territorial and regional level;
EWCs and the structures of interest representation at company level;
three unions fostering a joint approach.
The integration processes should be accompanied by an identification of the possible working
contents in order to foster the development of a role and identity of the EWCs.
The role of the EWC
So far we have especially dealt with the aspects concerning the working of the EWC, its
interactions, the tools at its disposal and the rights it can make use of. As we have seen in
the cases of the Italian agro-food industry there is however also the aspect of the content
of the EWCs’ activities, its objectives, its strategy and its role in general. In the
interviews carried out, it has emerged that the critical point regards the role that the
EWCs should take on. In many cases the need is underlined to take a qualitative leap
forward. In practise, this means that the EWCs have often so far found themselves in a
substantially passive position, receiving the information without actually being consulted
at all. In the course of time, a passive role inevitably leads to problems of motivation and
as a consequence the need to discuss the EWCs’ prospects definitely arises: this should
consist of a shift from a passive towards a more proactive role. Such a shift should be
based on a more offensive interpretation of consultation.
In regard to such a prospect it appears that the temporal dimension has a certain
importance. As regards some of the EWCs that have already existed for some time, it can
be observed that there has been an evolutionary trend. In the course of time some
learning processes have taken place that have led to an improvement in their functioning.
In some cases this evolutionary process has also led to the definition of a fully-fledged
strategy shared by all of the EWC members.
18
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20
Securitas AB, Sweden
Olle Hammarström
The Enterprise
There has been an number of acquisitions by Securitas since the formation of the
EWC. Three major companies were bought in 2000, two in 2001 and two in 2002.
During the last three years the number of employees in Securitas has doubled to 232 000
and sales has more then quadrupled to 60 000 MSEK. The integration of new members to
the EWC has been slow. It has taken time for the new enterprises to understand what the
EWC is about and to agree on how to nominate members. The level of union activity has
been limited in some of the newly acquired companies.
The EWC agreement
The EWC agreement was signed in 1966 under article 13. It was a joint initiative
from the corporate management and the Swedish Transport Workers Union. The
employee side can nominate a maximum of 30 members and they are all union
nominated.
Companies with less than 2000 employees can nominate one delegate and those with
more than 2000 employees can nominate two.
The management is member of the EWC and has three delegates.
Apart from the delegates who are employed in Secirutas, the Transport Workers
Union in Sweden has one delegate and the relevant union international also has the right
to be present at meetings of the EWC.
The functions of the EWC is purely informative and consultative. The information
given is comprehensive and seem to meet what is expected from the union delegate.
There is however no consultation before major decisions in the company. The EWC
meets only once a year and that does not allow for any role for the EWC in decisions
regarding buying and selling of companies which takes place at high speed and short
notice.
According to the agreement the EWC is a forum for information about issues above
the national level and issues of particular importance to the employees. In practise the
functioning of the EWC does not follow the agreement. There is a lot of issues regarding
national union - management problems that are brought up at the EWC meeting in
violation of the agreement. But both sides has a practical attitude and try to solve
whatever problem comes up.
The EWC agreement has not been revised since 1996.
21
The recourses of the EWC
The EWC is administered from the company head quarter in London. The chief legal
officer act as secretary and takes the minutes at the EWC meetings. All delegates are free
to use the communication facilities of the company (phone, fax, e-mail). Some delegates
do not us the e-mail as they think that management can access their e-mail. That seem to
be a matter of principle rather than a argument based on experience. There is no report of
any violation off "union privacy" over the e-mail.
The EWC has an annual budget covering cost for meetings including interpretation.
The companies where the delegates are employed covers the cost for time and travel
expenses for delegates.
The resources for the EWC activities has not been a controversial issue between the
two sides in the EWC. The most costly aspect of the EWC meetings is the interpretation
and those costs have been covered by the management above what is agreed in the EWC
agreement.
The internal work in the EWC
The work of the EWC is dominated by the delegates from the Scandinavian
countries. The corporate management has Swedish and Norwegian background and the
union representatives from the Scandinavian countries in particular the Swedish
Transport Workers Union have been very active in shaping the work of the EWC. The
EWC secretary is Swedish.
One obvious reason for the Scandinavian domination is that the Swedish unions also
have representation on the company board. It means that the union delegates meets more
frequently with the Managing Director and other directors and have more information
about company matter than other union delegates. It also means that the Swedish
delegates has a personal relation to the MD that the other union representatives do not
have.
There has been and still is a language problem in the EWC. The EWC agreement
states that the meetings should be held in the company language (English) and that
simultaneous interpretation should be provided on demand to six other languages during
the first three years of operation of the EWC. At the same time all delegates was offered
training in English.
This part of the agreement has not been observed. Some EWC delegates, primarily
from south Europe (France, Spain and Portugal) have refused to work in English. They
have insisted on using their own language and have declined to take part in any
language training.
The management have accepted that it may be ask for to much from some delegates
to ask them to work in English and have continues to arrange interpretation at the
meetings.
The language issue has been a conflict issue among the union delegates. The
Scandinavian delegates think all delegates should be able to hold meetings in English as
they see it as important that delegates can talk informally during the EWC meetings and
also keep in tough between meetings. They simply think that is fair to expect that a
union delegate who want to get involved in international union matters should be able to
communicate in English. Those who oppose this view see it as a "management request"
22
in order to save costs and see the refusal to work in English as "standing up for employee
rights".
There is also different views between Scandinavian and Mediterranean union
representatives regarding what the EWC should concentrate on. The Scandinavian view
is that the EWC should concentrate on issuers relating to company strategy and business
development. The Mediterranean view is that the work should more be about wages and
conditions.
There is however one area where all unionist seem to agree and that is the
importance of trade union rights and industrial relations policy within Securitas. This
interest has led to the decision in the EWC to work out an industrial relations Cod of
Conduct for Securitas. That work started on 2002.
The unions have also taken up the fact that some companies Securitas bought in the
US does not have contracts with unions. Discussions about this led to a delegation of
EWC members visiting the US during 2003. There is a union representative from the US
in the EWC.
There is no training provided by the company for the EWC members apart from the
introduction given by the executive committee at the first meeting for new members.
The Swedish unions have provided training for their delegates and have also have
some seminars for exchange of experiences. It is not known whether union in other
countries have provided any training for their EWC delegates.
There has been no meeting arranged for the entire EWC with other EWC´s or any
other exchange of experiences.
Relations between the EWC and the management
The management see it as important to have a good relation with the employees and
their organisations. The management see the company as a service company where a
large proportion of the employees meets the customers as guards or service technicians. It
is important the all employee understands the nature of Securitas operation and policy so
they can represent the company in a correct way. For the management the EWC is part of
the policy to share information and to ensure that the leading union delegates understand
how the company operates and why strategic decisions are taken.
With this policy the corporate management is anxious to have a well functioning
EWC. The Managing Director has been involved in establishing the EWC and attends all
meetings together with other leading representatives of the top management.
The information given at the EWC meeting is comprehensive and has not been
criticised by the union side. It is however all about information after decisions. There is
no ambition to consult with the EWC before decisions are taken. It does not seem to be a
practical option to consult with the EWC for exempla on decisions about buying and
selling of companies. That would require the EWC to meet much more often than is the
case. In many cases not even the company board is consulted on acquisitions. There is a
lot of authority delegated to the Managing Director.
The management's ambition to uphold good relations with the union delegates in the
EWC is demonstrated by the fact that they have been prepared to go beyond the formal
EWC agreement to satisfy the union delegates. The management have accepted to
continue to provide interpretation at the EWC meetings. The management have also
accepted to deal with national complaints and grievances that are not EWC matter
23
according to the statutes. The management is simply acting to keep the EWC delegates
happy.
At the same time it is obvious that the management regard the EWC as primarily a
union forum. The management have not sought to forward their own interests through the
EWC and have not tried to make the EWC a part of the management structure.
The official EWC meetings
The EWC have held one meeting per year since the formation in 1996, seven
meetings in all. The agenda is decided by the executive committee made up of tree
management and three union representatives. The EWC delegates are invited to propose
items for the agenda, but very few suggestions have been lodged.
The only non Securitas employees that has taken part in the EWC meetings are a
delegate from the Transport Workers Union in Sweden and a representative from the
union international for the service sector. No other experts have been called in, and there
has been no suggestion bout calling in any external experts.
The EWC agenda normally contains four items:
• Information from the MD about the development of the company and the performance.
• Reports from the EWC delegates about national problems/questions
• Some theme often relating to personnel policy
• The planning of the next meeting (where to hold the meeting, what to take up).
The EWC meetings in Securitas is a three day event. Day one is an internal meeting
for the executive committee and a meeting between the executive committee and new
EWC delegates. Day two is an internal meeting for all the union delegates. Day three is
the EWC meeting.
At the EWC meeting the management informs about the economic performance of
the company and how the business strategy is implemented. There is also room for
questions from the union delegates.
It is also common that the union delegates raise complaints regarding issues that they
have not been able to solve at home. These problems can usually not be solved at the
meeting but the management listens to the complaints and can often bring the matter
forward by contacts with persons in the management structure.
Meeting for preparation and follow up.
The union has a full day preparatory meeting before the meeting of the EWC. That
seem to be regarded as satisfactory among the union delegates. The meeting is to a large
part taken up by national reports. Through these meetings the union delegates has learned
a lot about labour relations and about wages and conditions in other countries.
There is no follow up meetings after the EWC meeting. It is up to the union
delegates in the executive committee to follow up and se to that decisions are executed.
24
The EWC activities
No training for delegates has been provided. No working groups has been set up
apart from the group formed to work out a company Cod of Conduct for labour relations.
The EWC is not use by the management as an instrument for developing the
company or for the integration of new companies.
The executive committee
The executive committee has three management and three union representatives. The
members are the three management representatives in the EWC and the leading union
representatives. Their role is only to prepare the EWC meetings.
There are also informal contacts in the sense that the two union delegates from
Sweden meet frequently with the management in other capacities. One is a union
representatives on the company board.
The integration of the EWC in the national union
system
There is very little contact between the EWC and the national union system in
Securitas.
In Sweden the EWC delegates report to the union club executive at the depot/office
were they work. There is also some reporting taken place at members meeting. This
information is of a general caractere and does often not result in any questions. There is
no reporting of members bringing up issues to be taken up at the EWC meeting.
In the case of UK, the EWC delegate is the shop steward convenor for Securitas UK.
He reports regularly to some 30 shop stewards that attend the joint shop stewards
meeting. This information does not seem to be taken any further.
There is no attempt to inform all employees or all union members within Securitas
about the EWC. Such an ambitions would not seem fruitful in view of what takes place
in the EWC. The EWC as it operates in Securitas is of interest primarily to union activists
who are interest in international union matters.
It should be noted that the general picture of how unions can and should operate has
its roots in the manufacturing industry with a large number of employees in one shop or
factory with a lot of common interests. That stereotype seem to have influenced the
design of the EWC and the national agreements and legislation. Securutas is a service
company where the majority of employees work in small units. Guards often work on
their own or in pairs. Shift work and mobile work is also common among the employees
at Securitas. That is a very different environment for union work compared to the
traditional manufacturing industry. It is harder to organise members meetings and there is
less of common interests derived from the work place.
25
The assessment of the EWC to date
The EWC at Securitas seem to function well as a forum for overall information about
the groups performance and general strategy and policy. The focus is on information of
past events and about policy for the future. The EWC can raise questions and discuss but
does not function as forum for direct influence of the development of the company.
With the present frequency of meeting, once a year, the EWC can not play a more
active roll in the development of the company.
From the union side there is a strong feeling of the need to develop the EWC but
there is no agreement about how. The union representatives from Sweden would like to
se the EWC develop into a more active forum where the management and the union
representatives talk about how to develop the company and agree on strategy course of
action. This ambition is not shared by other union representatives, notably from south
Europe. They are less interested in the corporate strategy and more concerned about their
members wages and conditions. They want to leave business development to the
management and use the EWC as a forum to push the corporate management to put
pressure on the national manager to solve national problems.
It is fair to say that the EWC at Securitas has taken "step one" in the development of
the EWC; getting the EWC up and running, exchanging basic information about labour
relations and develop the kind of personal contacts that is important for a constructive cooperation. There is however no common agreement on step two, were to go next.
From a management point of view the EWC is a forum for the unions and a channel
to inform about company performance and strategy. The management have no ambition
to develop the EWC to a decision making body and see no reason for such a
development. The management point of view seem to be that the unions are important in
terms of voicing employee problems and preferences but do not have much to contribute
regarding decisions on buying and selling of companies in the group.
26
IKEA
Olle Hammarström
The Enterprise
IKEA is a department store for furniture and household goods with operations in 42
countries and 70 000 employees, 59 000 in Europe. Many products are designed by
IKEA and manufactured by sub contractors for IKEA. The retail business side consists of
150 department stores in 22 countries. IKEA expand by building their own shops/outlets
that area located in the outskirts of cities and designed for customers coming in cars.
IKEA is a family owned company that was started in the 1940´s by Ingvar Kamprad who
is still active in the company. As it is not a public company and not noted on any stock
exchange, the economic information about the company has always been very limited.
The management can be characterised as paternalistic and very cost conscious.
IKEA started in Sweden and has a tradition of Scandinavian style industrial relations
with a high level of union affiliation and co-operative union - management relations.
Industrial relations in the Swedish operation have generally been good, but there have
also been conflicts. As the company has expanded during the 1980s and 1990s there has
been a mixture of Scandinavian industrial relation's policies and adaptation to national
traditions in the country where they operate.
The EWC agreement
The negotiations for an EWC agreement started in 1993 on the initiative of FIET
(now UNI) with the intention of making IKEA a pilot case for the unions. It turned out
that the company was unwilling to enter into an agreement primarily on the grounds that
they did not want union delegates who where not employed in the company. There where
also hostile relations between some union representatives and management
representatives. After the EU directive was implemented a negotiating team was formed
and the agreement was reached in 1999. Key players on the union side where shop
stewards from IKEA in Sweden and Denmark and central union representatives from
Handels (Retail Clarks Union) in Sweden and Denmark.
The EWC initially had one meeting per year and followed the Danish legislation. In
2002 IKEA moved its head quarter from Denmark to Sweden and the EWC agreement
was adapted to the Swedish legislation. That meant that the union delegates could have
an extra meeting per year on top of the joint regular EWC meeting. The first union only
meeting was held in December 2002.
There is only one EWC in IKEA. The EWC is just advisory and have no decisionmaking functions.
There is no agreement on inviting outside experts to the EWC meeting. Central union
representatives from Handels in Sweden and Denmark are present in the building when
27
the EWC meeting is held, but never attend the actual meeting. They consult with the
union delegates before, after and some times during the EWC meeting.
The EWC use the corporate language English, but simultaneous interpretation is
offered as requested. Often five languages are used at the joint EWC meetings. At the
union only meeting only English is used.
The recourses of the EWC
There is no separate budget for the EWC but the company covers all costs for the
meetings. The secretary of the HR managers administers the meetings. The legal officer
of the company keeps the minutes at the formal EWC meeting. At the union- only
meetings the delegates takes turns keeping the minutes.
Each delegate get his costs for participating covered by the IKEA-company hi/she
works for. All delegates can use the company's communication facilities for keeping in
contact.
There has been no formal training provided by the company for the EWC delegates.
The relevant unions in Sweden and Denmark have provided training for their IKEA
delegates. There are also regular meetings for exchange of experience organised by
Handelsanställdas förbund and HTF in Sweden where IKEA delegates participate.
Handels union in the Nordic countries have organised regular meetings for EWC
delegates for exchange of experiences where IKEA delegates have participated.
There has also been seminars organised by UNI (former FIET) for EWC delegates.
The internal work of the EWC
There are clear tensions in the EWC that has its roots in the different union cultures
that exists among the delegates. There is the Scandinavian tradition of co-operative,
constructive collaboration with management, and union delegates with an interest for and
a good understanding of the business strategy. Delegates from Sweden, Norway,
Denmark, Finland, Germany and Holland can be said to fall in that category. There are
on the other hand the traditions in Franc, UK, Belgium, Spain and Italy with more of
suspicion of the management and a basically confrontative and aggressive attitude. There
are tensions between union representatives with different training and experience in
international union work. There is also tensions between local "shop floor"
representatives and full time union officials. In some countries there are competing
unions with different political and religious affiliations that also ring tensions to the EWC
meetings. All these types of tensions have been demonstrated in the EWC at IKEA. Some
of these tensions have been ironed out and problems solved during the way, but some still
remains.
There are also language problems. English is the corporate language in IKEA but
simultaneous interpretation is provided at the meetings where the management
participates. At the union only EWC-meeting and at the select committee English only is
used.
Presently the union delegate from Belgium is chair of the EWC.
28
Relations between the EWC and the management
The management was initially sceptical to the formation of the EWC and had limited
ambitions for it. With some years experience the interest has grown and the management
now se the benefits of having an international form for meeting with the union
representatives.
The managing director, the HR manager and one head of division represent the
management. It is primarily the discussions in the EWC about occupational health and
safety and related issues that has influenced the management in a more positive direction.
The EWC has also contributed to a project on the design of the work at the cash desks.
The management has met the demands from the union representative’s ass regards
providing information on the company's performance and economic situation. That
information is specially prepared for the EWC as the company is a privet company
without any obligation to stock markets and the like that is common for companies of the
size of IKEA.
Meetings for preparation and follow up
It is primarily the union delegates in the select committee who prepares for the EWC
meetings.
There is a union only pre meeting before the regular EWC meeting. There is also an
annual meeting for the union delegates to the EWC where management does not take
part. At theses meetings there is national reports given and general union matter disused.
The minutes from the EWC meeting is presented at the internal EWC website. All
employees can access this website, but the interest is low. It is primarily the EWC
delegates who visit this website.
The EWC activities
There has been no training organised for the delegates by the EWC. But several
national unions have organised courses and seminars on EWC where delegates from
IKEA have participated
The EWC have initiated a special project on occupational health and Safety
particularly focusing on the cashier work. A working group has been nominated by the
EWC and a policy is being workout out. This seems to be the most substantial result of
the EWC work so far.
There have also been discussions in the EWC about a Cod of Conduct for IKEA in
social and environmental issues. The Cod of Conduct covers all IKEA world wide, not
just in Europe.
29
The select committee
The select committee has three delegates from each side. The union representatives
are from Germany, Sweden and Belgium and group work in English. The secretary of the
HR-manager administers the EWC and the select committee.
The selects committee meets 4 - 5 times per year. Beside the meetings the delegates
in the select committee has mail or phone contacts almost very week.
The union delegates in the select committee also have separate meetings, in
particular when preparing for the union only EWC meeting. There are also monthly
contacts between the union delegates in the select committee and the other union EWC
delegates.
The agenda for the EWC is jointly agreed. There has been no disagreement around
agenda items between unions and management.
The integration of the EWC in the national union
system
The EWC is mainly a matter for the delegates and a limited number of union
officials in Sweden, Denmark and in UNI. All employees can get information about the
EWC via the web, but few seem to take this opportunity. Union activists with an
international interest mainly know the EWC.
There is no examples given in the interview where rank and file members have
initiated items for the EWC agenda or acted on EWC information.
The Swedish delegates are interested in international information and the personal
network they get through the EWC. But they get better information about the company
through the board representation than they get through the EWC.
In Sweden the contacts between the EWC and the union activists is mainly through
the EWC delegate. The EWC delegate for Handels is also the shop steward convenor for
Hanels in IKEA. She holds three meetings per year for all the club presidents and at these
meetings there is always reports from the EWC. There has been initiatives taken at these
meetings to bring up occupational health and safety issues at t he EWC meeting.
The assessment of the EWC to date
IKEA is a major company in the retail industry and is seen by the unions in Sweden
and Denmark as a progressive employer. The unions there for tried to make IKEA a pilot
case in establishing EWC. That initiative did however not succeed and there was no
agreement reached about an EWC in IKEA until 1999.
The Scandinavian unions don’t need the EWC in the sense that they get relevant
company information through the board representations and through the MBL rights.
They see the EWC mainly as a tool to build international unions contacts ad to assist the
unions in other countries in building up a good union activity. The level of union
membership and union activity is much higher in the Scandinavian countries than in
30
south Europe. The union delegates in Scandinavia sees it as their resposibiliy to assist and
help the unions in IKEA in other countries to strengthen the union work and presence.
The management was initially negative to the idea of forming an EWC and did not
accept it until the EU directive came into force. The management originally saw it as a
union forum and did not attempt to use it for any management purpose. Step by step they
have changes their attitude and have developed a more positive attitude.
31
Invensys – making progress in a very
uncertain world
Lionel Fulton
The company
Invensys is an engineering and electronics company based in the UK. It was formed
from the merger in 1999 of two major UK companies, Siebe, primarily an engineering
company and BTR, an engineering company with wider interests.
The average number of employees in the year to the end of March 2003 was 63,000
worldwide and the company does not publish figures for Europe alone. In 2000 there
were 28,700 employees in Europe but since then there have been major changes in the
group structure, with substantial reductions in employee numbers.
Massive changes in the group structure have been the major feature of the recent
history of Invensys as the current management seeks to dispose of many of the
companies that previous management acquired. In April 2003 it announced plans to sell
more than half its businesses. The disruption and uncertainty that the restructuring has
caused have been major problems for the European Works Council to deal with.
The agreement
The European Works Council agreement, setting up an “Invensys European
Employees’ Forum” (IEEF) was signed in June 2000. As an Article 6 agreement, in other
words a statutory rather than a voluntary one, negotiating parties were central
management on one side and the Special Negotiating Body (SNB) on the other. Before
the agreement was signed there was a functioning EWC in APV, one of the constituent
companies of Siebe, and an agreement to set up an EWC at BTR, although this had not
yet been implemented. The EWC at APV continues to exist and, following negotiations
with the company, it has been agreed that it will meet annually approximately six months
after the meetings of the IEEF, bringing together the six or seven IEEF members working
in APV together with three others.
The IEEF agreement, which is set for review after four years, has continued broadly
unchanged, although there have been changes in the distribution of the employee
members. This is possible under the terms of the agreement, which allows the IEEF
Consultative Committee, the select committee of employee representatives plus
management representatives to agree changes of seat allocations, subject to later
endorsement by the full EWC.
The EWC consists of both management and employee representatives. There are a
maximum of 30 employee members, with a seat guaranteed to all EU/EEA countries
where Invensys has employees with extra members allocated according to the number of
employees. The distribution of employee members in 2003 is as follows.
33
Country
Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Netherlands
Norway
Spain
Sweden
UK
Total
Employee members
1
1
1
1
2
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
5
20
The agreement allows an external expert, in practice a full-time trade union official,
to attend meetings of both the EWC and the select committee, provided a majority of
members request it.
All those involved consider that the company has observed the contents of the
agreement. Indeed it has gone beyond it in allowing the select committee to be expanded
to five employee representatives, rather than three as set out in the agreement.
The resources of the EWC
The EWC is relatively well resourced, although it does not have its own independent
budget. All members have access to e-mail and where necessary the company is prepared
to provide them with a lap-top computer and a dedicated telephone line. There is also a
homepage on the Invensys intranet for the EWC with minutes from the most recent
annual meeting and a list and contact details of EWC members.
The agreement states that “appropriate training will be provided” and substantial
amount of training has taken place, both at local and at European level. This included a
two-day training session for the whole EWC in June 2002, which was part-funded by the
EU.
Interpretation is provided at meetings.
The chair of the EWC, who is Danish and very active in his union, has no workrelated duties and has office support.
The meetings of the EWC
The agreement provides for annual meetings, following the publication of the annual
results. However, there is also the possibility of extraordinary meetings and two of these
have taken place since the EWC was first agreed. Taken together with the two-day
training session, this means that the whole EWC has met six times in the three years.
Meetings, including the meetings of employees only, last for three days, starting at
11.00am on day one and lasting until 16.00 on day three. Unusually, the employee only-
34
meetings are interspersed throughout the three days, although the whole event begins and
ends with a meeting of the employee representatives on their own.
The first session which goes on to the middle of the first afternoon is for the
employees only. It is then normally followed by an overview of the business presented by
a senior human resources manager. The EWC than breaks up into working groups based
on the operating divisions of the company before coming together again at the end of the
first day.
During the second day there are likely to be discussions on specific issues such as the
environment or health and safety, which may also involve working groups. There may
also be a guest speaker on specific topics. Throughout the day there are meetings of the
employee representatives only so that they can consider their responses to the sessions
and prepare for the next. At the end of the second day the employee representatives have
time on their own to prepare for the session with the chief executive.
This takes almost the whole morning (three hours) of the third day and interestingly
this session is chaired by the chair of the employee representatives, not by someone from
management. Finally there is a review of the three days, first in a session with employee
and management representatives present and finally in a session with employee
representatives only.
This is the current structure, which has evolved over time and future changes to
make the meetings more effective are certainly possible.
Extraordinary meetings, when they have taken place have normally lasted around a
day and a half. They have involved the company providing confidential information to
the delegates, with the result that they knew about planned developments before their
local management.
Those involved on the employee side clearly found both the normal and
extraordinary meetings worthwhile. Although the overall EWC chair is an HR manager,
the fact that a key session in the annual meeting is chaired by an employee representative
indicates that the company takes seriously the involvement of employees in the process.
The meetings are clearly not simply intended to provide a platform for management to
make a presentation and answer a few questions. Employees have been involved in
developing and implementing a number of long-term projects (see below). The sessions
in smaller working groups and the length of the meetings mean that everyone is obliged
to contribute.
Reporting back varies from country to country, although minutes of the meetings are
posted on the Invensys intranet (see section on resources). In some countries legislation
or collective agreements provide a structure where works councils or union committees at
plant level send representatives to a central level. And EWC members can use this
structure where it exists. In the UK, where this structure does not exist, reporting back is
through the local workplace union bodies (Joint Shop Stewards Committees).
The pre-meetings
The agreement states that there will be “appropriate preparatory meetings for
representatives” and, as already noted, the Invensys EEF is unusual in having not just one
employee-only meeting at the start but several during the process and a final review at the
end. This is seen by those involved as helping to make the employee contribution to the
meetings more effective.
35
A major part of the first meeting of the employee representatives, at the start of the
first day, is a report back on the meetings the select committee has held with management
over the previous 12 months. The meeting also elects the select committee (see below)
and in practice must endorse the trade union official who is to be the expert on the
committee.
The agreement provides for a select committee of three, one of whom is elected the
chair. However, in practice there is a select committee of five people, made up of one
each from the UK, Denmark (the chair), Ireland, Germany and Italy. The trade union
expert also attends the select committee. There are five members because both the
employee members of the EWC and management agreed that it was important to have
representation of the major companies in the group. The select committee is elected by
the all the employee members of the EWC but in practice the select committee makes a
recommendation to ensure a regional balance within the committee. One of the reasons
for this is so that EWC members who are not on the select committee have someone from
their region who can represent their interests.
The select committee meets management once every three months and as with the
full EWC there are employee-only sessions.
The select committee is given detailed reports on the progress of the company and on
some occasions has been given information in confidence before it was revealed to the
stock market.
The relationships between members of the select committee continue outside the
meetings themselves. The trade union expert estimates that he is in contact with members
of the select committee more or less every week and although the select committee
members cannot travel around the group there are very frequent contacts by telephone
and by e-mail.
The relationship between the EWC and the
management
It is the clear view of the employee representatives that management takes the EWC
seriously. Although at the start the company perhaps set up the EWC because it was
legally obliged to do so, over time it has started to develop the EWC as an important part
of its overall strategy. This approach is seen as having been given new impetus with the
arrival of Rick Haythornthwaite, who was appointed Chief Executive in October 2001.
One of those involved on the employee side comments “his commitment to the process
and his good faith is not in doubt”.
There are a number of ways in which management demonstrates that it takes the
EWC seriously. These include the length of the annual meetings, the frequency of the
meetings with the select committee, the high-level of management that participates (led
by the CEO), the detailed information provided at the meetings and, perhaps most
striking, the provision of advance information on key decisions. The declared intention is
to do this in time to allow the EWC to comment before a decision is taken. One example
36
of this is the fact that a planned new structure for Invensys was presented to the select
committee a week before it was made public. Another is that management provided
advance information on a proposed buyer for a subsidiary being disposed of so that the
employee representatives involved could express their views on the company.
Where companies are being disposed of the EWC would like to get the names of two
or three possible candidates and then involve the local works councils to choose between
them. The company has not gone this far but it has moved much closer towards this goal
than most other companies.
Management now seeks to use the EWC to add value to its operations. This it does
both through using the knowledge of the employees at local level to develop its policies
and also through using the EWC to gain support for them. As well as doing this through
the structures of the EWC itself, the company has also included employee members of
the EWC on its own committees. These include committees on health and safety, in
particular accident reporting, on performance appraisal and on an employee suggestion
scheme, where employees identify savings and potential performance improvements,
known as INVEST. In all these areas, where Invensys has been developing Europeanwide policies, EWC employee members have played an important role.
The company also refers specifically to the EWC in its annual report. In the report
for the period to March 2003 it stated, “we continue to give strong support to the
Invensys European Employees’ Forum, which is now in its fourth year. It remains an
important channel for debating major issues that affect the well-being of our European
employees.”
The operation of the EWC between meetings
The fact that the EWC has a full-time employee chair helps to ensure that it has an
existence between meetings. There are frequent ongoing contacts between the key
members of the EWC in the select committee and between them, particularly the chair,
and senior management. However, the chair of the EWC is concerned about the lack of
regular contacts between the EWC and the divisional managers, who take many of the
day-to-day decisions.
The impact on national industrial relations
There is no indication that the EWC has had an impact on industrial relations at a
national level, although it has certainly provided more information on the overall strategy
and operations of the company for those involved.
In the UK, which is one of the countries where there is currently no statutory
structure for ongoing employee representation, the existence of the EWC seems not to
have produced changes in the company. For example, collective bargaining continues to
take place on a decentralised basis at local level and the existence of the EWC has not
changed this. In addition the EWC has not led to the creation of a company-wide
representational structure – a national works council – as has happened in some
companies.
37
The relationship between the EWC and the unions
Although the unions were not signatories to the EWC agreement at Invensys (it was
signed by the members of the Special Negotiating Body), they clearly play an important
role in the EWC’s operations.
The majority of EWC members are members of unions including the current chair
and his predecessor, a Belgian who went on to be a full time official in the Belgian trade
union movement. Within the UK, where EWC members are elected directly by the
workforce divided into constituencies, it is the union candidates who have so far always
won.
The agreement also provides for a full-time union official to attend as an observer
and in line with the guidelines of the European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF), as
Invensys is a UK-based company, the expert comes from a UK union. At present it is the
head of the European Department of Amicus-AEEU (formerly AEEU). However, rather
unusually the EWC itself had an important role in choosing the trade union expert.
Following the departure of the previous trade union expert, the current official was
interviewed by two members of the select committee. It was only after he had satisfied
them that he would be a suitable candidate that he was accepted and later recommended
for formal approval by all the employee members on the EWC.
The trade union expert attends the meetings of both the EWC and the select
committee.
There is a generally positive view of his role and one employee member said that
management also respects him as the trade union expert. He sees his own role as
supporting the EWC in its work with knowledge of what is going on elsewhere and in
particular assisting with procedures. This is also the view of the employee members of
the EWC who value the advice that he gives.
On a more general level, there are concerns from the chair of the EWC that unions
overall do not pay enough attention to developments within EWCs, which have the
potential over time to move into areas, which traditionally have been the preserve of trade
unions alone. These could initially include comparative costs and move on from this to
pay and conditions. He fears that if unions continue to neglect these developments this
could have serious consequences for the wider trade union movement.
The relationships within the EWC
Relationships between the members of the EWC seem to be good, with no reports of
conflicts. However, the EWC has faced problems in working together effectively.
First there are the normal difficulties which face any EWC. One is the language
barrier. All the employee participants referred to this. As one member commented, not
speaking someone else’s language is a “problem especially on the social side”.
A second problem is that, even where the immediate language barrier is overcome,
misunderstandings are still possibly because different countries have different
experiences and structures. As another member noted, “if you think the language problem
is the major problem you are wrong … People can talk without understanding”. He gave
as an example the use of the word apprentice, which can have very different meanings
from one country to another.
38
A third problem is the difficulty of country-wide co-ordination, both in obtaining
views and communicating decisions, where Invensys has several companies in a country.
Only Denmark and Germany have nationwide works councils for all Invensys
companies. In the UK, Spain and Italy, where this structure does not exist, it is more
difficult to get a common view on developments.
In addition the Invensys EWC has faced particular problems because of the rapidly
changing nature of the group. The rapid pace, particularly of disposals, has meant that
more than half the members of the EWC changed between 2002 and 2003 and that of the
23 to 24 individuals who were on the EWC when it was first set up, only three were left
by mid-2003. The lack of continuity this implies is one of the biggest problems faced by
the EWC.
Assessment of the EWC up to now
The Invensys European Employees’ Forum has achieved much more than many
other EWCs. There is strong evidence that management take it seriously as a body
representing the company’s European employees and use it as a tool for communication
and receiving feedback. Evidence of the company’s seriousness is provided by the fact
that the EWC receives information in advance of it being made public. The employee
representatives would like greater consultation on the company’s business strategy but
Invensys goes further than many other companies. Management also involves members
of the EWC in its own decision-making process in some areas.
The EWC itself also has sufficient resources, contacts and time together at least at
select committee level, to function effectively. Relations between the employee members
and between them and the trade union expert seem good.
However, despite this positive picture there are concerns. In particular there is the
awareness that management’s willingness at present to share information and involve the
works council depends heavily on the commitment to the process of the current senior
management. As one employee representative said, “with the present directive it all
depends on personal relations”. In other words, without a change in the legislation the
positive picture could change in the future.
Perspectives
Asked about the prospects for the future, all the representatives of the employees
contacted were positive. They saw the role of the EWC strengthening rather than
weakening. However, there are at least potential problems. First, as already noted, the
fact that the current position of the EWC is not anchored in binding legislation means that
a future management could reduce the level of its commitment and therefore the
significance of the EWC. Second the constant and major changes in the structure of the
company and with their direct effects on the make-up of the EWC have the potential to
obstruct its development and possibly to disrupt it completely.
At the moment the EWC is making progress. But that progress is not guaranteed.
39
HSBC – the EWC as an interesting sideshow
Lionel Fulton
The company
The HSBC Group is a major international bank with its headquarters in the UK. It
employs 218,000 people worldwide with around 76,000 in Europe. The majority of these
work in two countries, the UK with 57,000 employees and France with 14,000.
HSBC, originally the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation with substantial
assets in Asia, moved into Europe in a major way in 1992 when it bought the British
retail bank, the Midland Bank. Other acquisitions in 1999 expanded its presence in
Luxembourg and Switzerland and in July 2000 it bought an important French bank,
Crédit Commercial de France (CCF). Its purchase of the US finance company Household
International in 2003 brought that company’s 3,700 UK employees into HSBC for the
first time.
The agreement
The agreement setting up a European Works Council at HSBC, known as the HSBC
European Council, was initially signed in September 1996 and was therefore a voluntary
or Article 13 agreement. It was signed by the main banking union in the UK BIFU (now
Unifi) and the works councils in the company’s French and German operations and
countersigned by the European trade union federation responsible for banking, EuroFIET (now UNI-Europa) and the Paris finance section of the French union confederation
FO.
The original agreement stated that it would be “for a period of six years” when it
would need to be “renewed/renegotiated”. The need to re-examine the text was made
more evident by the acquisition of CCF in 2000, meaning for the first time that there was
a significant group of European employees outside the UK.
In re-negotiating the agreement the UK union involved took a deliberate decision
that the negotiating should be carried out by the EWC itself. The EWC elected a
negotiating sub-committee and they and the union expert agreed a new text with the
company.
The new agreement contains a number of improvements from the point of view of
the employees. The most noticeable is that the total number of employee representatives
has been increased from “a maximum of 20” to “a maximum of 30” and the threshold
above which a country is entitled to send a representative has been reduced from 150 to
50. The employee negotiators would have liked to remove the maximum figures
completely from the agreement and leave the attendance based purely on the other
thresholds set out in the agreements. However, management was unwilling to agree to
41
this, presumably on the grounds of cost. Despite this the overall size of the EWC has
increased from 11 under the original agreement to 24 under the new one.
Other improvements introduced into the agreement include:
• establishing a steering group for the first time, with three employee representatives
(see below),
• more time for post-EWC meetings of employees only (increased from one hour to “up
to half a day”),
• a new section in the agreement on facilities for employee representatives (see below),
and
• where a country’s accession to the EU has been agreed and it meets the employee
thresholds, it will be able to send observer(s) to the meeting in the 12 months before
entry.
Employment levels and the composition of the EWC in 2003 were as follows:
Country
Belgium
France
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Luxembourg
Spain
UK
Number employed
260
13,800
1,420
610
90
230
500
200
57,000
Total in EU (including those without seats)
74,110
Employee members
1
5
2
2
1
1
1
1
10
24
In addition there are 1,600 employees in Malta, which will entitle them to two
observers as well as around 50 each in Cyprus and employees in the Czech Republic,
which could entitle them each to send one representative.
The agreement, both as originally drawn up and following renegotiation, provides for
a trade union expert to attend all stages of the meetings. This expert “will normally be the
Unifi national secretary with responsibility for HSBC issues”.
The view among the employee representatives is that the company observes the
terms of the agreement.
The HSBC European council does not have its own independent budget but the new
agreement does guarantee that certain facilities will be provided. These are e-mail (where
access outside the company’s internal system has been set up) and a confidential
telephone. The telephone numbers of the members are circulated as an annex to the
minutes. The company also meets the expenses of the technical expert, where this is
agreed in advance, and pays for the childcare expenses of members.
The company has not provided any training for EWC members.
Some members of the EWC have substantial time-off from their normal duties
because of their national responsibilities but there is no specific rights to time off because
42
of EWC membership, other than that linked to the meetings themselves. EWC members,
however, have access to “all places of work within their constituency [the area that has
elected them] subject to any reasonable security considerations”.
Both the new and the former agreement provide for two annual meetings a year and
these have been held regularly. There have been no extraordinary meetings of the EWC,
despite major changes like the purchase of CCF, which in the view of the employee
representatives should have resulted in them. Most of the meetings have taken place at
HSBC’s training centre near London, although one has been held in Paris and another in
HSBC’s new headquarters in Docklands in London. The employee representatives would
like the meetings to alternate between the UK and another country.
The typical EWC meetings last two days and begin around lunchtime on the first
day, lasting until the late afternoon on the second. In the past there were site visits in the
morning before the meetings began. However, these are now less frequent, although there
was a site visit before the meeting in Paris.
The two days start with a meeting of the employees only which lasts until the end of
the afternoon (see next section). There is a formal dinner with bank management in the
evening and on one occasion this was addressed by the Chief Executive of the HSBC
Group. The full meeting starts at 9.00am the following morning and goes on to lunch at
around 1.30pm. After lunch there is again a meeting of employees only which goes on for
two or three hours (see next section) and the EWC members return home.
The full meetings themselves, which are chaired by the senior human resources
manager in the HSBC group, now generally follow a fairly standard pattern. There is first
a presentation on the global results of the group, followed by two separate presentations,
one on the results in the Eurozone, made by a senior manager from CCF, and the other on
the rest of Europe, made by a senior manager from HSBC in the UK. After these general
presentations there are then presentations on specific issues. These have included the
group’s global strategy, Corporate Social Responsibility, life-long learning, and EU
employment directives. Some of these issues, such as global strategy, life-long learning
and EU directives, have been put on the agenda at the request of the employee members.
The final session at the meeting is a question and answer session, although to be certain
of an answer they have to be submitted six weeks in advance. There are also spontaneous
questions at the end of the other sessions.
When the EWC was first set up management clearly controlled the agenda. More
recently the employee representatives have tried to increase their influence, which is why
the steering group, with three management and three employee members, was set up
under the terms of the new agreement. The employee members of the steering group feel
that they have made some progress in this area, although management always arrives at
the steering group meetings with its own draft agenda.
There have also been changes in the sitting arrangements. Initially the tables were
arranged in a ‘U’ shape but now different teams from the business sit at different tables.
The main mechanism for reporting back the meeting is the “Delegates’ Report”. This
is produced by one of the employee delegates to the meeting and after it has been agreed
by management it is widely circulated throughout the bank. However, it seems that the
level of interest is not very high. The results are also reported back at national level,
43
although the arrangements vary from country to country. Within the UK it seems that the
Unifi structures do not take the EWC particularly seriously.
The pre-meetings
Employee representatives meet on their own both before and after the full meeting of
the European Council.
At the meeting before the full Council the employee representatives essentially go
through the agenda to agree who will take up which issues at the full meeting. There is
also a report back from the previous steering group and an opportunity to exchange
experiences.
At the meeting after the full Council the employee members review the morning’s
meeting and give an indication to the employee members of the steering group of the
issues that they should take up.
The select committee, known as the steering group in the HSBC agreement, meets
twice a year a few months before the next full meeting of the council. There is the
possibility of holding additional meetings but these have so far not taken place since the
steering group was introduced for the first time with the new agreement in November
2001. The steering group consists of three management members, one of whom is the
chair of the EWC, and three employee members. The three employee members of the
steering group are elected by the employee members of the full EWC. One is the
Designated Employee Representative, the senior employee member of the EWC, who
chairs the employee-only meetings. In practice the two largest countries in terms of
employment, the UK and France will always be represented, with the UK member as the
Designated Employee Representative. At the moment the third member is from
Luxembourg, who in practice, partly because of his language skills provides a link with
the members from the other countries.
There seems to be regular contact by e-mail and telephone between the employee
members of the steering group.
The relationship between EWC and the management
Those on the employee side have doubts as to how seriously management takes the
European Council. While there is no question that management is courteous, takes
trouble to make good presentations and that relatively senior people attend, there is also a
strong feeling that management just “give an appearance of taking it seriously”. Indeed
there is a general view that, initially at least, the EWC only existed because “the law
required it”.
Some of those on the employee side feel that this attitude from management is
starting to change and that management now use the meetings both to get their point
44
across and to listen to the concerns of employees locally. However, there is also the view
that not all managers think this way and that the overall attitude to the EWC is very
guarded. In the words of one of those involved, “management always want to make sure
that it doesn’t get out of control”.
There is certainly no indication that management wants to use the EWC as a vehicle
to reached European-wide arrangements with staff. Indeed this would be resisted by some
employee representatives (see below).
There are also concerns that management does not consult the EWC in advance of
decisions being taken. For example, the EWC was not consulted about the take-over of
CCF, despite the clear implications that this had for HSBC’s European operations. The
employees complained about the failure to consult and the bank subsequently accepted
that it should have done so and apologised but there is no confidence that things would be
different in the future. As one of those involved said, “the employers only want to talk
about old information … there is never consultation in advance of something
happening”.
There is clear evidence that the EWC does have an existence between meetings, in
the sense that the members keep in regular contact. This is particularly the case with the
members of the steering group and the trade union expert. One member referred to there
being “constant dialogue” between this group, while another said that he had three or four
e-mails or telephone calls a week from colleagues on the EWC.
An indication of the links is that recently non-UK members of the EWC organised a
petition to protest against the plans to transfer 4,000 UK call-centre jobs to low cost
countries.
Within the UK there is no evidence that the EWC has had an impact on industrial
relations. Unifi already had a national council for HSBC before the EWC was set up.
This is a union rather than a company body (in other words it is a structure of HSBC
members within Unifi) and it determines the union’s policy towards the company. For the
HSBC national council within Unifi the EWC is a body of only limited value (see next
section).
The EWC may, however, have been more important for the countries where HSBC
has fewer employees. This is certainly reported by one of the representatives, who states
that the EWC has given the employees an influence in the company and access to
information that they never had before. Indeed the existence of the EWC may even have
avoided job cuts in one case.
45
The HSBC European Council agreement guarantees a role for the unions as a union
expert, from the UK union Unifi, is expressly provided for in the text. Unifi has taken this
up and its full-time official with responsibility for HSBC regularly attends the meetings.
However, the EWC is not a union body and the uncertain nature of its relation with
the unions probably weakens its position. In the UK the seats on the council are elected
directly on a business unit basis and only seven of the ten seats available are won by
Unifi candidates. This reflects the fact that the bank only negotiates pay and conditions
with Unifi in HSBC UK, the retail bank. Unifi has no negotiating rights, in other words it
is not recognised, in HSBC’s investment bank in the UK.
Elsewhere the members are chosen in line with national practices, which for example
in France means that they are chosen by the unions on the comité d’entreprise and in
Luxembourg they are chosen by the works councils of the various business units
operating in that country.
The fact that the EWC contains non-union members weakens it in the view of one of
those involved. His view is that UK union activists, who make up the majority, have “less
confidence in the council than would otherwise be the case”. They are therefore very
reluctant to allow issues to be dealt with at the EWC, which seems not to have “a
collectivist mentality”. Another UK participant makes a clear distinction between the
union and the EWC, which he has never seen “as a union thing”.
Despite this, Unifi clearly has an important influence on the European Council. The
main employee representative is the key lay figure for Unifi in the bank. The full-time
trade official has played a major role in the development of the EWC, although he
recognises that he has to deal with potential suspicions from non-union members. He sees
his role as both supporting and steering the EWC and members seem to welcome his
involvement.
At one level relationships between the members of the EWC seem good. There is
clearly an exchange of information between meetings and a willingness to build mutual
support.
However, there seem to be some tensions between the two largest groups of
employees represented on the EWC, the British and the French. There were initial
concerns among the French following their take-over by a UK institution and mutual
incomprehension at the union structures in the two countries. These tensions were made
worse by the fact that the main French union involved does not belong to the same
European federation as Unifi and, in the view of the UK participants, does not seem wellinformed about local developments in France. Nevertheless there are currently hopes that
the situation may be improving.
46
In a formal sense the HSBC EWC seems to function reasonably well. It provides a
forum for the employee delegates to meet, be given information first hand and raise
issues with management. This seems a real benefit for employee representatives from the
countries where HSBC has less of a presence. For those from the UK it has, in the words
of one of the participants “opened up people’s eyes to what’s happening”. At the same
time the re-negotiation of the agreement has brought important improvements to the text
and strengthened the position of the employee representatives.
However, there are clearly weaknesses. Management are reluctant to consult it over
future plans; it has only limited visibility within the bank, most employees are probably
unaware of its existence; while the fact that it is not a union body makes many of the UK
representatives unwilling to see it grow in influence. After all they already have their own
national structures for dealing with the bank.
Perspectives
The future of the EWC depends on how these difficulties will be resolved. A greater
willingness by management to take it seriously as a vehicle for consultation would
certainly make a difference. Developing joint union strategies on specific issues across
Europe would also help to give it greater weight in union eyes.
However, at present it is difficult to escape the conclusion that for both the main
participants, the British and the French, it is of secondary importance. Their main interest
is at the national rather than European level, where they can make their points much more
effectively. The situation might change if HSBC were to take over another major
European bank and so alter the European balance in the business. At the moment,
however, both management and unions seem to see the EWC as perhaps marginally
useful and interesting but not the main event.
47
VF Corporation – the EWC that died
Lionel Fulton
The company
The VF Corporation is a US based clothing company, selling jeans, lingerie, outdoor
wear, backpacks, children’s clothes and workwear. Its best-known brands include Lee,
Wrangler and Maverick jeans, Vanity Fair and Bolero underwear and JanSport
backpacks.
It employs 52,000 worldwide and perhaps 2,000 in Europe (the number is not
published). However, since 1997 the structure of its employment in Europe has changed
substantially. In 1997 in addition to distribution, administration and marketing facilities,
the company had manufacturing plants for jeans in the UK, Ireland, Malta and Poland,
and finishing plants for lingerie in France and Spain. But by 2002 the company only had
jeans manufacturing plants in Malta, Poland and Turkey, although the lingerie continued
to be finished in France and Spain. There continue to be distribution, administration and
marketing facilities in several European companies.
The agreement
The European Works Council agreement setting up a “European Consultation
Committee” was signed on 20 May 1996 and was therefore an Article 13 voluntary
agreement. The negotiations leading up to the agreement were conducted in Belgium,
where VF has its European headquarters, between European management and the two
main Belgian unions involved, together with a representative from the European
Federation of Textiles Clothing and Leather (known at that time as the ETUC:TCL).
There had, however, been a wider meeting of trade unionists involved in the company
under the B3-4004 budget line which was intended to pave the way to negotiations on
EWCs.
The agreement itself included a number of elements which went beyond the fall-back
positions set out in the directive as well as most similar agreements signed at the same
time. In particular, it provided for two meetings a year rather than the normal annual
meeting and made specific references to the company paying for training and meetings
with the trade union organisations involved.
The EWC, however, did not cover all of VF Corporation’s operations in Europe.
First, it was limited to the countries covered by the directive. Plants in Malta and Poland
were not included as the company said it wanted to wait for an initial period of
approximately two years before including them. Second, it only included companies in
the jeans business with the lingerie business being specifically excluded. The formal
name of the committee, as set out in the agreement was “European Consultation
Committee – VF Europe – Jeans”. Third, in line with the wishes of the trade union side,
in effect it only covered unionised operations. The agreement stated that “The
employees’ representatives will be selected solely among delegates from representative
49
and recognised trade union organisations at national level and/or from trade unions
affiliated to the ETUC:TCL”.
On the other hand the agreement did state that it covered companies “controlled by
VF Europe or on which it exercises a dominant influence”, allowing for the involvement
of jointly owned companies.
The final result of this was that the initial membership of the EWC was as follows:
Company
Lee Europe NV
Lee Apparel (UK) Ltd
Lee (Ireland) Ltd
HD Lee SA (50% joint venture)
Lee Portugal LDA (joint venture)
Country
Belgium
UK
Ireland
Spain
Portugal
Number of members
2
2
2
2
2
However, the EWC did not cover the Wrangler Jeans plant at Falkirk in Scotland,
with some 750 employees, where there was no union presence, or the company’s
distribution, administration and marketing operations, for example that based in
Nottingham in England.
The loss of jobs and the collapse of the EWC
However, the initial hopes at the time the agreement was signed, that there would be
improved consultation and growing union influence within the company, were shortlived. It was barely three and a half years from the first meeting of the EWC, held in
September 1996, to the last meeting of the EWC held in April 2000. At that point central
management announced that based on the latest employment figures VF Corporation was
no longer covered by the EWC directive and that the EWC would therefore be dissolved.
The major reductions in VF Corporation’s European operations began in early 1998,
when the company sold its two plants in Northern Ireland (UK) and its one plant in
Ireland to Hawkesbay Apparel Inc, a Canadian company owned by the Valliani family
with plants in Pakistan and Dubai. The VF Corporation agreed to purchase the output of
the factories for at least two years but at the end of the two years the contract ceased and
the factories closed.
The Wrangler Jeans plant in Falkirk was closed in January 1999 and around a year
later manufacturing ceased at the joint venture plant in Madrid. One of those involved in
the EWC at the time said, “it was like an Agatha Christie thriller. Every time we came to
a meeting there was another corpse”.
50
Chronology of closures and sales
Plant
Lee Apparel (UK) Ltd
Derry
Newtownards
(Northern Ireland)
Lee (Ireland) Ltd Ardee
Country
UK
Date of closure/sale
Sold to Hawkesbay early 1998. Hawkesbay
closed them two years later
Ireland
Lee Europe NV
Antwerp
Belgium
Wrangler Jeans
Falkirk (Scotland)
HD Lee SA Madrid
Lee Portugal LDA
UK
Sold to Hawesbay early 1998 Hawesbay closed
them two years later
Large scale manufacturing ended in early 1990s.
Distribution and development centre set to close
in 1998-1999 but reprieved
January 1999
Spain
Portugal
Manufacturing ended early 2000
Not known
The closures were the consequence of a clear company policy to shift production
away from its higher cost plants. As the company documentation filed with the US
Securities and Exchange Commission for 1997 noted, “to obtain a more balanced
sourcing mix, jeanswear and intimate apparel sourcing is being shifted from [company]
owned plants in Western Europe to lower cost owned and contracted production outside
of Western Europe”.
Two years later the company was able to report that “sourcing has been shifted from
owned plants in Western Europe”. Overall the proportion of international sales “derived
from company-owned plants” fell from 70% at the end of 1997 to 43% at the end of
19993.
While plants in Ireland, the UK and Spain were being closed, production was being
expanded in Malta, Poland and particularly Turkey. Malta and Poland will join the EU
and so be covered by the directive in May 2004 and their likely membership was already
known in 2000. However, despite having indicated at the time of the initial negotiations
that it would extend EWC membership to these countries the company refused to do so.
As a result, as already noted, in April 2000 the EWC was dissolved.
The experience of the EWC
The fact that the EWC no longer exists makes it impossible to collect a full range of
information on its operations. Most of those involved no longer work for the company
and, even where they can be contacted, their experiences are at least four years old and
the details are difficult to reassemble. However, talking to some of those involved on the
employee side, it is possible to get some idea of the way the EWC operated.
3
Figures from Securities and Exchange Commission 10-K filings for fiscal years ended 3 January 1998
and 1 January 2001.
51
The resources of the EWC were clearly very limited. One of those involved reported
that there had been an attempt by members of the select committee to collect telephone
numbers of the members but this had not been followed up. In the UK there was no
additional time off for members of the EWC, although they had sufficient time off to
carry out their normal trade union duties.
Despite the reference in the agreement to a budget for training, it seems that this was
not provided.
The agreement provided for two meetings a year and these took place every six
months in Brussels, normally in September and April.
The agenda of the meetings was compressed into a single day and the arrangements
made contacts between delegates outside the meetings very difficult. Either the whole
round trip was made in a day or the delegates were staying at different hotels.
Typically at the meetings management reported on what was happening at different
plants and reported their projects for the future. One key issue that had been raised by
management was the need to develop a “quick response” to changes in the market for
jeans. The meetings were chaired by a senior member of management, who was
described by one of the participants as having a “domineering personality”.
The main characteristic of the meetings noted by the employee representatives
present is that there was no advance consultation on the company’s decisions. As one
said the decisions came “out of the blue”, while another commented that “shut downs
were announced during works council meetings with one or two exceptions”.
The arrangements for reporting back were left to national delegates and in the UK
the delegates spoke directly to the employees, who seemed to be interested in the
meetings.
The pre-meetings
The agreement provides for a preparatory meeting of the employee representatives
and the trade unions before the main meeting with management. However, it has not
proved possible to find out how they were organised and one of the members of the EWC
has no recollection of them taking place.
There was a select committee but it included no UK representatives and it has not been
possible to find out how effective it was. It is clear, however, that the UK representatives
52
did not feel that there was any way that they could contact the select committee directly
to raise issues on the EWC.
As already stated, the view of those involved is that management did not take the
EWC seriously as a mechanism for consultation on company plans. An example provided
by one of the participants makes this very clear.
“When it was reported that the Irish plant was being sold to foreign investors, the
senior manager chairing the meeting announced the shut-down. He asked if anyone
wanted to comment, then said that regardless, he had made plans to take a plane as soon
as the meeting was over to announce the shut-down himself in Ireland, making sure of
course that the trade union representative would only be able to catch a later plane in
order to avoid a possible confrontation on site.”
It is also striking that, in contrast to some other companies such as Coats Threads,
VF Corporation never agreed to independent assessment of its plans at European level.
This was despite a number of requests from the unions.
There is no evidence that the EWC was able to operate between meetings.
The EWC seems to have had no impact on national industrial relations, at least in the
UK. There were initially hopes that the EWC would open up the company’s Wrangler
Jeans plant in Falkirk, Scotland, to union recruitment. As one of the UK union officials
involved wrote at the time, the EWC agreement “states that only representatives from
unionised plants can sit on the council. The effect of this is Falkirk employees can have
no say on the EWC until they become unionised. For these reasons, I believe we could
adopt an effective recruitment strategy at this time.”
However, before an effective recruitment strategy could be launched the plant was
closed.
Unions were heavily involved from the start in this EWC. The agreement was
between management and the Belgian unions plus the representative from the European
Federation of Textiles Clothing and Leather (known at that time as the ETUC:TCL).
Only union members or union officials could be delegates to the EWC. And the
53
representative from the ETUC:TCL was able to attend both the full meetings of the EWC
and those of the select committee.
One of the UK EWC members very much welcomed the support that the ETUC:TCL
representative, who in fact was and is the general secretary of the organisation, gave to
the EWC. “He was at all the meetings and he could explain things to you. He gave us
advice and help”.
However, in the end the union involvement was not a protection against the series of
plant closures which led to the collapse of the EWC. One reason why the ETUC:TCL
was not able to do more was that at the time it was heavily involved in major campaign
against restructuring and closures at Levi’s jeans, which absorbed almost all of the
limited resources available.
The context in which the EWC was operating made it difficult to create strong
relationships of support within the EWC. As well as the practical difficulties of brief
meetings and almost no contact between them, there was also a feeling of potential
competition between sites.
As one participant remarked “when there was a factory closure, other plants were
pleased to have the work. It was a dog eat dog atmosphere”. Another commented “apart
from some symbolic displays of solidarity (each one wondering who would be next...),
we were regretfully unable to foster actions such as those set up by European
Metalworkers Federation [over Renault]”
Assessment of the EWC
Any assessment of the EWC at VF Corporation has to be negative. The evidence is
clear that management did not consult the EWC on its future plans and in fact only
informed it once decisions had been taken. The structure and the circumstances of the
meetings themselves made it impossible for the EWC members to develop useful
relationships. And in the end despite apparent promises to the contrary management
closed the EWC at a point when, if the then candidate countries of Malta and Poland had
been included, it could have usefully continued.
As the general secretary of the European federation of Textiles Clothing and Leather,
who was involved from the start comments “in my opinion VF appears as a very bad
example”.
54
British Airways – management doesn’t see
the point
Lionel Fulton
The company
British Airways is one of the largest airlines in Europe, operating some 340 aircraft
and carrying some 40 million passengers worldwide. It and its predecessors were stateowned for around 50 years but in 1987 it was privatised. The company operates from two
major bases in the UK, Heathrow and Gatwick, two of London’s major airports.
British Airways employed some 57,000 people in March 2003 of whom 47,000 work
in the UK. However, a programme of job cuts which in total are intended to reduce
employment levels by 13,000 is not yet completed. The company does not publish details
of the number of its European employees outside the UK but they are probably fewer
than 2,000.
The agreement
The agreement setting up the British Airways European Works Council (BA EWC)
was signed on 18 September 1996 and so just beat the deadline for voluntary European
works council agreements.
The agreement has an unusual history, which seems to have had an impact on
subsequent events. As at the time the UK was not covered by the EWC directive, British
Airways initially wanted to set up an EWC covering only its staff in the EU outside the
UK. A meeting of employee representatives from these countries was organised by the
company in Brussels and a draft agreement presented to them. It was only after the
intervention of trade union officials from the UK and the objections of some of the
representatives present that the company agreed to extend the EWC to all staff in the EU.
In the words of at least one of the participants “we had to pressure them with the threat
that the agreement would not be signed in time to get the UK included”.
It is the only EWC within British Airways and it covers all the EEA countries with
the exception of Iceland and Liechtenstein.
The agreement has remained unchanged since it was signed, although a
representative from Switzerland now attends with observer status. The employee
members have pressed for observer status also to be extended to the accession states
where BA has employees but so far the company has refused to do so. Although the text
of the agreement has not changed, two additional documents have been agreed. These are
a Protocol, signed in March 1998, which “clarifies” the original agreement and covers
items such as the composition of the agenda and the production of a BA EWC
Newsletter, and a statement on consultation. This second document states that
“transnational measures will be the subject of consultation”. It then defines all three
terms and sets out the procedure to be followed. The statement on consultation was
55
agreed after a major disagreement on the EWC over the failure to consult it about
outsourcing or the planned but subsequently abandoned KLM merger.
One reason why the employee representatives have not sought a more general
revision of the agreement is that they fear it would lead to a worsening of its terms.
The BA EWC consists of both management and employee members. It currently has
22 employee members, 16 from outside the UK including Switzerland and six from the
UK. The UK is thus in a minority on the EWC despite being home to the overwhelming
majority of employees. This allocation of seats in one sense reflects the company’s initial
wish just to have an EWC for Europe other than the UK. But it also reflects a wish by the
employees that the UK should not dominate. Unusually the agreement also states that
“effort should be made to achieve a fair and balanced representation between men and
women”. Currently eight of the EWC members are women.
Employee members are elected for a three-year period, although where there are
existing representational structures such as works councils they choose the
representatives.
The agreement specifically refers to the possibility of two experts of the employees’
choosing attending both the pre-meetings just of employees and the main meetings. One
of these is funded by BA and one is not. In practice both experts are full-time trade union
officials, although this is not stated in the agreement. The paid expert has always been an
official of a European union federation, until very recently someone from the European
pilots’ body Cockpit, while the unpaid expert has been someone from a UK trade union.
It is currently an official of BALPA, the pilots’ union.
The agreement refers simply to the appointment of a “spokesperson and deputy
spokesperson” as a “point of reference” for the management chairman. However, the
protocol refers to a bureau with six employee and three management members and this
now operates.
There are concerns among the employee members on the extent to which the
company meets its obligations under the EWC agreement and subsequent documents.
The most substantial concern is on the issue of consultation. First, the employee
members feel that management does not voluntarily bring issues to the EWC or the
bureau, even where it clearly should (see the example of benchmarking in the section on
EWC relations with management). Second, they consider that if management is finally
compelled to bring the issue to the EWC it does not then engage in adequate consultation.
Third, that too much is kept from the EWC using spurious arguments about
confidentiality.
However there are also other issues. One is not keeping to the arrangement under the
protocol which provides for alternate meetings between the UK and other member
countries. The employee representatives agreed to waive this requirement following BA’s
economic difficulties after the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York and Washington
but the company was reluctant to reinstate it. It has now done so but it is threatening that
it will be more difficult to get senior management to attend. A second concern is that the
newsletter, which under the protocol should be sent out by the company within six weeks
of each meeting, is not distributed in time.
56
The EWC does not have control of its own budget and management is reluctant to
tell the EWC how much it is. Surprisingly it seems that the budget comes under the
control of the sales directorate of the company, a relic of the fact that initially it was an
EWC for non-UK staff, all of whom were in this directorate.
All members of the EWC have access to e-mail and there is a high level of
communication between them with the spokesperson sending and receiving perhaps 30 or
40 messages a week.
Training is a much more contentious issue with the employee representatives feeling
strongly that so far it has been inadequate. One said that the company acted as if training
was “a dirty word”. So far there has been some English language training and some
training on financial questions but nothing else. The company has been reluctant to agree
to training taking place outside BA such as training for EWC members provided by the
British TUC. At one stage it was agreed that employee representatives and management
would make a joint approach to the European Commission asking for funding for
training. But the company seems reluctant to make progress on this issue.
The meetings of the EWC are held entirely in English and there is no interpretation.
Management argues that being able to speak English is a condition of employment at
British Airways so there is no need to have interpreters. In practice it seems that,
although all employee members of the BA EWC can speak English, they often have
problems with the presentations, which are often presented in a rapid and colloquial
English which makes no concessions to the fact that some non-native English speakers
are present.
The protocol refers to “appropriate time off and resources” being provided to the
spokesperson and it seems that there are no problems with time-off for the operation of
the EWC, particularly as many of the members have duties as national representatives.
The company has, however, refused to provide facilities, travelling and time off, to allow
the employee members of the bureau to meet on their own, other than in preparation for a
meeting of the whole bureau, including management.
Overall it is worth noting that the meetings of the BA EWC must be less costly to
organise than most other EWC meetings as they involve no interpretation and the travel
is in the company’s own aircraft.
The BA EWC meets twice a year and is chaired by a member of management, the
area general manager for Western Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, although
the area general manager for North Eastern Europe and East Mediterranean is also
present. There is a pre-meeting of just the employee representatives. The agreement
provides for extraordinary meetings and so far there has been one, to discuss the major
reduction in employee numbers known as the Future Size and Shape programme. One
normal meeting a year is held in London and the other elsewhere in Europe, although
recently there have been problems with this (see section on agreement).
Typically the meetings start with the members arriving either the evening before or
in the early morning with the pre-meeting of employee members only starting as early as
possible, say around 10.00am. This meeting goes on to 3.30pm and is followed
57
immediately by the full meeting with management. This starts with a presentation of the
general state of the business in Europe by the two area managers and a more general
picture of the position of BA. Typically, including responses from the employee
representatives this will last until 6.30pm. In the evening there is a joint dinner, although
not all those involved will attend. The next day there are further presentations normally
by management on a range of issues on BA’s operations, such as the introduction of new
systems, the impact of low-cost competition, or overall BA policy on specific issues.
Topics that the employees want to put on the agenda will also bee included at this stage.
The joint meeting normally ends at around 2.00pm and there is then a debriefing session
of employee representatives only until about 4.00pm.
The issues covered by the forum are essentially those linked to the business of BA,
such as the company’s financial situation, staffing reductions or overall strategy rather
than employment conditions issues. However, it has discussed issues like training or
levels of stress.
There have been some changes in the structure of the meetings since the EWC first
started. In particular the joint sessions have been broken up more to allow adjournments
during which the employee side can discuss the issues on their own and then respond to
management. The employee representatives clearly feel that initially the meetings were
overloaded with presentations by management and that they did not have an adequate
opportunity to respond. This is still seen as a problem, particularly as some of the
presentations cover material that has already been widely reported. As one employee
representative commented “we are still trying to trim the information overload”.
The agenda is primarily set by management, although the employee representatives
have an opportunity to get things included in the agenda through the spokesperson. In
practice this works through an exchange of e-mails and telephone calls between the
spokesperson and the manager from the industrial relations department responsible for
the EWC. For example, the employee representatives were able to get a presentation on
consultation from an expert from the TUC included as part of the agenda.
The work of the EWC is reported by in a newsletter distributed by the company,
although delays in bringing it out (it should be within six weeks) have been criticised by
employee representatives (see section on agreement).
A very recent agreed change has been that in future the employee representatives
will produce the newsletter, which will then be approved by management before
distribution. Until now it was the other way round. However, it is not yet clear how well
this will work.
Other than the newsletter methods of reporting back vary from country to country. In
some countries, where the numbers involved are small, it will be by word of mouth and
e-mail. In Germany the works council is informed and in the UK the reporting back is to
the union structures within BA. For example, the UK pilots’ representative on the EWC
reports back to the BA committee of the pilots union BALPA.
The pre-meetings
The pre-meetings include a round table session, where representatives report back on
developments in their own countries. This has developed over time and now the
representatives provide a broadly standard report in advance, which is collated and
presented by the deputy spokesperson. Individual representatives can then add additional
58
material if necessary. The changes have been introduced to streamline the procedure and
give representatives time to take a view on the other items on the agenda.
Getting reports from different countries has proved useful and it was one of the ways
through which the employee representatives realised recently that a common process of
benchmarking was being introduced across Europe.
There is also a post-meeting session and, as has already been noted, increasing
employee representatives meet separately in the course of the joint meeting.
There is a bureau of six employee and three management representatives plus the
two experts, who are both full-time trade union officials. Of the six employee members
two come from the UK and four from the rest of Europe, currently Denmark, Germany,
Italy and the Netherlands. This reflects the wish that the UK should not dominate the
proceedings. In the same way the spokesperson is always someone from outside the UK,
currently someone from Denmark, and the deputy spokesperson is always someone from
the UK.
The bureau meets twice a year for a day and its meetings are three months away from
the full EWC meetings. As with the full meetings there is an employee only pre-meeting
from about 9.00am to 10.30am followed by a joint meeting with management.
The bureau deals with substantive issues rather than preparing for the full BA EWC
meetings. It has dealt with topics such as training, new booking systems and most
recently with benchmarking (see below). On occasion employee representatives from the
countries concerned by specific issues attend the bureau meetings so that they can be
heard directly.
There are close e-mail contacts between the employee bureau members but, despite
requests the company has refused to allow the employee members of the bureau to hold
additional meetings on their own, other than as part of a joint meeting of both sides.
There are clearly tensions between management and the employee members of the
EWC on the extent to which the EWC is consulted. Most obviously the company seems
unwilling to enter into genuine consultation, which could lead to a change of policy. One
employee member said that “involvement before decision-making is clearly anathema to
them” while another commented, “for BA consultation is just telling us that they are
doing it”.
However, there are not just concerns about how far the EWC is consulted. The
employee members also feel that, although some sensitive material is shared, they are not
informed about other major issues which the company argues are too confidential. This is
despite the fact that the employee members have pointed out that London Stock
Exchange rules permit employee representatives to be informed and they have offered to
sign an additional confidentiality agreement. This has damaged relations between the two
sides. As one member commented “they can’t get trust unless they start trusting you”.
59
Worst of all the employee members feel that management sometimes hides issues
from the EWC which it should raise. The most recent example was a benchmarking
exercise on BA activities across Europe which may lead to outsourcing and a loss of jobs.
From the point of view of the employee representatives this was a measure, which, under
the terms of the consultation document agreed as an addition to the agreement, should
have been consulted on. It was a measure which “significantly affected employee
interests” and it affected “at least two establishments in different countries” (the wording
of the document). Despite this the employee representatives only became aware of it
through their own roundtable reports. They subsequently compelled management to hold
a special extended bureau meeting to deal with the issue and that meeting agreed that
management would involve local staff more in the benchmarking process. However,
although this was a reasonably positive outcome, by failing to inform the EWC at an
early stage management contributed to employee side mistrust.
On the question of management attitudes towards the EWC, there is a view among
some employee representatives that management does not take it seriously. One
commented “they see us as a fig-leaf… they want to promote the idea of BA as a socially
responsible employer”, while another thought that management had failed to reap the
potential benefit of having so much experience round the table. However, there is also a
recognition that management views seem to differ and some managers may be more
willing to make use of the EWC.
There are meetings of either the full EWC or the bureau every three months and this
plus the frequent e-mail contacts between EWC members indicate that the EWC does
operate all the year round.
Individual members with problems in their countries, where it seems the EWC could
help, will normally take them up first with the spokesperson, who will then raise them
with BA management.
BA’s industrial relations structure in the UK owes a good deal to the fact that it was
for much of its history stated-owned. There are therefore extensive negotiating structures
for each of the six major groups of employees in the company, pilots, cabin crew, ground
support staff, administrative grades, managers (including several sub-groupings) and
engineers. These are also the constituencies for the six UK seats on the EWC. In addition
to these negotiating structures there is also an information and consultation body, known
as the BA Trade Union Council (BATUC), set up in the 1970s, when the UK government
was considering extending employee involvement.
BATUC, which includes full-time union officials, meets once a quarter with more
frequent meetings of its executive committee and has high-level management input,
including BA’s chief executive. It therefore provides a forum for information and
consultation for the bulk of BA’s European employees who are in the UK. The
spokesperson of the BA EWC attends as a co-opted member of BATUC.
There is no indication that the existence of the BA EWC has affected the existing
patterns of industrial relations in the UK. As one employee member commented, “there is
a temptation to negotiate on the EWC but in the UK there are already negotiating
structures”.
60
Outside the UK national industrial relations structures exist, at least in the countries
where the UK has a larger presence and there is no indication that the EWC has had a
significant impact. It does, however, provide access to a much higher level of
management than individual national representatives normally have access to and this has
sometimes led to issues which are local rather than European being raised on the EWC.
More generally it seems that management, at least where they are required to do so,
use the national/local structures for detailed consultation with employee representatives,
providing the EWC with much more general information.
BA is heavily unionised in the UK and there are unions in its larger non-UK
European operations.
Almost all the EWC members are in unions and two full-time trade union officials
attend all the meetings of the EWC and the bureau as experts.
Both the union officials and the EWC members see the union role as essentially
advisory and supportive rather than steering the work of the EWC and it seems that it is
the employee members rather the than union officials who have driven forward the
EWC’s agenda. There is no indication of a clash of views between the two groups.
Relationships between the members of the EWC seem to be good, helped by the fact
that they all speak English and they all can communicate with one another easily by both
telephone and e-mail. The membership of the EWC has been stable with few changes,
allowing relationships to be built up over time. One of the full-time officials involved
with the EWC said that he considered that the closer links between employee
representatives outside the UK had been one of the main benefits of the BA EWC.
The BA EWC is, in terms of its employee members, a body which is active
throughout the year and to which employee representatives outside the UK take their
concerns. It is probably less relevant for UK employee representatives who have other
channels to use.
However the employee representatives have major frustrations because of the failure
of the company to consult with it seriously on major issues. This may be, as one of those
involved commented, because some key parts of management “can’t see why they need
to pull everyone together and not just deal with issues nationally” or in may be, in the
words of another participant because management “thinks the EWC is a waste of time”.
Relations with management have also been made worse by problems such as the
recent attempts to try to restrict meetings to the UK, the unwillingness to extend observer
status to employees in the accession states and the delays in bringing out newsletters.
61
These seem linked to the search to cut costs and the reduced level of resources available
because of staff cuts but they indicate that the work of the EWC is not a high priority for
management.
Despite this, the existence of the BA EWC means that those involved have a better
understanding of the company and, most important, have created an effective network of
employee representatives stretching across the EU and Switzerland.
Perspectives
Management’s failure to consult adequately on the issue of benchmarking has led to
a crisis of confidence among some employee representatives. One expressed the view
that “we seem to be going backwards”, while another commented that the “company’s
refusal to consult is the major obstacle to progress”.
However, there is a hope that things may improve if the revision of the directive
produces more extensive consultation rights. There is a feeling that changes of
management could lead to improvements but also a recognition these could be reversed if
management were to change again.
Overall in the words of one comment “other than as a communications tool,
management don’t see how they might use the EWC in a useful way”. Until that changes
or management is compelled by law to deal differently with the EWC, the frustrations its
members currently feel are likely to continue into the foreseeable future.
62
GKN – differing national perspectives
Lionel Fulton
The company
GKN is an engineering company operating in two sectors, the automotive industry
and aerospace. It employs a total of 36,000 people worldwide, with around 22,000 in
Europe. The two largest blocks of employees are in the UK with some 7,700 employees
and Germany with around 8,200 employees. The existence of these two groups of
employees is important in understanding the development of the European works council
(EWC).
GKN’s structure has changed in recent years. Since 1997 it has built up a powder
metallurgy business, primarily in the US. In 1998 it sold its armoured vehicle operations
and in 2001 it merged its helicopter business, GKN Westland, with Agusta of Italy to
create a joint venture AgustaWestland. The GKN European Works Council does not
cover AgustaWestland and a separate EWC is likely to be set up in this company once
the Italian unions have agreed to a draft text. Other recent changes have included the
disposal of its industrial services businesses in 2001 and significant redundancies at its
Isle of Wight plant.
The agreement
The European Works Council agreement, setting up a “European Forum” was
originally signed in November 1995 and was therefore an Article 13 agreement. It
followed negotiations between management and an employees’ body made up of a
mixture of workplace representatives and full-time trade union officials. The Forum met
for the first time in 1996, when the agreement was ratified by those present.
This initial agreement was for six years and as the date for expiry approached
negotiations concerning a revised agreement, took place between the three-person select
committee (all employees), known in GKN as the Administration Sub-Committee, and
central management. The UK trade union expert was not involved in these negotiations
(see below). The new agreement was signed in May 2002.
Much of the wording of the 2002 agreement is taken from the 1995 agreement.
However, it is much more specific about a number of issues.
These include:
• the companies which the agreement covers, including for the first time, not just
subsidiaries, but also those where the company exercises a “dominant influence”. This
is defined in detail;
• the areas in which the forum will have competence, defined as “matters which
concern at least two establishments or two undertakings in different member states”;
• the timing for information and consultation on “significant transnational
developments” where the company “commits to communicate proactively and at the
earliest opportunity … subject to commercial restrictions and to legal and regulatory
63
requirements”. The information will be provided to the select committee at the same
time, or earlier if possible, as they are announced outside.
There is also much more detail on the issues to be discussed by the forum, drawn to a
significant extent from the material discussed by the Economic Committee
“Wirtschaftsausschuss” under the German system, including relocation, business
developments, introduction of new working processes and investments.
As in many of the issues facing this forum, the German and UK representatives have
differing views on the importance of these changes. From a German point of view they
are significant improvements: “we were able to make things much more concrete”. But
from a UK point of view they are not seen as marking a great change.
The UK representatives were also concerned that the agreement states that it will
“operate in perpetuity from the date of its signature”, fearing that this blocked off the
opportunity to revise it. But the German representatives see this as a perfectly normal
form of words and point to the opportunities for amendment included in the agreement.
It is the only EWC in the company. There are no divisional EWCs.
The EWC, both as currently established and as agreed in 1995, consists of “senior
executive members appointed by the company” and employee members. There are a
maximum of 30 employee members with a seat guaranteed to each country with 100 or
more employees, with the remaining places being allocated in proportion to the number
of employees in that country.
As at June 2001 the numbers of employees and employee members were as follows:
Country
Germany
UK
Italy
Spain
France
Denmark
Sweden
Total
Number employed
Employee members
8,236
7,685
2,456
2,056
1,350
562
161
9
9
4
3
2
2
1
22,506
30
If new countries become eligible to join the forum, either because of employment
growth or because of accession to the EU of the countries concerned they will initially
get temporary extra places. In time, however, the maximum of 30 will be re-established
through a reallocation of seats.
The agreement refers to the possibility that external experts, in effect trade union
officials, can be involved in meetings and in an exchange of letters it was agreed that up
to two could be present. The current arrangements seem to be that a single trade union
official from the UK (Amicus-AEEU) is present. However, the official is not invited to
the visit to a GKN plant, which typically takes place before the main meeting and also is
not expected to speak at the full meeting of the EWC, although the view of the main
German employee representative was that it would be possible for the official to ask
questions.
The broad view of those involved in the UK is that the terms of the agreement are
respected but this is simply because it is “so weak”. The Germans also consider that the
terms of the agreement are met, but from a different perspective. This is that the company
bargains hard on what it will agree to, but when it has agreed “it sticks to it 100%”.
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The resources provided for the forum are limited. It does not have its own budget,
nor any effective structures for cross-border communication between meetings. UK
members have exchanged e-mail addresses through the union but only within the UK.
Similarly the German representatives are all in e-mail contact. A recent attempt to collect
e-mail addresses more widely was not a success with the employee chair only having two
e-mail addresses outside his home country, Germany.
The revised agreement provides for the possibility of training for EWC members.
(This was not included in the initial agreement.) However, this training is to be provided
locally, “through the management contact of the employing company”, although the
content of the material will be discussed by management and the select committee. UK
representatives have been given time off for union training and there has been substantial
training for German employee representatives, including language training, within their
national structures. The failure to obtain a better result on training is seen by the German
employee chair as the major disappointment in the re-negotiation of the agreement.
In the UK there are no additional facilities provided for EWC members, although
where they are local trade union representatives they may have some time off. The
employee chair of the forum, who is also chair of the group works council (KBR) has
both time-off and substantial facilities at his disposal, as do other German members of the
forum, through their national positions.
The agreement provides for an annual meeting and these have taken place every 12
months since the first in 1996. There is provision in the agreement for an additional
meeting “in exceptional circumstances” but no extra meeting has ever been held.
The annual meetings follow a similar pattern and normally take place in March or
April, two or three days after the annual accounts are published. They start on day one
with a morning visit to a GKN facility. The trade union expert is not invited to participate
in this. After lunch there is a meeting for the employee members only. This lasts from
2.00pm to around 5.00pm and must finish before 6.00pm. There is then a meeting of the
select committee followed by drinks and a joint dinner.
The meeting of the full forum, including management, runs from 9.00am the
following morning until 1.00pm. The select committee plus representatives from other
countries not represented on the select committee then meets for a further 30 minutes to
agree a communiqué and the whole meeting then ends for another year.
The meeting of the full EWC, which is chaired by the human resources director,
consists largely of presentations from the company, first on the company’s financial
performance, followed by a strategic overview, and then information on specific parts of
the business. The employee representatives have around half an hour to ask questions,
after a brief recess for discussion among themselves. At the 2003 meeting there was not
sufficient time to answer all the questions and some were answered in writing. However,
the chair of the employee side reports that this is the first time this has happened.
This format has been maintained unchanged from the start of the EWC.
65
From the UK perspective it is management who control the whole process of the
meeting, essentially using it to provide information. The UK view is that the way that
management runs the whole event makes it difficult for the employee representatives to
have any effective influence. As an example, they quote the horseshoe seating plan which
is such that employee representatives sit in national blocks opposite one another on the
outside of the horseshoe, with two rows of managers on the inside of the horseshoe
between them. The trade union expert is seated away from the employee representatives
in the meetings. And in the dinner the evening before, employees stay in their national
groupings with their national human resources managers.
The view of the German representatives is different. They consider that the meetings
provide them with information that they otherwise would not have access to and
opportunities to influence management (see below). They feel that one of the difficulties
is that, although the human resources manager who chairs the meeting makes an effort to
involve other members of the forum, this is not always successful.
The reporting back of the meetings is through a brief communiqué, which is agreed
between management and an extended select committee (see below), including members
from countries not otherwise represented, at the end of the meeting. This is then
published in the company magazine in a range of languages. Other than this, the
reporting back procedure depends on the country. The UK member interviewed says that
he reports back to the shop stewards’ committee in his plant. In Germany the meeting is
reported back through the group works council, whose members come from all the
German plants.
The pre-meetings
As already noted, the pre-meetings of employee members last for around three hours
in the afternoon before the full EWC meeting. A key agenda item is to look at questions
that can be asked the following day, but as the period for questions is only half an hour,
the UK delegates consider that it is difficult to take up many themes. The new trade union
co-ordinator has pressed to get wider themes discussed and this seems to be having some
success with European Enlargement and Corporate Social Responsibility both being on
the agenda at the 2003 meeting.
Wider issues have also been discussed in the past, for example a discussion about
social security systems in different countries. External experts have also been invited to
give presentations at the pre-meeting and in the past the official from the German
metalworkers’ union IG Metall, responsible for GKN in Germany, has been present.
The pre-meeting is not normally used as an opportunity for employee members to
report on developments in their own countries.
There is no meeting of the employee representatives on their own after the full
meeting, although an expanded select committee does meet to agree the communiqué.
There is a select committee of employees, known as the Administration SubCommittee, of three people, one from Germany, one from the UK and one from Italy, the
66
three countries with the largest number of employees in GKN in Europe and also the
largest number of EWC members. The chair of the committee is the chair of the group
works council (KBR) in Germany and has held the post since the forum was set up. The
trade union expert does not attend meetings of the sub-committee.
The Administration Sub-Committee meets twice a year normally in
January/February and in September. The meetings last for a day and for part of that
period the employee members of the sub-committee meet on their own.
In the negotiations leading up to the signing of the new agreement the sub-committee
was expanded to include members from other countries not normally present and an
additional meeting was held.
The sub-committee has a role in preparing the meetings of the full forum but it also
has a wider role in dealing with business between the meetings of the forum. For
example, an expanded sub-committee meeting, with additional members from other
countries, was held to discuss the closure of a plant in France.
Contacts between the members of the sub-committee and other forum members vary
from country to country. In the UK they were not very good. However, the employee
who was previously the member of the sub-committee from the UK has now left the
company and his replacement appears keen to develop closer relations with the other UK
EWC members. In Germany there is an immediate link as all the German members of the
EWC are members of the group works council, whose chair is the German representative
on the sub-committee.
Both German and UK representatives agree that cross-border links between members
of the sub-committee are not well developed.
There are clearly some tensions between the sub-committee and some other members
of the EWC as the sub-committee signed the new EWC agreement without reporting
back to the UK representatives. As already noted, the UK member on the select
committee who signed the agreement has subsequently left the company.
The relationship between the EWC and management
The German and UK participants have differing views on the relationship of the
forum with management.
From the UK perspective the EWC is entirely dominated by management. It
effectively sets the agenda and structures the meetings in such a way as to enable it to
keep tight control. In the view of the trade union co-ordinator the function of the EWC is
“just information; there is no consultation whatsoever”. In the view of one of the UK
members of the EWC, “we cannot influence decisions”.
They see little attempt by management to use the EWC to get a particular message
across or use the EWC in a particular way. It is rather that it recognises that it must by
law have an EWC and it fulfils this requirement in a way which has as little impact as
possible on its own business. In the UK view one indication of the importance assigned
to the EWC in GKN’s thinking is that the Human Resources Manager chairs the
meetings. The chief executive is not involved.
The German view is also that the forum exists to meet a legal requirement but they
are more positive about it. In particular they feel that, as German management is tightly
controlled by the overall management of the group, the access to the higher level of
management that the forum provides is very welcome. They consider that the forum
67
helped them to get a better deal for workers losing their jobs as a result of a closure in
Germany, as they could raise issues directly with group management.
There is general agreement that there is little cross-border contact between meetings,
either of the full forum or the Administration Sub-Committee, and that this is an area
which could be improved.
Those involved in the UK have no knowledge of cross-border contacts outside the
meetings, or any attempt to take up particular issues on a European-wide basis. The
participants from Germany have had some contact with representatives from Denmark,
Italy and France outside the meetings but they accept that “contacts are not well
developed”.
The EWC appears to have had almost no impact on national industrial relations in
the UK. Unlike some other UK companies, setting up an EWC has not resulted in the
creation of a body bringing together UK members of the EWC. The contacts that have
been established have come through the union rather than through the company. In any
case only five of the nine UK members are trade unionists, the other four, coming from
areas such as sales and the head office, are not in a union.
Collective bargaining in GKN in the UK is undertaken on a plant by plant basis and
as yet there has not even been any exchange of information on pay levels between plants.
Information and consultation rights on redundancy and transfer are also exercised at plant
level and this has not changed as a result of the establishment of the EWC.
In Germany representatives from the works councils at the individual GKN plants
are brought together in a group works council and that has not changed as a result of the
EWC. However, as already noted the forum has given German representatives access to
higher levels of management and the German participants consider that this has been
helpful in dealing with restructuring on a national level.
In line with European Metalworkers’ Federation guidelines the trade union coordinator for GKN, a UK company, comes from a UK union. This is Amicus-AEEU
(formerly AEEU) and the co-ordinator is head of the union’s European Department. He
has been in this position for 18 months, and was previously an Education Officer in the
union. His predecessor in the union post was the previous union co-ordinator for GKN.
The union co-ordinator attends the meetings and the pre-meetings of the EWC,
although the company now says that he may not intervene during the meetings itself.
However, he does not attend the twice-yearly meetings of the Administrative SubCommittee. Through his involvement in the pre-meeting, as well as through training of
68
the UK members, he is trying to get the EWC members to become more proactive and
take greater control of the work of the EWC. One difficulty in doing this is that four of
the nine UK forum members are not in a union.
However, the fact that the revised agreement was recently signed by the subcommittee without the involvement of the trade union co-ordinator is not seen as having
helped this process. The previous union co-ordinator had highlighted the need for the
agreement to be re-negotiated. However, the current union co-ordinator was not involved
in the negotiations, which were undertaken by the sub-committee, a body where the trade
union co-ordinator is not present. Advice on the agreement was sought from the
International Metalworkers’ Federation, which judged it to be a good agreement, but not
from the union co-ordinator.
The UK representative interviewed is positive about the role of the trade union coordinator, who he feels has brought the UK members together and is moving the EWC in
the right direction. However, the union co-ordinator himself is less positive about the
successes achieved so far, arguing that co-ordination is not working particularly well.
The German forum members are all members of the IG Metall. The IG Metall
official responsible for GKN is a member of the supervisory board of the German
subsidiary together with the chair of the group works council, who is also chair of the
sub-committee of the EWC and so the leading employee figure within it.
It seems clear that there is virtually no contact between the German chair of the subcommittee and the British trade union co-ordinator. One reason for this may be language
difficulties, neither speaks the other’s language well. But there may also be more
fundamental difficulties, explained by differing perspectives on the function of the EWC.
The relationship between the British and German representatives, who form the two
largest groupings on the EWC, seems to be a key element in the development of the
EWC in GKN.
The UK members are feel that their German colleagues already know much more
about the company than they do and have much greater influence. As a result they feel
that for the Germans the EWC is relatively unimportant. For the British members,
however, the EWC is a source of information to which they previously did not have
access.
The British see the Germans’ knowledge and influence as a goal for which they
should aim: “the Germans should be our benchmark”. But they have found it difficult to
make cross border links within the framework of the meetings and virtually impossible
outside the meetings. There is a feeling that because the Germans are already in a strong
position they may have less interest than their UK counterparts in making the EWC
effective.
From a German point of view, this conclusion is mistaken. They value the EWC
because of the access it gives them to higher level management and the wider picture it
gives of the activities of the group, “not just in Europe, but worldwide”, which they
would not otherwise have.
However, they too have found it difficult to make cross-border links, particularly
with UK colleagues. One reason for this is the rapid turnover of UK members: “there are
two or three new ones every year”. A second reason is that whereas all the German
69
members are in the union, this is not the case with the UK forum members. In addition,
UK members do not come with an agreed common position. While the German members
meet one another regularly, the lack of a national structure in the UK means that this is
not possible for the British participants. The lack of national structures in the UK also
means that local issues are sometimes raised at European level. Finally, it seems that
some UK representatives have a different approach to the meetings: “they see things in
black and white”.
The lack of a common language means that it is very difficult to overcome these
problems and differences through personal contacts which can build mutual trust.
From the UK point of view the GKN EWC is one which only exists in and around
the formal meetings. It has no life beyond that. They see these meetings as opportunities
essentially for the company to provide information, although there is no evidence that the
company actively uses this opportunity to push a particular message. This makes the
meetings fairly empty. For the company the EWC is, in the view of one of those involved
on the employees’ side, an “exercise they have to do”, while for many employees it is
“like a day out”, as one delegate commented.
The German point of view is much more positive. For them the EWC provides a
valuable additional tool in their dealings with management. They are both better
informed as a result and have built up better relations with senior management at group
level, which they can use to advance the interests of those they represent.
The early stages of the EWC at GKN were investigated in 1997 by Lecher, Nagel
and Platzer4. At that stage their judgement was that “group management is not
particularly interested in the EWC and see no particular value to it at present”. They also
stated that German members wanted the EWC to become an “alternative information
forum in which the prime role is occupied, not by information passed on by group
management, but by information exchanged by EWC members”.
Six years later it seems that from the UK point of view the earlier judgement on
management’s attitude remains correct, although the Germans, who have used the EWC
to help solve national problems of restructuring, might see things differently. However,
the prospect of using the EWC as “an alternative information forum” based on an
exchange of information between members seems as far off as ever.
Perspectives
There is no evidence of management fundamentally wishing to change the current
fairly limited role of the GKN European Forum. Changes therefore will depend on a
different approach by the employee representatives.
From the UK point of view the context for this different approach may have been
made more difficult by the recently revised agreement, which UK representatives
4
The establishment of European Works Councils: from information committee to social actor, Wolfgang
Lecher, Bernhard Nagel, Hans-Wolfgang Platzer; Ashgate 1999 pp157 to 168.
70
consider made only minor changes to the structure. From a German point of view these
changes made the agreement more concrete and therefore more able to be used. They also
feel that the forum as it currently operates has brought them benefits.
Among UK members there is some evidence of a general wish to strengthen the
EWC, but recognition that “until we work together we won’t be able to move things
forward”. German members too recognise the difficulties, considering that the EWC will
only be strengthened with “a greater consistency” of membership and approach.
The current circumstances, with the very differing starting points of the UK and
German representatives, relatively limited opportunities to meet, particularly for the
union co-ordinator and the chair who meet only once a year, and the language problems,
make working together a difficult task.
71
De La Rue – looking for real consultation
Lionel Fulton
The company
De La Rue is a security printing and papermaking company producing banknotes and
other security products such as passports. It is also involved in producing cash handling
equipment and providing technological solutions to banks and retailers to reduce the
costs of handing cash. It employs some 6,600 people worldwide, of whom around 5,000
work in Europe (2,300 in the UK and 2,700 elsewhere).
The company is organised in three divisions, security print and paper (banknote
printing and banknote paper), cash systems (including cash handling equipment) and
global services (which includes identity systems and printing other than banknote
printing).
There have recently been some changes in the company with the closure of a factory
in the global services division in High Wycombe in the UK involving 350 employees and
other ongoing cost reductions in the cash systems business (some 300 jobs). The
company has also made some small acquisitions including a stamp-making business
(House of Questa) and the printing plant of the Bank of England.
The agreement
The agreement setting up a “European Employee Forum” was signed in May 1996
and so is an Article 13 voluntary agreement. On the employee side it was negotiated by a
team led by a national official from the UK printing and paper union, the GPMU. In
general those involved in the negotiations from the employee side consider that it was a
reasonably good agreement. The agreement itself was supplemented by a side letter
between the GPMU and the management, which spelled out some of the details such as
the length of meetings.
The agreement has remained unchanged since it was signed, although there have
been changes in the employee representation reflecting the changes in the numbers of
employees and there have also been some developments in practice (see below).
The agreement provides for an European works council (EWC ) which is made up of
both employee representatives and representatives of management, and chaired by the
“Chief Executive or his representative. The maximum number of employee
representatives is 30, although in practice there have always been fewer than this and
there are currently 23, with more than half from the UK. The agreement states that
employee members will "be elected or appointed by the appropriate employees, taking into
account national and local legislation, practice and/or agreement". In the UK and in Ireland
the representatives are elected, although the majority are union members and the German
members are chosen by the works councils in the German companies.
The agreement specifically provides for up to three external experts to attend the
meetings and in an exchange of letters it was agreed that these would be trade union
73
officials. In practice there is always one from the GPMU, the official who initially
negotiated the agreement and has responsibility for the company, with others coming
either from another of the countries involved or from another UK union, Amicus.
Asked whether management had respected the terms of the agreement, the view of
all employee representatives contacted was that they had, with the exception of the
admittedly very difficult area of providing “an effective mechanism of consultation”
where additional discussions with the company were ongoing (see below).
The EWC does not have a separate budget although the company pays all the costs
of the meetings. All members have e-mail facilities, although as some members do not
normally have access to a computer this may be in someone else’s office. For example,
one of the members of the sub-committee accesses e-mails in his manager’s office.
Shortly after the EWC agreement had been signed, the company carried out a training
workshop on the forum in April 1997, when it brought the members together for a "dummy
run". There was also another training session some two years ago which was paid for by the
company but provided by the GPMU. The employee chair of the forum is trying to set up a
standard training package for new members.
Members of the EWC appear to be able to take time-off for their duties, although
there is nothing specified in the agreement on this. For example, forum members have
been given time-off to visit plants other than their own.
The agreement states that the forum should meet once a year and in the side letter to
the agreement it is stated that “the possibility of an additional meeting in exceptional
circumstances” is not precluded. In fact, so far, there has been one extraordinary meeting,
on consultation, and another one is planned.
During the existence of the EWC the length of the meeting has been extended. It now
starts with a meeting of employee representatives in the afternoon of the first day
followed by an informal dinner. On the morning of the second day there is a site visit and
the full meeting with management starts after lunch, followed by a more formal dinner.
The meeting with management continues on the morning of the third day, lasting till
lunch, and the whole session concludes with a post-meeting debriefing session of
employees only which will last part of the afternoon. The employee-only pre-meeting and a
post-meeting debriefing session are provided for in the agreement. But the side letter to the
agreement also states that “only in exceptional circumstances will the company fund more
than one night’s paid accommodation or give more than two days paid release to any
representative”. The current practice clearly goes beyond this.
The full meeting is chaired by a senior member of management and typically will begin
with a presentation from the finance director on the overall performance of the company.
There is also a strategic overview from the chief executive as well as presentations from
each of the managing directors of the three divisions of the company. Recently there have
74
also been presentations on health and safety and employee representatives also have an
opportunity to make presentations and this has been taken up by the chair of the employee
representatives. Employee representatives also have an opportunity to ask questions in the
meeting.
The agenda for the meeting is jointly set by management and the employee subcommittee and the employee representatives seem to consider that it broadly meets their
needs. However, there is some feeling that it would be better to have more time for question
and answer sessions.
The main mechanism for reporting back the results of the meeting is a four-page fullcolour newsletter produced by the company in English. This is agreed with the union before
it is distributed and contains a separate report from the chair of the employee
representatives. Individual members also make their own report and in the UK individual
members can go to other plants to report the results.
The pre-meetings
As already noted, there are meetings of employee representatives both before and
after the main meeting with management. This gives representatives an opportunity to
raise issues of concern to them and to exchange experiences, although they also each
submit a report beforehand (see below).
These sessions are seen as useful, although there is some feeling that some forum
members are willing to raise issues in the pre-meeting that they do not subsequently raise
in meetings with management.
There is a separate three-person sub-committee of employee members, who in the
words of the side letter to the original agreement are to act as "a focal point for liaising with
the forum secretary to agree the agenda and minutes of the meeting". However, it is clear
that the role of this sub-committee has grown in importance over the period the forum has
been in existence.
Initially the sub-committee did not meet separately, other than at the time of the main
meeting. However, it now meets at least twice a year sometimes, more often, separately
from the meetings of the main forum. The meeting to fix the agenda of the meeting takes
place about six weeks before the forum meeting itself.
This sub-committee currently consists of two UK representatives, including the chair,
and one representative from Ireland. The GPMU full-time official who is responsible for the
company also attends regularly.
All employee members on the forum are required to submit a report to the subcommittee on developments in their area before the meeting prior to the main forum
meeting. These reports, which where necessary are translated by the GPMU at the
company’s expense, are a useful source of information for the sub-committee and help it in
drawing up the agenda with management.
It seems clear that in some ways management would like to develop the role of the subcommittee, arguing that the whole forum is unwieldy, and has suggested that the sub-
75
committee could be informed of company plans in advance, provided that the information
was not passed on to other forum members. However, so far the sub-committee has been
very wary of accepting this role with one member stating that it did not wish to become an
“elitist body”. This whole area is likely to be examined further in the discussion on
consultation planned with management (see below).
There is a general view among the employee representatives interviewed that while
at the start management did not seem to take the European forum very seriously, this is
no longer the case. Management seems to see the representatives on the EWC as “a group
of people who are responsible in their attitude to the company but voice the concerns that
they have”. Management therefore pays attention to the issues the forum members raise
and in some cases, such as health and safety, act almost immediately.
The main area of difficulty in the relations between the EWC and management is in
establishing effective consultation. This issue has been present from the start. For
example, there had been no prior consultation with the forum before the announcement of
major job losses at a plant in Gateshead in the UK in 1998. However, the recent event which
had brought the issue to a head had been the announcement of a planned sell-off of card
operations two weeks after an EWC meeting.
The review from the chair of the employee sub-committee included in the newsletter
produced after the 2002 meeting stated “the biggest problem still outstanding though, is
the application of the consultation clause within our agreement”. The GMPU official
responsible for the company shares this view. “We don’t want to be ‘consulted’ after the
event”, he says.
The company has already held an extraordinary meeting of the forum to try to find a
way of resolving the problem and it has been agreed that the sub-committee, including
the GPMU official, will meet with the human resources department on the issue later in
2003. At this meeting they will choose between two consultants, each proposing to act as
a facilitator to allow the development of an effective mechanism for consultation. There
will then be another extraordinary meeting of the forum, where, with the help of the
facilitator chosen, it is hoped to agree an effective consultation mechanism.
It seems clear that unlike some other EWCs the De La Rue European Employee
Forum does have a life between meetings. The relatively frequent meetings of the subcommittee help to promote this and the fact that all three members of this committee, two
from the UK and one from Ireland, have English as their first language makes
communication between them easier. The chair of the sub committee estimates that he is
in contact with his colleagues on the sub committee at least once or twice a month.
Contact with other forum members, particularly from outside the UK, is less frequent
but it takes place. However, there are certainly frustrations caused by language
difficulties. For example, although the company is happy to pay for the translation of emails organised by the union in the UK, this can mean a delay of some ten days, which
76
may mean a problem is not tackled promptly enough. Communication with non-English
speaking members of the forum outside meetings is seen as “a problem area”.
There is no evidence that the existence of the forum has had an impact on national
industrial relations, at least within the UK. Bargaining is plant based in De La Rue in the
UK and this has remained unchanged. There has also been no attempt to set up a national
committee of De La Rue representatives.
One member of the forum expressed the view that there was a reluctance among
some employee members to share pay information. However, two years ago the full-time
official of the GPMU organised an exchange of information on pay and conditions and
this proved to be particularly useful in the area of holidays.
The GPMU played a key role in negotiating the agreement and continues to be central
to its operation.
This is not just because of the continuing and close involvement of the full-time GPMU
official who attends all the meetings both of the full EWC and the select committee. It is
also a result of the fact that the majority of forum members are also members of the GPMU,
12 out of 23. Most come from the UK but the GPMU also organises in Ireland and the Irish
member of the forum is also a GPMU member. This is despite the fact that it is a minority
union in the plant he works in. The result is that the sub-committee, which is advised by a
GPMU official, consists entirely of GPMU members despite coming from two countries.
The role of other unions is clearly less significant, although full-time officials from
unions in Germany, Spain, Malta and Sweden, as well as another UK unions, Amicus, have
all been present at the full meetings of the forum from time to time.
There are also a minority of non-union members in the forum, both from certain areas
in the UK, and from some countries, such as Spain.
The GMPU official who is responsible for the De La Rue EWC sees his role as being
both to support the work of the forum and to steer it. His involvement, which includes
providing advice on difficult issues, seems to have been welcomed. One member described
it as “invaluable” and said that the official was “not afraid to ask hard questions”. There is
also a feeling that the union has “driven the process” particularly in the current discussions
on establishing effective consultation.
However, there is a recognition of the potentially differing roles of the union and that of
the forum. For example, it was pointed out that although the forum might be involved in
consultation over possible job losses, once the redundancies were announced, it was the
union and not the forum which took responsibility.
From the GPMU’s point of view the forum has helped the union to gain influence
with management. It also hopes that it will make it easier to win members in areas where
union organisation is weak.
77
The fact that a majority of forum members come from the UK clearly influences the
way that it operates. There is a recognition that members from countries with other
industrial relations systems may have different expectations and ways of working. The
Swedish member, for example, is a member of the company board in Sweden.
However, on the basis of the interviews conducted it is unclear how far members
from outside the UK and Ireland find the forum meets their needs.
The general assessment of the forum among employee representatives is positive.
Members now have a better understanding of the working of the company and links
between employee members on the EWC are “better but not perfect”. The existence of
the forum has helped to establish greater trust between employees and senior
management. Overall there is a feeling that it is evolving and evolving in the right
direction. The problems that exist are seen to lie not with senior management but with
middle management. However, if this progress is to continue it will be important to
resolve the problem of consultation (see below).
The successes achieved seem to have depended heavily on the cohesiveness in the
EWC created by the fact that a majority of members belong to one union, the GPMU.
The union has also taken the forum very seriously.
Perspectives
There is a general expectation that the EWC will strengthen in importance. However,
this depends to a significant degree on finding a mechanism for establishing effective
consultation (see section on relations with management). One member said that he would
like the EWC to move to the position where it could be informed of potential closures six
months beforehand, “we could then aid and help to find solutions”. However, moving in
this direction depends on the company taking the EWC more into its confidence. It also
requires a solution to the dilemma that EWC members, once told of potential problems, may
feel that their first duty is to inform the members they represent. It may also require, at least
in the UK, that the union involves the forum more in dealing with redundancies.
The meeting with a facilitator planned for the autumn of 2003 is intended to help to
deal with this issue and for future of the forum a lot is riding on it.
78
The Marazzi case
Volker Telljohann, Davide Dazzi
Summary
The EWC of the Marazzi group was set up on the initiative of the Italian trade union
part of the Cisl a few days before the enforcement of the European directive in Italy.
Until today the EWC has performed the role of providing information and consultations
although on some occasions it has performed, especially through the organism of the
Select Committee, a negotiating and proactive role. The important role of the Italian
union in the EWC meetings slows down the internal process through which the EWC
should take on a European significance. If on the one hand the group tends to satisfy
some of requests put forward by the workers’ representatives, on the other it seems that
there is a tendency to crystallise a position of equilibrium in which the Italian union has
a leading role. The group’s contradictory attitude in relation to the EWC involves a dual
perception. Indeed, the French dissatisfaction concerning the lack of impact of the EWC
on the company decisions is offset by the contentment of the Italian insiders concerning
the results achieved. The competition consequent to the company’s internationalisation
does not seem to be creating excessive concerns in that the group has already found a
consolidated set up in Italy, Spain and France.
The Group
Italy boasts the world leadership in the ceramics sector with, in 2002, 248 producer
companies employing 31,348 workers. Italy produces about 20% of the world output of
tiles and 43% of the output of the European Union. The 1990s saw a major
transformation in the corporate set-up of the ceramics sector in that many of the small
companies, in order to deal with tougher competition, resorted to operations of company
mergers or conversion into solely marketing companies or the selling off of the business.
The distribution of the companies in this sector presents a major concentration in the
industrial area of Sassuolo, Modena (Italy). More than 80% of the Italian output comes
from the provinces bordering the district of Sassuolo, in other words Modena and Reggio
Emilia, and if we consider the whole of the Emilia-Romagna region, the percentage rises
to 89.57%. In the last two years the companies have had a persistent difficulty, especially
the smaller sized ones, in producing income and at the same time there has been a growth
in the international competition, particularly from Spain and Turkey, as regards Europe.
At world level the main competitor is China, the leading world producer and potential
competitor, considering its geographical position, in terms of its commercial
predomination over the Russian market. In order to overcome this stagnation phase of
the market many Italian companies are projecting themselves beyond the national border
with a view to expanding their own markets in areas that are still to be commercially
explored or that may be productively advantageous. Exports tend to be particularly
79
concentrated towards central-eastern Europe where the exports rose by 7.6% as compared
with the previous year, as opposed to 0.3% for Western Europe.
The Marazzi Group is placed in this context. The Group is one of the leading
producers of ceramic tiles in the world and has imposed itself on the domestic and
foreign markets through a variety of products and manufacturing techniques aimed at
satisfying the multifarious customer demands. Marazzi was founded back in 1935 in the
provinces of Modena, in Sassuolo where the management headquarters of the Group are
still located. The company has always distinguished itself for its innovative research and
for an entrepreneurial spirit well-disposed to continuous growth and internationalisation.
The search for a product that is always “abreast with the time” has pushed the Group to
elaborate over 5,000 colour combination, sizes and designs to be ready to satisfy the
aesthetic and functional requirements, however fanciful, of the market and at the same
time has stimulated the Group to apply the experimental manufacturing techniques that
are currently the model of reference for the world’s ceramics production. Indeed, in 1950
the production of porcelain Grès began; in 1960 designers began to be involved in the
creative process (Biki, Forquet, Paco Rabanne); in 1975 a process was patented for a
single rapid baking of the mixture and varnishing with an enormous saving in time and
costs (Monocottura); in 1985 Enduro® was created, a new line of products with a
revolutionary approach consisting of the application of varnish on white hot media
(Firestream®). In 2001 the Group recorded overall turnover in excess of 750 million
Euro, with a 7.4% increase as compared with 2000 and 81% as compared with 1995. The
yearly production, always increasing, is around 90 million square metres a year, 70% of
which exported to 130 countries. From 1995 to 2001 there was a continuously positive
trend as regards sales that in 2001 reached a value of 87,438 square metres. In 1994 the
company obtained the ha ISO 9001 certification and later on the EMAS certification in
recognition of its constant attention to environmental issues.
The current corporate set-up of the Group represents the result of a long series of
acquisitions and company start-ups both inside and outside Europe:
• Joint-venture Gaya Marazzi (Spain)
• 1975 Marazzi France opened (France)
• 1980 Marazzi Iberia opened (Spain)
• 1982 American Marazzi Tile opened (United States)
• 1990 Joint-venture with the Eczacibasi Group (Turkey)
• 1991 Total acquisition of Peñarroya (Spain)
• 1995 Total acquisition of France Alfa, France Ceram, Cérabati, Grès D'Artois and
Carofrance (France)
• 1998 Total acquisition of Monarch Tile (United States)
• 2000 Total acquisition of Hatria (Italy)
• 2000 Total acquisition of Mix (Italy)
• 2001 Marazzi Japan opened (Japan)
• 2001 Total acquisition of Ceramiche Finalesi (Italy)
Today the Marazzi Group has 4,252 workers (Table 1) 2,500 of whom working in
Italy, 700 in France, 300 in Spain, 400 in the United States and controls 35 companies
(Table 2), and 18 ceramics plants 8 of which in Italy, 4 in France, 2 in Spain, 2 in the
United States, 1 dedicated to the production of toilets and baths, and 1 paint factory. By
observing Table 1 we can see a continuous rise in the Group’s employment level with
important accelerations between 1995 and 1996. Furthermore, the Sassuolo company, a
leading manufacturer of ceramic tiles, will in the next few year be committed to
expanding it production also to Eastern Europe. In this regard, the company is already
80
engaged, with its own resources and the support of funding provided by the law, in a dual
project: in the first place the company will deal with the start-up of a new factory in the
Moscow area, where 50-60 people will be employed, due to be ready before the start of
summer 2003. In the second place, the building of the factory will be flanked by an
initiative already undertaken three years earlier, with the acquisition and exploitation of a
clay deposit in eastern Ukraine, from where one-third of the clay used by the Italian and
Spanish companies for the production of ceramics already comes from today.
The Marazzi family directly and indirectly control, through the Holding Finceramica
Spa, the Marazzi Gruppo Ceramiche SpA company, from which the Group’s dense
network of production, services and commercial companies branch out (Table 2). The
Marazzi Group present a vertically integrated structure in such a way as to directly
control all the main company phases: from the extraction of the primary material to the
marketing of the product. The vertical integration meets the specific demands of the
ceramic sector which is mainly characterised by economies of scale in which a lack of
coordination between the various company phases would imply a slowing down of the
whole productive process. The decision-making process, as regards the company
strategies is focussed upon the central Management of the parent company that lays down
the general orientation which the various manufacturing units of the Group have to
comply with. Services such as the control of the business running and the information
technology service are centralised, and inside the different manufacturing facilities Italian
management representative have been placed, together with technicians who are
specialised in controlling and stimulating development. The Group’s technology
competence is concretely expressed through the Marazzi Technical Division that puts at
the client’s disposal design consultancy for professionals, property developers and
distributors, as regards the choice and installation of the tiles. The above-said Division is
thus the point of reference for all the factories in the design of new lines, the elaboration
of the product and the solving of problems of a logistic-production nature.
Table 1: Employment trend of the Marazzi Group, 1995-2001
Year
Workers
1995
2697
1996
3685
1997
3690
1998
3757
1999
3975
2000
4021
2001
4252
In the product’s marketing phase, the Marazzi Group seeks to apply a process of
disintermediation through a direct penetration into the markets without making use of the
intermediation channel already present on site. The strategy chosen by the Group to
expand on the international level is strongly focussed on product innovation and the
manufacturing technologies, along with the aim to concentrate the whole business
exclusively within the ceramics sector. The decision ha thus been taken to invest in a
single Group mission. Within the commercial area, besides the search for continuous
innovation, the Group aims to address its own international ambitions along three
channels of penetration. The objective of achieving collaboration, for the launching of a
new line of tiles, between the Benetton Group and the Marazzi Group, is indeed born
from Marazzi’s ambition to enhance its business volume on the world market excluding
the increasingly difficult road consisting of the acquisition of competing companies and
instead preferring commercial transactions with operators from other sectors. In order to
achieve that objective, the Marazzi Group has created distribution and communications
synergies with companies/products coming from other product sectors.
81
Table 2: Subdivision of the companies of the Group according to Activity
Ceramic Production
Semi-finished Ceramics
Toilet and Bathroom items
Ceramics marketing
Financial
Real estate
Support services
Total
13
1
1
9
2
2
7
35
The Group’s productions activities tend not to be specialised in a specific product but
each important productive unit provides the whole range of company products. Such a
productive strategy involves the setting up of a commercial management that is both
centralised and global, even if each company has its won commercial manager, in such a
way as to coordinate the running of the commercial management of each individual brand
(10 brands) and thus avoid possible market overlaps. The commercial coordination is
expressed through a careful subdivision of the market areas addressed to concentrating
the production of Spain and France in the domestic market and consequently attributing
to the Italian companies of the Group a pre-eminently global nature. Indeed, the Italian
companies, as they have a longer corporate history, have matured a more competitive and
competent market penetration; this maturity can be seen in the share of exports out of the
total production: 58.4% in Italy, a percentage that even goes up to 60% for the Ceramiche
Ragno, 17.4% for France and 11.6% for Spain.
In Italy there are two Planning Offices, both of which are concentrated inside the
industrial district of Sassuolo: one inside Marazzi and one inside Ragno, a company
belonging to the Group. The two Offices manage the planning of the whole brands
portfolio that are operative in Italy. In Spain and France there are two independent
Planning Offices that nonetheless liaise with each other and with the Italian offices.
The industrial relations context
The industrial relations context is considered to be collaborative by most of the
interviewees. The group believes that collaboration and joint action can represent an
important element in managing to understand and absorb the ongoing change processes.
For this very reason there is an attempt to broaden the contact with all of the union
organisations represented in the company and with the various internal representation
bodies. At the Italy level, the group has always maintained a dialogue with the unitary
chemical workers’ union, the FULC (Federazione Unitaria Lavoratori Chimici), which
groups together the three Italian chemical workers’ unions, and the management hopes
that the dialogue will continue in a context of union unity.
The cooperative spirit characterising the group’s industrial relations made it possible
in 1992 to launch, after frequent and systematic talks with the workers’ representations
and the union, an earning project linked to company results in order to avoid a drop in the
group’s productive efficiency and quality. Thus the tripartite agreement in Italy
(Government, General Confederation of Italian Industry, and Union), signed about one
year earlier on 23rd July, intensified the bargaining concerning so-called participative
earnings.
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The tendency to cooperate with the workers’ representations and the unions
transpires throughout the group’s industrial history. Indeed, as long ago as 1984-1985 in
the Ragno company, part of the Marazzi group, the central management handled a
corporate restructuring that was to reduce the number of workers from 2,500 to just 900,
by means of constructive negotiations with the union. The meetings between the
management and the union in that period led to the honing of appropriate instruments and
solutions for the gradual accompaniment of the workers outside the company, without
causing traumatic situations. The Managing Director recalls that also at the time of the
State-subsidised redundancy scheme in the early 1990s, the loss of 200-250 jobs was
handled by means of solutions agreed upon between the company and the union.
The founding of the European Committee of the
Marazzi workers
THE INCEPTION PHASE
On 19th September 1996, and according to article 13 of the Directive, the agreement
for the inception of a European Works Committee was signed between Marazzi
Ceramiche SpA and the Provincial Secretariat of the FULC of Modena, Italy, and the
Provincial Secretariat of the Femca Ugt of Castellon, Spain. The agreement was renewed
for a further three years on 14th June 1999. The last renewal was signed on 27th
September 2002. It should be noted that the date of the founding of the Marazzi group’s
EWC came a few days before the introduction of the directive in Italy.
The EWC was set up following the joint initiative of the Italian union Femca Cisl
(chemical workers’ union of the Cisl) that provided normative support and acted as a
liaison between the unitary Italian union (FULC) and the Spanish union. The aim that the
unions sought to achieve was to be more involved in the phase of company planning. The
proposal was taken into consideration by the company and jointly it was decided to sign
the first contract experimentally in 1996. Although at the time of the inception some
French companies were already part of the Marazzi group, the French union did not
directly take part in the negotiating phase with the group management. As a matter of
fact, as this was a voluntary agreement, the signatories to the agreement were unable to
“find a contact point” with the French representations owing to the marked diversity in
industrial relations, and so it was agreed to exclude them from the negotiations. The
French delegation is still not even involved in the renewal phase of the agreements.
In the inception phase the management and the union representatives did not benefit
from the support of external experts and for the drafting of the agreement they drew
important inspiration from the previous inception agreements of the EWC in the large
Italian groups of the chemical sector, amongst which the ENI group’s EWC. The
management did not take part in the training courses on EWC issues.
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THE SCOPE OF APPLICATION, THE STRUCTURE AND THE
OBJECTIVES OF THE MARAZZI GROUP’S EWC
In the foreword to the founding agreement, and subsequently the same objective was
reconfirmed in the renewals of 1999 and in the renewal of 2002: it is specified that
through the setting up of the Marazzi Group’s EWC the company “aims to confirm at
European level its own union relations tradition, broadening the table of negotiations to
the union representations of the workers employed by the companies operating within the
scope of the Community.” The aim to export its own industrial relations traditions is
probably due to the substantial presence of the Italian union among the full members of
the EWC.
The agreement lays down as the objective that of stimulating the transnational
cooperation between the companies of the group and the workers’ representations.
Another objective is to develop economic and production policies aiming to promote the
growth, the competitiveness and the employment in the Group, also through
stakeholdings. According to the clauses of the agreement, all the companies belonging to
the Group operating in the European Union whose capital is controlled directly or
indirectly to the extent of at least 50% of the Marazzi Ceramiche Group Holding can take
part in the EWC. The plants that host a number of workers in excess of 100 can
participate in the Committee with their union delegate. Instead, for the smaller plants,
there is an information procedure addressed to the workers through specific regulations
set by the national level company representation.
In compliance with the founding agreement the maximum number of workers’
representatives who have the right to attend the meetings is 14, whose appointment
follows the electoral procedures for industrial relations at national level. At the moment
the workers’ representatives who take part in the EWC meetings are 12, of whom 7
Italians, 3 French and 2 Spanish. In the upcoming meetings a representative of the
recently acquired company called Mix will also have to be accommodated, in that in has
more than 100 workers. In this regard the company has shown itself to be open to
modifying the make-up of the EWC to suit the new acquisitions or even in the event that
Russia joins the European Union.. The gender composition of the group’s workers that is
significantly unbalanced towards the male component is repeated inside the EWC, whose
members include just one woman. The management counterpart who carries on the
dialogue during the meetings should, according to the founding agreement consist of the
Personnel Directors of Marazzi Ceramiche SpA and the holding companies. In actual
fact, the Chairman of the Group, the Managing Director and the three Industrial Relations
Directors of Italy, Spain and France intervene directly.
Together with the workers’ representatives there is the assigning to the most
representative union confederations and adhering to the ETUC (European Trade Union
Confederation) of a further 6 places in the European Works Committee, 4 of which
Italian (Filcea-Cgil, Femca-Cisl and Uilcem-Uil, and a territorial unionist following the
Marazzi Group) and 2 Spanish (Ugt-Uniòn General de Trabajadores- and CcoConfederaciòn Sindical de Comisiones Obreras). There are 4 Italian unionists in that
during the inception phase there were two union representatives of the union Femca-Cisl:
the territorial secretary and a unionist in the role of legislative expert. The unionist of the
Filcea-Cgil does not have much experience in that he had only recently been transferred
from the Fiom-Cgil (metalworkers’ union-Cgil) to the Filcea (chemical workers’ unionCgil). The unionist of the Uilcem-Uil only represents the plant in Finale Emilia. Instead
the unionist of the Femca-Cisl represents the majority union of the group at national
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level. At the moment the unionist territorially appointed by the Marazzi group has
become the regional secretary of the Femca-Cisl and so, although he is always being
invited, he is unable to take part in all the EWC meetings. The absence of the French is
the expression of the company’s desire that tends to crystallise a stance taken on during
the inception phase when, owing to the irreconcilable industrial relations systems the
Marazzi group management decided to involve only the Italian and the Spanish unions.
It is requested that all the EWC members, except of course the union organisation
representations, to have worked for the company for at least three years.
The latest renewal of the EWC founding agreement has extended and specified in a
more detailed way the thematic areas in which the EWC should be informed and
consulted:
• Economic and financial situation
• Business and investment programmes
• The state of employment
• Structural changes in the group: mergers with external companies, acquisitions, selloffs, stock market flotation
• Closure of companies having transnational repercussions
• Transfer of production outside the European Union boundaries
• Positive action policies
• Health and Safety
• Vocational training policies
• Substantial changes in the new production processes or in the new technologies
THE COORDINATION COMMITTEE
In the renewal of the founding agreement of the EWC on 27th September 2002, the
parties signatories to the agreement decided to formally recognise the role of the Select
Committee entrusting that body with “tasks of coordination of the EWC activities and
interfacing with the Central management, as well as specific tasks that the EWC may
wish to attribute.” The Select Committee takes upon itself the duty to draft the agenda, a
task that would formally be assigned to the Marazzi Group. The Select Committee
understood as the EWC executive has always existed officiously ever since the inception
of the EWC and it was mainly composed of a Chairman and two Secretaries, one Spanish
and the other French, who were appointed from among the workers’ representatives.
Furthermore, the agreement for the renewal in 2002 laid down the widening of the Select
Committee by adding to the three pre-existing figures a further four seats for the
signatory union organisations, 3 for Italy and 1 for Spain. The choice of attributing 3
seats to the Italian union answers the need to assign a seat in such a way that there should
be one unionist for each one of the three trades unions (Femca-Cisl, Filcea-Cgil, and
Uilcem-Uil). Another modification made to the founding agreement consists in the
opportunity to summon the Select Committee “in the event of particular negotiations that
see the involvement of one of the Marazzi Group plants”.
The EWC of the Marazzi group is exclusively made up of workers’ representatives,
thus coming closer to the German model of EWC composition. The presence, however,
of union executives external to the company in the role of full members of the EWC
leads us to think that the make-up of the EWC is influenced by the Italian level singlechannel industrial relations model.
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THE INFORMATION AND CONSULTATION PROCEDURES
As regards the information and consultation procedures, the agreement refers
explicitly to the EU directive no. 94/95. In other words, the signatories to the agreement
aim to “achieve transnational information and consultation of the workers who represent
the objective of the directive itself”: the supply of data, elements, news, the exchange of
opinions and the setting up of a dialogue between the workers’ representatives and the
central management or any other level of management as most appropriate.
The managing director believes that the circulation of information and the talks with
the workers’ representation helps to create a corporate culture from which both the group
workers and the management area representatives can draw benefits.
THE RENEWAL OF THE AGREEMENT
As mentioned previously. The founding agreement has twice been renewed, once on
14 June 1999 and most recently on 27th September 2002. Within the renewal of the
founding agreement in 1999 the Select Committee to study Health and Safety was set up,
which is due to meet once a year to compare, analyse and evaluate the different
environmental, health and safety conditions of the various plants in Europe. The
Chairman of the EWC takes part in the meeting, even if informally.
In the last renewal two substantial modifications were introduced or rather added.
First of all, the 6 seats dedicated to the unionists whose union organisations adhere to the
European Confederation of Unions (ECU) are no longer experimental, as stated in the
previous agreements, but become full members of the EWC. The other modification
introduced in 2002 is the formalisation of a Select Committee, already operating
informally since the beginning of the EWC activity. It should be underlined that there are
4 unionists from within the Select Committee to whom we must add three workers’
representatives, from amongst whom the EWC Chairman will be elected.
Following the last renewal of the European Works Committee of the Marazzi group
new thematic points have been established on which the EWC has the right to be
informed and consulted by the management. In particular, the accent has been placed on
the importance of being brought up to date in the structural changes in the group or
changes concerning the productive processes and the new technologies adopted. The
greater attention paid to these issues indicates a greater concern among the workers for
the process of expansion and internationalisation taking place in the Marazzi group. Then
the fact of being listed on the stock exchange necessarily involves an increase in the level
of communication and the control.
It should be pointed out that the French unions are absent from the signatories to the
founding agreement, a sign that in the last few years the cultural differences between
Italy-Spain, and France, have not diminished.
th
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The processes
RESOURCES OF THE MARAZZI GROUP’S EWC
On the grounds of the founding agreement of the EWC, the Marazzi group has the
specific duty to bear all the costs deriving from the organisation of the meetings both of
the EWC and the Select Committee studying Health and Safety. Formally, the renewal
agreement establishes that the group should bear all the costs for the organisation of the
meetings, including the accommodation and travel expenses of the EWC members,
translation and printing of the documents in the various languages and everything that is
required to carry out the meeting. The travel costs are nevertheless borne by the
administrations of each individual member’s countries.
The EWC is not formally endowed with specific technical media (fax, telephone,
email) and a secretariat, and in case of need they are allowed to use the company
facilities or the facilities of the workers’ company representation. At the last meeting of
the EWC, the Select Committee asked the company to create a space inside the company
buildings to be furnished and equipped as EWC secretariat.
The company does not provide any information technology communications support
to all the EWC members. Although email is not available to all the workers’
representatives, above all in France, the members of the Select Committee still keep in
touch by email. The fact that the EWC has not stressed the urgent need to have internet
access and the use of email derives from the fact that the EWC chairman already has an
email account for job reasons, while the Spanish delegates use their own private accounts
and the French delegate of the Select Committee can also make use of email.
In the informal dialogic report no common linguistic medium is adopted, but
everyone expresses him or herself in his or her own language. During the yearly meetings
an interpreting service is provided but for the communications between one meeting and
the next the language barriers are, according to the Italian insider manager, somehow
overcome thanks to the idiomatic analogies between Italian, French and Spanish, which
makes it possible to exchange opinions successfully.
The founding agreement provides for the intervention of experts but so far their
participation has not been deemed to be necessary. Indeed, it is believed that the sizeable
representation of the union organisations, both Italian and Spanish, will provide
adequately skilled and technical support.
TRAINING
In the last few years, apart from the European meetings of the EWC, the workers’
representatives who take part in the EWC have also attended training courses on the
subject of Health and Safety and company management.. The training courses are
directly funded by the Marazzi group or by European funds allocated to those purposes.
In organisational terms the union, at times assisted by the company, has taken care of the
whole logistic aspect as regards the training courses while the European Union has
provided the lecturers. The issues that were touched upon during the company
management training courses concerned the product and balance sheet issues, and thus
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enabled an easier understanding of the company presentation. The courses carried out so
far number 2 or 3 and they have been held in Italy (Florence) and Luxembourg. The
training courses have only been addressed to the members of the EWC, while the
management side has been completely left out. The language similarities between Italian,
French and Spanish has always been used by the Group as a justification for the lack of
investment in language training.
The Managing Director of the group confirms the group’s commitment of the group
maintaining in the coming years a strong commitment to Health and Safety and company
management. All the EWC agreements, as well as the ones underwritten at Italian level,
identify in training a fundamental area of investment and ultimately they are trying to
develop with the union (FULC), which encompasses the three trades unions in Italy, a
training project.
The meetings
THE MEETING WITH THE SELECT COMMITTEE
In the agreement renewed in 2002 it was stated that the Select Committee, besides
the yearly meeting, can even meet extraordinarily if there are special conditions or
company circumstances such as company restructuring or reorganisations. The request
must provide reasons and be approved by the majority of the EWC members, with the
assent of the Marazzi group management.
THE YEARLY ASSEMBLY OF THE MARAZZI GROUP EWC
The founding agreement established one meeting a year and specifies that the place,
the date and the agenda of the meeting must be exclusively set by the management which
will then provide a communication of what has been decided to the EWC members at
least 20 days beforehand. In actual fact, it is the EWC Chairman who, a few months
before the meeting with the management, lays down the issues on the agenda following
talks with the other EWC members.
Under exceptional circumstances, with the prior consent of the management, an
extraordinary meeting could be hypothesised if the request were forwarded and approved
by the majority of the EWC members. The central management usually decides to
arrange the EWC meetings every year in different countries “so that the group will be felt
as a single entity.” The members of the EWC have the opportunity to visit the plants
where the yearly meeting is due to be held.
The EWC meeting spreads over three days. The first day is a chance to meet
exclusively for the workers’ representatives in preparation for the following meeting with
the management. The first day thus represents a chance to compare ideas and significant
experiences within the industrial relations field at international level, from which ideas
will be elaborated for possible queries to be put to the management. The second day
opens with the management presentation in which a range of issues are dealt with. The
presentation, which usually takes up half a day, consists of transparencies and the related
documents are handed out during the meeting only in Italian, however. At the end of the
presentation there is some time dedicated to the debate between the management and the
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workers’ representatives in which the critical issues are focused on and the situations that
were still unclear after the presentation are explained. On the third day the EWC meets
again to assess the information emerging the day before and in the event that further
clarifications were necessary, there is once more the chance to have talks with a
management representative who remains available. At the end, the minutes of the
meetings are drafted by the workers’ representatives themselves.
Contents of the information and its evaluation
The issues dealt with during the management presentation touch upon all of the
discussion points included in the founding agreement and later confirmed and extended
in the subsequent renewals: the general picture of the sector, later going into the specifics
of the Spanish, French and Italian markets through the illustration of the relevant macroeconomic data and the company data in terms of investments, balance sheet,
employment, vocational training, health and safety, proactive programmes, company
transformations and production transfers. From the interviews one can infer the
company’s availability to provide data, even specific data, to the local plants if they are
requested in the preliminary phase.
Widespread satisfaction is also perceived in regard to the quantity and the quality of
the information received, while some doubts are expressed concerning the speed of the
news. Indeed, very often the workers’ representatives complain about being contacted
only after the “deal has been done”, as for example in the case of the commercial
agreement with Benetton when the communication arrived in the press first rather than
through the official company information channel. And then the intention of penetrating
the Russian market was forwarded to the EWC only after the acquisition procedures had
begun, in order to safeguard the group from possible “information leaks.”
The information is reckoned to be more useful for the representatives of Spain and
France in that the Italian representatives already receive monthly information concerning
the business trends and the corporate strategies.
Although the parent company of the group is located in Italy, even the Italian
outsider manager is not informed about the results of the meetings and is not invited to
provide information that can be of use to the EWC. From the interview there emerges a
definite trust in the central figure of the Managing Director who decides who to distribute
the information to and who to involve in the EWC activities. The same organisational
structure of the Group articulated along very short vertical lines of responsibility lends
itself very little, again according to the Italian outsider manager, to a fluid flow of
information. The minutes and the various documents are inspected exclusively by those
who take part personally in the meetings.
The distribution of the information springing from the meetings of the EWC does not
come about by means of formal and institutionalised channels, but mainly informally.
The majority of the workers are completely unaware of the existence of the EWC as
such. In order to improve the poor knowledge of the EWC body an idea was launched to
create booklet on the history of the Marazzi EWC, an activity that has already been
started up.
The French insider manager complains of the fact that he receives information from
the EWC at the same time as the workers’ representatives. In France, the Human
Resources manager takes the responsibility of spreading the information, which arrives in
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the shape of a pamphlet, to all the Personnel managers of the various sites scattered
across the territory. The French outsider union representative complains that there is an
informational inconsistency in the pamphlets and a lack of availability in granting
additional information both by the company and by the French EWC member. The
information is considered to be mediocre.
The various levels of interaction
INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE COORDINATION COMMITTEE AND
MANAGEMENT
The Chairman of the EWC, prior to drafting the agenda, sends an email to all of the
EWC members and the management representation that attends the EWC to see whether
there are any issues to be added to the agenda. The Italian and French outsider managers
are not invited to put forward any input at the EWC meetings.
As the Select Committee is in any case made up altogether of 4 Italians, of which 3
unionists, it appears evident that for them the contacts with the Management are much
more frequent as compared with the French and Spanish delegates and unionists. Of
course, their encounters always come about within the scope of the Italian level industrial
relations. So if some issues remain undecided they can be discussed again at national
level.
THE INTERACTION BETWEEN THE WORKERS’ REPRESENTATIVES
WITHIN THE EWC
Inside the Marazzi EWC there basically coexist two types of industrial relations
cultures: the Italian-Spanish one and the French one. The Italian and Spanish union
approach are classified, by the Italian insider manager, within the same type in that they
presented the same positive attitude in regard to the international widening of the
information and consultations procedures, and are also characterised by a participative
approach by the workers’ representatives, open to compromise practices. On the other
hand, the French union has welcomed the EWC with a certain detachment and caution
that has led the union not to take part in the yearly meetings, a custom that persists today
upon company request. Instead the French unionist reckons that the Italian delegation is
reluctant to take on a hostile stance towards the management in that there could arise
some rigidity whose repercussions would also fall into the field of national level
industrial relations.
The French union’s diffidence observable in regard to the international dimension is
accompanied at national level by an industrial relations culture that denotes an
accentuated aptitude to conflict with the management representations. Events that
confirm this statement can be traced back to 1998 when the workers reacted to the
communication of an imminent company restructuring by occupying the plants of the
group, or when in 2002, after failing to find a compromise solution concerning the
economic terms of the renewed contract, there was a strike of up to 12 days in some
factories. The divergence between the two union cultures caused some difficulties in
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organising the meetings and in the planning phase itself, a moment in which the French
were unwilling to let the EWC meeting overlap with their holidays, even to a very limited
extent.
THE INTERACTION BETWEEN THE EWC AND THE UNION
ORGANISATIONS
The Marazzi group’s EWC is made up of 6 representatives from the most
representative union organisations in the group that belong to the European Trade Union
Confederation (ETUC). The union support is mainly present at territorial level and there
is no European union representative, even if the EWC is followed at national level by a
national representative of the Femca who should also represent, with a single position of
the Fulc, the European Federation of Chemical Workers, and the Emcef (European Mine,
Chemicals and Energy Federation). From the interview with the actors within and outside
the EWC, the union presence does not seem to overload the EWC activity but actually
provides expert and competent support in terms of industrial relations.
The problems deriving from the lack of Italian union unity may have repercussion at
the EWC level as well. However, for the time being the functioning of the EWC has not
undergone any changes due to the disagreements between the Italian unions.
The Chairman of the EWC would like there to be a greater intervention by the
national trade union that should be given the task of coordinating the sectoral EWC for
everyone.
The French trade union organisations are excluded from the EWC meetings in that
the company believes that their conflict-based union approach could hamper the working
of the European representative body.
THE INTERACTION BETWEEN THE EWC AND THE NATIONAL
LEVEL STRUCTURES OF REPRESENTATION
In Italy there is no national group coordination but there are just some works
committees at the level of one or more companies. The works assemblies are not used to
disseminate amongst the workers the information received at the EWC. The issues
discussed during the EWC meetings remain the information asset of the works committee
and very often inside the works committees themselves the communication only comes
about among the members of the same trades union.
In France the information is distributed through the management channel. The
French unionists disagree with this method of dissemination in that the information is not
provided everywhere. The French union is not directly involved in the EWC activity even
if in some circumstances it has met with the members of the select committee to resolve
some national level issues.
THE INTERACTION BETWEEN THE EWC AND THE WORKERS
The activity of the EWC is still experienced as something very distant by the
workers. From the same interview with the Italian outsider delegate it is understood that
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the information is not properly disseminated and, although he himself is currently a
member of the EWC, he became aware of the existence of the EWC only a short time
before starting the job. The vast majority of the workers, external to the EWC activity,
are unaware of the existence of a European level representation body. The EWC results
are not disseminated in a systematic or structured way among the workers. The
information only comes about informally if one knows a delegate who takes part in the
EWC.
In order to try and resolve this lack of information and thus by pursuing the aim of
expanding the knowledge of the EWC, it was decided to publish a pamphlet in the history
of the Marazzi EWC in which all the important stages since inception until the present
day are reported. The decision to create a document in which to collect all the events and
the experiences linked to the EWC activity has been developed following the talks with
the EWCs of other groups.
Outcomes
IMPACT ON CORPORATE DECISION-MAKING
In 1998 for the first time the group explicitly requested the intervention of the Select
Committee to resolve a controversy that had arisen between the French workers and the
company in regard to a company restructuring in French territory that would either have
cut the staff level from 120-130 to 70 or brought about the closure of the plant. On this
occasion the EWC did not have a negotiating role but its intervention helped the French
industrial relations actors to define the procedures by which to accompany the workers
outside the company. The intervention of the Select Committee, through the Chairman
and an external union executive, was then recently informally requested in order to
resolve a problem arising in France. Indeed, in 2002, three French companies took
industrial action to protest against the failure to renew the wages agreement. As the
French management did not intend to listen to the strikers’ claims, the French EWC
delegate contacted the Chairman of the EWC in Italy with the aim of arranging a meeting
with the unionists of the three countries: Spain, France and Italy. A few days after the
request a meeting was held in Paris with the French union and the EWC chairman, and an
executive of the Femca-Cisl Italian union. The result of the meeting was that the strike
ended and the workers got a wage rise.
The activity of the EWC is gradually smoothing out the initial difference due to the
different union characterisation, and a process of approval has been started, also
involving the French workers’ representations. The chance to have a direct meeting with
the “Ownership”, and the Chairman in person, has allowed for a rapid valorisation of the
EWC above all in the French corporate context where the distances between the various
factories of the group make a dialogic coordination with the management somewhat
difficult.
SELECT STUDY GROUP ON HEALTH AND SAFETY
In the renewal agreement for the EWC in 1999 the workers’ representatives and the
management representation agreed to set up a Workgroup on Health and Safety aiming to
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compare and analyse all the issues inherent to accidents, environmental situation, health
and thus being uniform in surveying the data and providing a clear photograph of the
state of affairs in the Marazzi Group. The considerations and the results that emerge from
the talks are reported at the EWC in order to expand the participation and information as
much as possible. The Workgroup intended to draft a pamphlet containing the basic rules
on Health and Safety compatible with all the different national norms. The above
mentioned Workgroup is made up of a workers’ representative for each country, chosen
from the EWC members and, although its presence is not formally stated, a coordinating
body made up of a French, Italian and Spanish person, and the Chairman of the EWC.
The meeting takes place every year and in temporal terms is usually held before the EWC
meeting. Management representatives are also admitted to the meetings as experts on the
topic and at the next meeting the representatives of Health and Safety for France, Italy
and Spain should also be able to attend.
In this regard, in Modena on 9th September 2001 a declaration of intent was signed
between the EWC and the central management of the Gruppo Marazzi Spa, together with
the unions underwriting the founding agreement (Fulc- Mca Ugt), in which the parties
agree, out of respect for the national legislative obligations and seeing the previous
inception of a study group on Health and Safety, “to promote initiatives of information,
analysis, exchange of experiences and proposals at European level on the issue of health
and safety on the job.” This declaration of intent states that during the yearly meetings
between the study group and the Group managers, issues emerging from the information
provided will be analysed in depth, and solutions for improvement will be put forward by
the study group itself. Furthermore, in order to implement the pre-established
commitments the contractors have the chance to agree on appropriate operative support
and thus also the use of experts, agreed on reciprocally by the parties.
CORPORATE IDENTITY
The management class has encouraged the inception of the EWC so that the latter
might become a vehicle for the spreading of a corporate culture inevitably aimed at a
marked internationalisation. This concept is underlined by the Managing Director of the
group who attributes to the EWC the capacity to “give a united imprint to the group” and
also believes that changing the location of the meeting each year serves to create greater
awareness among the workers of belonging to an international organisation. This
phenomenon can also be perceived from the interview with the management external to
the EWC because, while not knowing in detail the activities of the EWC, in the past few
years they have matured a growing awareness of the group’s international dimension.
The Italian outsider manager reckons the extension of the information and
consultation procedures are an offshoot of a corporate philosophy addressed to sharing
the knowledge of the resources in order to avoid being fragmented into “lots of small
islands that think differently.”
According to the French delegate of the EWC, the Marazzi group set up the EWC
mainly for reasons of image and publicity.
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HARMONISATION OF THE LABOUR POLICIES
The process of harmonisation of the Human Resources policies is rather difficult to
implement in that, especially in the scope of Health and Safety, there are still many
differences in the national legislations that hinder the straightforward harmonisation of
such policies The Managing Director of the group believes that in France and Italy the
environmental protection legislation is similar whereas Spain presents a less restrictive
legislative framework. The levels of emission allowed in Italy that the group must abide
by also depend on the high number of companies in the geographic area where Marazzi
has its factories, i.e. the Sassuolo district (Modena).
The aims of the study group are also expressed through the adoption of
benchmarking practices by means of which the discussions are seen as an opportunity for
improvement. At the moment a process of homogenisation in progress concerning the
parameters applied to the statistical surveying of accidents. Indeed, it has been suggested
that in order to compare the accident data it might be necessary to standardise the
statistical research methodologies. The company is available to allow a greater activity of
international coordination and the drafting of the pamphlet on Health and Safety is
concrete evidence of this.
Conclusions
From most of the interviews with the Italian actors there appears the intention to
attribute to the EWC only functions of information and consultation in the belief that an
international negotiating function is still premature within a national legislative scenario
that is highly discrepant. Indeed, the Italian insider manager, the Managing Director,
expresses complete disagreement towards any possible extending of the EWC powers,
conceiving that body mainly as a supranational organisation that is incapable of picking
up the local specificities. Besides, not even the Chairman of the EWC explicitly
expresses himself in favour of a negotiating power for the EWC in that the direct
participation of the Chairman still allows some informal commitment to be “grabbed.”
The agreement between the Managing Director and the EWC Chairman concerning the
future prospects of the shows a generalised contentment with the current European
situation concerning the EWC, while at the same time betraying a corporate orientation
to limiting the EWC to being a negotiating body within the scope of Italian level
industrial relations, thus blurring its European significance.
Under some circumstance the EWC has also taken on negotiating functions and
through the intervention of the Select Committee it has even managed to handle some
critical situations. Thus by comparing it with other cases in which the EWC only has a
power to inform it could be stated that some important steps forward have been made in
the past few years. It should nevertheless be underlined that the EWC action has never
been of a preventative kind but it was only involved to remedy an ongoing situation, as in
the case of the French strike.
All the interviewed parties agree in saying that the EWC is a moment in which there
is a chance to draw upon and assimilate important information and experiences, above all
in the direct benchmarking with other industrial relations situations and cultures in
Europe. The pre-meeting, in other words the moment of the meeting in which the
delegates meet without the management, is interpreted as a chance to exchange opinions
94
and compare how certain union or company situations have been resolved or dealt with in
the different contexts within the European Union.
If on the one hand the external union’s participation is deemed to be dutiful as a
testimony to the historical continuity between the proponent and the agent of the EWC,
on the other it is feared that conflicts at national level could become a reason for clashed
inside the EWC itself. It is recalled that the in past political differences between the two
main Spanish unions had negative fall-out on the normal running of the EWC, and there
are concerns that the political conflicts between the Italian unions might contaminate the
proper running of the EWC. At the moment the issues concerning the union unity at the
level of the Italian unions have not has significant repercussions inside the EWC although
a certain level of concern is felt for the coming meetings.
The absence of a formal representation of the French union highlights some friction
between the different industrial relations cultures that are still hard to smooth over.
Indeed, since the inception of the EWC there have been many improvements in
organisational terms, such as the formal establishment of a Select Committee and a study
group on the subject of Health and Safety, both in terms of contents, that can be seen in
the growing involvement of the EWC in regard to information/consultation concerning
company restructuring, but at the same time there has not been a move by the company to
absorb inside the EWC the external French unionists as well. The fear of breaking the
fragile equilibrium that has been sought for and achieved inside the EWC has driven the
company to distance any form of conflict.
If for the Italian EWC delegate the French representatives have an approach that is
based too much on conflict, for the French EWC delegate the Italian EWC delegates are
excessively formal and tentative with the management. To justify this attitude the French
EWC delegate argues that the Italian representation has the chance to meet more
frequently with the management and so the EWC represents a less important venue than
it is for the French and the Spanish delegations.
The little experience in the sector of the Filcea-Cgil executive, the scarce pool of
representation of the Uilcem-Uil union executive, and the central role covered inside the
EWC by the Femca-Cisl unionist at Italian level, might lead us to think that the EWC
also undergoes the same power games that take place at Italian level where the FemcaCisl is the most representative union. This hypothesis could also be upheld from the
interview with the Italian outsider delegate who, by belonging to the Filcea-Cgil, appears
to be upset by the formal manner in which the EWC presents itself at the meetings with
the management. The same criticism is also made by the French EWC member who
believes that the Italian delegation does not make any effort to obtain better results.
In the introductory phase of the founding agreement, and later also reiterated in the
renewals, it is stated that through the EWC the Marazzi group aims to export to Europe
“its own industrial relations tradition.” With the term “own” it definitely means the
Italian tradition. The text could thus be interpreted in two ways. First of all, as the
company’s desire to spread across Europe a cooperative and participative climate, as so
called by the interviewees, characterising the group’s industrial relations in Italy. On the
other hand, the objective thus expressed could also be read as the company’s intention to
export to Europe the Italian industrial relations model. This would be in contrast with the
contents of the European Directive that seeks to create an independent and autonomous
European representation structure. Furthermore, the objective as expressed above would
presuppose a predomination of the Italian representation as compared with the
standpoints of the French and the Spanish, and this would not dovetail correctly with the
European Directive on the EWC either.
95
Outlook
The growing competition in the ceramics sector is perceived in a different way by the
Italian member of the EWC and by the Italian outsider member. Indeed, the former, while
being aware of the potential risks of internationalisation, considers the industrial situation
of the group to be consolidated and thus excludes the possibility that the opening of new
facilities in Russia could in some way have some repercussion at employment level on
the existing productive site. Instead the outsider delegate, who receives less information
on the company strategies, reckons that the penetration in the Eastern European markets
is a risky manoeuvre and hopes that the EWC can act as a monitoring body.
In order to improve the operations of the EWC the Chairman of the EWC suggests
setting up a national organisational unit from which all the EWC members at national
level can draw information, technical details and where experiences and ideas can be
compared and generated. It is thus suggested to create a national trade union coordination
to act in support of the multiplicity of EWCs present on the national territory and that can
interact concomitantly with the other union coordination bodies that have been set up in
the other countries.
The union party looks favourably at the publication of company pamphlets aimed at
sensitising all the workers to the EWC body and to the important role that this institute is
called to play at European level. Taking the initiatives of other international groups as a
model, the Marazzi has so far produced two company pamphlets: one containing the
Health and Safety conditions of the various companies in the Group, and the other one
that aimed to go back over the main stages in the life of the EWC, for purposes of
dissemination.
The Italian outsider delegate complains about the lack of time to develop all the
issues thoroughly enough. He thus suggests that the meeting with the management and
above all the discussion phase should last longer. Furthermore, he would not like the
issues dealt with in the EWC to come to an end at the end of the yearly meeting, but
would like them to be reported at the level of the assemblies inside the company in such a
way as not to circumscribe the information of a transnational kind to the members of the
EWC and to the works committees, but to all of the workers. The yearly frequency of the
EWC meetings does not seem to satisfy the workers’ representatives who take part in the
EWC. For this reason the Italian outsider delegate would like to increase the number of
meetings bringing them up to 3-4 per year.
The French delegate of the EWC would like the EWC to be more incisive than it is at
the moment. It is thus suggested that the EWC should take on negotiating powers and
that a greater interrelationship should develop between the union representations so as to
monitor the group more effectively, helping it to adopt a greater operational transparency.
References
Founding agreement: 1996
Renewal of the agreement: 1999
Renewal of the agreement: 2002
96
The interviewees
Italian delegate, insider
• He has worked for the group since 1976
• Currently works for the Planning Office at Marazzi
• For the past ten years he has been the works committee union representative (Rsu)
Femca-Cisl
• Member of the provincial directive on behalf of Femca and Cisl
• Chairman of the EWC
Italian delegate, outsider
• He has worked for the group for 5 years as a warehouse operator
• He has been works committee Filcea-Cgil delegate for 3 years
• He is a member of the provincial directorate of the Filcea-Cgil
th
• Recently joined the EWC, on 25 September 2002
Italian manager, insider:
• Managing Director of the Group
Italian manager, outsider:
• He has worked for the group since 1977
• Currently works in the Planning Office.
French Manager, insider
• He is the Human Resources Director of Céramiques de France, a company that
belongs to the Marazzi Group.
• He arrived a little over a year ago. He previously worked in human resources for
automobile equipment manufacturers (7 years).
• He was then Human Relations Director for two and a half years at Valeo, then at
Magneti-Marelli (subsidiary of Fiat).
• He was also director of the Forbach factory before his appointment as Human
Resources Director of the Group.
French Manager, outsider
• She has worked at the Forbach site since January 2002. The position of Human
Resources Director was created then. She is 35, has a DESS (post-graduate degree) in
company management.
• For nine years she was the deputy Human Relations Director, and then went on a
training course for 3 years, which she abandoned after two and a half years, as it did
not match her expectations.
French delegate, insider
• He is 35 years old and has worked at Marazzi since 1991, in the mixing-spraying
department. He is currently working in the mechanics department.
97
• Union career: CGT union representative and personnel representative in 1993,
delegate in the CHSCT (Comité d'Hygiène de Sécurité et des Conditions de Travail –
Safety and Hygiene at Work Committee) from 1995 to 2002, in the EWC since 1997
(the EWC was set up in 1996, but was initially only open to Spanish and Italian
representatives).
• He is a member of the steering committee
French delegate, outsider:
• He has worked at this factory since 1993
• He is in charge of furnace maintenance.
• He has also been a member of the CHSCT since 2003
• He is a union representative. He represented the CGT for 6 years and he has
represented the FO for the past two years, following an internal conflict at the CGT .
98
Siemens, Stockholm, Sweden
Olle Hammarström
Respondent
This report is based on an interview with the chair of the Local Metal Workers Union
at the Siemens Plant in Solna, Stockholm. She is since 1997 a substitute member of the
Siemens EWC. The permanent seat is held by a member of colleague from one of the
white collar unions. Siemens took on the task from the beginning and the EWC was one
of the first ones put into practice.
The respondent did not take any part in start-up phase of the EWC nor is she a
member of the selected committee.
Outside Siemens she is a member of the steering committee of Stockholm branch of
the Swedish Metal Workers Union and also elected members of the national bargaining
unit for the largest industrial contract in Sweden; the engineering industry.
Company structure
There has been lots of structural changes within Siemens in the recent ten years
mainly in terms of buying and selling companies but these changes has not caused any
problems regarding the structure or the work within the EWC.
Siemens in Solna has 700 employees and is producing medical equipment for x-ray,
ultrasound, ventilation and other electromedical products.
Agreement
The agreement was signed in 1995 and the build-up phase was driven from the
German employee side but all the other countries took part, including the Swedish
representatives. By then the former chair of the Metal Workers plant union in Solna
together assisted by an expert from the national office of the trade union for the salaried
employees (Svenska Industritjänstemannaförbundet, SIF).
The EWC of Siemens has 33 members. Up to 5000 members give a country one seat,
more than 5000 two seats and so on. The exception is Germany. The Germans have one
seat up to 20 000. If the number of members is declining the number of seats will follow.
There are no representatives from the management (French model).
My respondent is unsure whether there are any external members. If there is any –
they are Germans.
There might be some EWC working on branch level; if so it is probably in Germany.
The agreement does not go any further than the directives. The EWC works poorly –
it is only once a year and the Swedes already have the information through the law on codetermination.
99
There were ambitions some years ago to form a network for female members but it
never came into practice and the idea died.
The goal with the EWC was that the employees should have a chance to prepare
themselves better but it does not work well. The EWC came to Solna when parts of the
production were announced to be moved to Germany but it did not help. The German
colleagues made it clear that they could exchange information but were not ready to act
in favour of keeping any Swedish work places.
Informal ways of influence decisions are regarded as better than the formal
opportunities given in the agreement but the representatives have not tried to transform
these informal influences into the written agreement. My respondent has tried to find out
if there is any discussion on developing the agreement but so far she has not got any
answer.
There is an agenda for the meeting within the agreement.
Resources of the EWC
The EWC of Siemens does not have a special office for its activities nor is there a
budget. Every company pays for their members expenses like travels, hotels and common
over-head costs are on “the central management”. Costs for interpretation are taken care
of by Siemens but the demands on EWC members to learn and speak English are getting
stronger every year. All members have a list of e-mail addresses.
Experts have not been used in the Siemens EWC.
The EWC has not had any problems visiting locations of their preference.
Activities within the EWC
The Germans are dominating the EWC and the communication is mainly information
from the main location to the subsidiaries but that is not regarded as a problem. The cooperation works well and there are not any conflicts within the EWC. The respondent can
not exemplify any learning processes and there are seldom or never any contacts between
the meetings.
The work is continuous but without any networking with other EWC or any world
wide council. Nor are there any plans for future developments of such activities. In the
beginning there were some ambitions to start a network for female members but that was
never put into practice.
The EWC activities have though resulted in better co-operation between the Swedish
plants.
The management has a sceptical attitude towards the EWC activities.
100
Relations between EWC and the management.
The management have very little interest in the EWC-activities and has not tried to
use the meeting in order to strengthen the corporate culture. Nor have they used or intend
to use the EWC for harmonizing the HR-policy.
If there is any change over the years in management approach to EWC it is in a less
positive direction. The management seems to approach the EWC with an attitude that it is
something they have to do – nothing that can contribute to the business. There are few if
any contacts between the meetings.
No legal conflicts have taken place.
The relations between the representatives in Germany and the top management have
not led to any advantages for the Solna plant and its employees.
Meetings with the management
The EWC has one meeting per year, eight meetings have been held since the start.
The first day is scheduled for an internal preparing-meeting for the employeerepresentatives. The agenda of the second day contents the management informing and
answering questions. The quality of the information and the answers are good and the
level of the present managers in the company hierarchy is high enough.
The agenda is set by the employee representatives in the hosting country in
consultation with the management. There are no experts attending the meetings except
from the fact that some of the German representatives are researchers or other officials
from the IG Metall.
There is not enough time to have fruitful discussions during these two days. The
information is of good quality but sometimes already well-known for the Swedish
member. Some meetings have had certain themes like “Personnel economy” when
decisions have been taken on buying or selling companies.
Local problems are not discussed so it is very doubtful whether the plants get
anything out of these meetings more than some information. There are no extra meetings
held except for meetings with one or two countries when something special, for example
structural issues, are on the agenda.
English is the working language during the meetings but it is not a problem to get a
Swedish version of the information afterwards. That is seldom requested because the
English language is understandable and the content is almost always; as said before,
already well known.
Consultation is not defined – and there are no examples of effective consultationprocesses and the EWC has not taken over any negotiation functions. The agenda of the
meetings is mainly on information – not consultation.
Meetings before and after
The working committee the EWC has an extra meeting in order to prepare the
meeting and they shall also be available if some member needs help.
101
My respondent is not familiar with the number of members in the working
committee or more exactly how they are working.
The Swedish locations (trade unions) have six or seven meetings per year. Siemens
has not any company union so these meetings were originally started because of the need
to report and discuss topics regarding the activity of the EWC. That has been very
positive for the Swedish trade unions but still there are little knowledge of and contacts
with the representatives from the other countries. When a major lay-off was announced in
Sweden the EWC-representative send information to all his colleagues. No one replied.
Training has not been arranged within the Siemens EWC. The Swedish national
trade unions have arranged one course on the subject of EWC in order to prepare the
members for their tasks.
No common actions have taken place within the EWC. There are no work groups
that the respondent is aware of and the EWC is avoiding the subject of structural
processes.
Integration in the national employee representation
forums
The steering committee of local union at the plant in Solna is informed after every
meeting. There is very little interest in this information – it is not demanded by the
members, more of a duty for the representatives. There is written information given to the
employees and the activities of the EWC are reported at the meetings with the other plant
unions of Siemens in Sweden.
There have not been any problems with EWC and the national level regarding
processes of information and consultation and the work done in the EWC has not
influenced the national systems in any way.
EWC v s the trade unions
All the members of the Siemens EWC are from the trade unions. There are no
external experts from the Swedish national trade unions within the EWC. The trade
unions of subsidiaries are well informed and nor strong competition or conflicts with the
central ones have taken place so far.
Evaluation of the work within EWC
The EWC ought to co-ordinate the activities better. For example be more active in a
process on more fair distribution of jobs between countries in Siemens. Even if it is about
boxing – the fights should be better organized.
The work within the EWC has not developed in these years and if one compares with
the high expectations in the beginning there is disappointment. Everybody thought that
better co-operation through the EWC would lead to stronger influence on the decisionmaking in Siemens. The subsidiaries have not had any extra advantages from the work.
102
The positive outcome is more information about the other countries and the
formation of better trade union structure within Siemens Sweden.
The top management of Siemens Europe have reached a better understanding of the
trade union work.
Possible future developments
There has to be a better co-operation in the EWC if the employees shall benefit from
the work. The EWC has to concentrate on more practical things and leave issues like
globalisation behind. Otherwise the influence of the employees on for example structural
changes will remain at the same low level as today.
103
The Riva Group
Summary
The EWC of the Riva Group has had a fairly short existence. The difficulties
apparent from the interviews thus almost definitely depend on a lack of experience. At the
same time, the Group has enlarged its own industrial configuration, above all in the last
decade, entering new countries and clashing with the new industrial relations contexts
where the management side has realised the need for control. Founded in 1999 it has so
far performed a mainly information-providing role. Although it has also taken on a
negotiating role on one occasion the need was perceived by the delegates to have a
greater influence and a greater consideration by the central management. Until today the
EWC seems to be more of an instrument for monitoring and disseminating a cooperative
culture of industrial relations for the management than an informative and consultative
instrument available to the workers’ representatives. The appreciated shown by the
management for the German industrial relations model has exasperated the tension
existing between the delegations participating in the EWC, instead of calming it down.
The national representations thus appear to be ever more distant from one another, while
a greater intercommunication would be welcomed by everyone.
The Group
The Riva Group was established in 1954 upon the initiative of the Riva brothers who
wanted to start up their own business in the manufacture and trading of ferrous waste in
order to supply the market with materials that were very scarce after the Second World
War. The first plant was opened on 7th March 1957 in Caronno Pertusella, near Milan,
and was named Acciaierie Ferriere Riva. The Group’s success mainly derives from the
capacity to streamline production and transform raw materials through modern and
specialised factories (they were the first in Italy to introduce non-stop smelting) capable
of delivering the requested products in a very short time thereby reducing fixed costs to a
minimum.
The first international acquisition dates back to 1962 in an attempt to internationalise
with the construction of a factory in Addis Abeba that pushed Ethiopia towards building
development. The above-said international experience collapsed following the
nationalisation of the factory during the coup d’état in 1975. The national and
international dimension has taken on a larger form and has seen a succession of
acquisitions also towards the non-EU countries.
• In 1971 the Spanish company SIDERURGICA SEVILLANA was taken over;
• In 1974 the Associated Steel Industries (ASI) was set up in Montreal, Canada and also
the majority stakeholding in ITON Seine;
105
• In 1978 exports were started to China thus breaking the traditional Japanese
monopoly;
• in 1981 the company OFFICINE E FONDERIE GALTAROSSA of Verona was taken
over;
• in 1988 the majority stake in the ACCIAIERIE DI CORNIGLIANO was acquired by
the Riva Group thereby bringing about the first privatisation of a integrated cycle steel
plant in Italy; at the same time another privatisation was effected in France with the
acquisition of a majority stakeholding in ALPA (Aciéries et Laminoirs de Paris);
• in 1989 THY MARCINELLE was established for the realisation of an electric steelmill;
• in 1991, after German unification, the Group bought, within the general context of the
privatisation of the German Democratic Republic, two plants in the Berlin area run by
two companies set up in 1994: the BRANDENBURGER ELEKTROSTAHLWERKE
and the HENNIGSDORFER ELEKTROSTAHLWERKE;
• in 1994 the Fire Finanziaria (today Riva Acciaio) set up with other partners the finance
company called Far Acciai s.r.l, with a 42% stakeholding, which was bought from IRI
(Institute for Industrial Reconstruction) and a 50% stake in the Acciai Speciali Terni;
• in 1995 ILVA SpA (previously a group with a majority public stakeholding) was
incorporated into the group;
• in 1996 100% of the Sellero plant for the production of girders was taken over;
• in 1997 the majority stake in HELLENIC STEEL of Thessalonica was acquired;
• in 2000 the French group SAM joined the Riva Group.
In the long transformation that has led to group to its current configuration, it should
be underlined how important the acquisition of Ilva Laminati Piani - today Ilva SpA,
together with other minority Italian and foreign partners, from IRI actually was. By
means of that acquisition the most important privatisation operation of publicly-owned
steel-making was started up by the Italian government. About 80% of the Italian workers
are employed by Ilva SpA.
Today the Riva Group owns 40 production and manufacture plants distributed across
three continents: Europe, North America (Canada) and Africa (Tunisia) with a
considerable concentration in Europe. In spite of the internationalisation of the
steelmaking production, there is still a predominant Italian component in terms of output
(61.2%) and turnover (66.1%). The central management is situated in the city of Milan.
The group also has 26 Service Centres and commercial companies. The after-tax turnover
is 2002 was 4,912.4 million Euro with a business result of 185.1 million Euro.
The main production of the Group in 2002 was: raw steel (15,049 Mt), (Black Coils)
coils (serpentine) (5,959 Mt) of which cold rolled coils (3,029 Mt), wire rod (4,059 Mt),
bar-rolled billets (0,991 Mt), concrete reinforcing steel (2,192 Mt), coated products such
as galvanized, electro-galvanized, tinplate etc…) (1,815 Mt), quarto plates (0,790 Mt),
welded pipes (0,557 Mt) and hollow sections (0,382 Mt). The overall production is
stabilised at around 23,680 million tonnes a year.
The distribution of the workers is still characterised by a large concentration of the
work force in the European Union where about 96% of the overall number of workers is
located (Table 1). Inside the European Union the Italian workers represent 81.4% of the
working population, while at world level they are 77.7%. From these data we can deduce
that the non-EU areas do not represent for an area of strategic interest for the group, and
that inside the Community context Italy is still considered to be the main point of
106
reference for the group’s market choices. As a consequence, it is inferred that the Riva
Group presents a structure that is still strongly rooted in the Italian territory.
Table 3: Distribution of the productive sites and the service centres of the group – number of workers
and rate of unionisation
Countries
Belgium
France
Germany
Italy
Greece
Spain
Total in the UE
Sites
Fontaine l’Eveque, Charleroi
Bonnieres sur Seine, Creil, Gargenville, Montreau, Neuves
Maisons, Saint Just Saint Rambert, Senas, Vauvert
Chatillon le Duc, Lyons, Rouen
Hennigsdorf, Brandenburg, Lampertheim
Novi Ligure, Cerveno, Lonato, Malegno, Sellero, Lesegno,
Racconigi, Patrica, Genoa, Annone Brianza, Varzi, Salerno,
Taranto, Caronno Pertusella, Verona
Paderno Dugnano, Usmate Velate, Acerra, Legnaro, Torino,
Verona, Marghera, Taranto, Varzi, Patrica
Thessalonica
Alcalà de Guadaira
Workers
347
1,670
Unionisation rate
70
about 50
1,548
19,131
65
32
486
330
23,512
89
29
Non-EU
1,110
Total
24,622
Legend: Production centres and Service Centres
The companies of the Group (Figure 1) oversee all the stages of the steel-making
filière, starting from the production of raw steel performed both by the integral cycle and
by the electric kiln, and through the cold and hot lamination, as far as the steel coating
and the specialised finishing of the end-products of the cycle. If we analyse the
composition of the products it can be noticed that the Group is wholly focused on a single
business, namely that of steel, around which all the other activities of the Group revolve:
the activity of scrap metal recycling (one plant in Canada and one demolition plant in
France), the production of refractory material (6 plants in Italy), the production of
lamination cylinders (one plant in Italy), the shipping business (13 ships, one of which
transoceanic and four 30,000 t ocean liners), the shipping of raw materials or semifinished products, a road haulage company for steel transport and different kinds of
production and finishing of the steel. The Group’s success can be seen in the leading
positions reached both on the national Italian market, where it is the absolute leader, and
at world level, the ninth biggest producer.
Being a family-run Group, the structure of the Holding presents a centralised
management above all due to its complex commercial and marketing network. The Riva
Group, by means of its broad, general management strategy, tends to provide a
framework of supporting functions and a wealth of know-how inside which the various
individual company situations find their own autonomy in terms of market, production
and management. Each individual plant concentrates its own factors of production on a
particular type of steel working. Indeed, the Group mainly develops two types of
production: the electric kiln production controlled by Riva Acciaio SpA and productions
of sheets mainly concentrated at Ilva SpA. The former type of production is common in
Italy, Spain, Belgium, France and German, while the latter is mainly present in Italy an
marginally also in Greece and Tunisia, where the manufacture of successive phase sheets
has been started.
107
A recent Italian law has established the inevitable abandonment of the hot-cycle
production in the steel-making sector, as it is believed to be harmful for the environment.
The reorganisation phase, being due to factors of a purely political nature, is only
circumscribed to the Italian territory. At the same time there has been an increase in the
investments towards the other European plants, in line with a corporate policy addressed
to reviving and stabilising the productive plants in times of crisis. This company
approach can be seen in the last few years when the answer to the crisis that has hit steelmaking in Italy has been a large increase in investments in the plants in France, Germany,
Greece and Belgium.
108
Figure 1: The main companies of the Riva group
109
The unionisation of the various Group factories is the expression of a traditionally
strong union presence in the steel-making sector and of the national industrial
idiosyncrasies. As a matter of fact, in Italia the unionisation rate has very much declined
in the last few years (before it used to be over 50-60% whereas now it is 32%) as a result
of a definite generational change in the staff through a substantial number of early
retirements imposed by the law as an indemnity for harmful and prolonged exposure to
asbestos. The most representative union is the Fiom-Cgil (Metalworkers’ union-Cgil)
even if in terms of metalworkers’ unions the above-said trade union is less important than
the average Italian metalworking union. In terms of Italian unionisation it is necessary to
make a distinction between Riva Acciaio in general and the Ilva group, a subsidiary of
the former, where greater tension is apparent between union and company. Indeed, at the
level of Ilva, although there exists a national unitary coordination between the three
Italian metalworkers’ unions (Fiom-Cgil, Fim-Cisl Uilm-Uil), there is still, according to
the EWC chairman, an instrumental use of the union. Moreover, there is a detachment
between a collaborative policy proposed by the central managerial area and a policy of
opposition systematically implemented by the local works shops stewards. Apart from
the Ilva situation, in Italy the union representations have not been able, in spite of their
repeated efforts, to have a unitary coordination. In Italy, besides the three trade union
representations Fiom-Cgil, Fim-Cisl and Uilm-Uil, represented at the EWC level, there is
also a fourth independent union which, however, has few members, does not belong to
the CES (European Confederation) and so has no representatives in the EWC. The
Industrial Relations manager reckons the industrial relations in Italy are sound.
The Italian Parliament has decided that the hot cycle production is damaging to the
environment and for this very reason has ordered it to be progressive phased out. The
Riva Group, whose major foundries are based on that production methods, has found
itself in the position of having to call for Government help to avoid, with the financial
assurances, the dismissal of many workers, 1,200 in the Cornigliano foundry alone
(Genoa, Italy). The climate of tension has led to a deterioration in the relationship
between management and unions, ending up with unitary strikes, above all at a time
when the Riva Group decided to cancel the investment plan for the Taranto (Italy),
subject to a closure order of the coke plant by local magistrates’ court. The political
choices made in regard to Italian steelmaking have been much discussed at one of the last
EWC meetings and the members of the Committee appeared to be rather concerned about
the direct consequences on the Group’s industrial programmes and their inevitable
repercussions on the employment plan.
Instead in Germany the unionisation rate rewards the union’s traditional presence in
steelmaking as well as an articulated intervention by IG Metall aimed at the creation of
supporting union structures together with the birth of the new structures of the Federal
government. In both the German plants there are corporate representation bodies and
some of the workers’ representatives are also part of the Watchdog Committee. France
presents a differentiated unionisation rate in relation to the plant, in other words, there is
a low union membership in the plants that have been part of the Group for twenty odd
years, while there is a higher unionisation rate in those plants that used to be part of the
French SAM Group, which, being of public origin, presented unionisation values well
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above the national average. In Spain and Belgium there is a good relationship between
company and union while in Greece the industrial relations are said to be “awful” by the
EWC Chairman.
The German EWC delegate says the Group’s industrial relations are cooperative and
based on trust. The climate of trust and cooperation that has been created inside the
Group is expressed through a well-known company policy of not using redundancies as a
solution in the event of an economic downturn, but instead a systematic involvement of
the workers’ representations is preferred in the search for alternative solutions.
The inception of the European Committee of the Riva
Group
THE INCEPTION PHASE
The founding process of the EWC for the Riva Group has followed particular
trajectories, having found as the first promoter in 1994 the German metalworkers’ union
IG Metall assisted by the EFM (European Federation of metalworkers) and only
subsequently, also following the acquisition of a large proportion of the Italian
steelmaking sector through the Ilva Group, accepted and supported by the Italian union.
The phase preceding the founding of the EWC was the scene of various meetings
between the Special Negotiations Delegation and the company, and through these
meetings the initial idea of setting up the EWC took concrete and detailed shape. On
these occasions discordant positions emerged as regards the composition of the EWC and
the number of experts. Most of the union representatives argued in favour of a proposal
that established the founding of an EWC made up of 12 people, a select committee of 5
people and 3 union shop stewards as experts. But that hypothesis did not get the support
of all the participant’s in the initial negotiating phase. As a matter of fact, at the start of
1999 during the phase when the founding agreement was being drafted, it was decided to
have a select committee made up of 7 members, while the number of experts paid for by
the company and the number of components remained those laid down in the initial
proposal. This is an agreement based on art.6 of the European Directive.
The Special Negotiating Delegation was made up of outside unionists, in particular
the 3 national Italian trades unions (with a predominance of the Fiom) and the German
union (IG Metall), who proved to be stimulating interlocutors, both dynamic and capable
of triggering a constructive dialogic process with the company. All the nations that are
currently represented in the EWC also played an important role inside the Special
Negotiations Delegation through the figures of internal workers’ representatives., except
for Greece that at that time was not yet the site of one of the plants of the Group. During
the negotiation phase there was also a meeting with the EFM in which the basic concepts
concerning the EWC and its working were illustrated.
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OBJECTIVES OF THE RIVA EWC
What has been agreed by the parties in the agreement for the setting up of the EWC
applies to all of the workers of the companies of the European Union of which the Riva
Group controls at least the majority of the shares. In this sense the field of application of
the founding agreement faithfully reiterates what was laid down in the Community
Directive no. 94/95 in 1994 and the subsequent Interconfederate Agreement dated 6th
November 1996, through which the former was assimilated at Italian level: “…it is
presumed that a dominant influence can be exerted, unless proven otherwise, if the
company, either directly or indirectly in regard to another company, holds the majority of
the company’s underwritten capital…”.
The founding agreement established that if during the agreement’s period of validity
there were changes in the group’s structure, the composition of the EWC would be
modified in such a way as to reflect the Group’s new size dimension. Furthermore, as
regard the plants present in the countries not belonging to the European Union, the EWC
and the Group’s management have the chance to agree on the presence of workers’
representatives from the relevant plants as observers.
The most significant modification made to the text of the agreement, since the date
of inception until the present day, consists in the addition of a French representative to
the structure of the EWC as an expression of the greater French incidence on the
industrial dimension of the Group following the take-over of the SAM Group. The
current make-up of the EWC comprises 13 delegates from the European Union countries
where the Group has productive units, thus excluding Canada and Tunisia: 6 Italians, 2
Germans, 2 French, 1 Greek, 1 Belgian and 1 Spanish. The Chairman of the EWC is
elected from among them. In the composition of the EWC we can see the absence of any
women, as the steelmaking sector is traditionally a male-dominated one. As a matter of
fact, although the white-collar population sees a female incidence of 30-35%, when the
whole of the working population in the Group is considered then the female workforce
falls to around 10%.
The founding agreement lays down that the members of the EWC should be
designated or elected by the representative Union Organisations or by the workers’
representations recognised inside the Group, according to the laws and practices
applicable in each country where the Group is present. Should there not be any
representative union organisations or workers’ representations recognised inside the
Group, the agreement provides that the workers have the right to elect their own EWC
representative.
The Riva Group EWC is only made up of workers’ representatives from the Group
facilities. From this it can be inferred that the Riva EWC is similar to the “German
model” for the EWCs, i.e. with the exclusive participation of the workers’
representatives. In corroboration of the previous statement there is the fact that the EWC
chairman and the members of the Select Committee are all workers’ representatives.
The management that plays the role of interlocutor is identified with the Human
Resources and Industrial Relations Manager of the Group, who is at the same time the
Chief of Personnel in Germany. During the meetings of the EWC he is accompanied by
some of his collaborators and usually by a representative of his country where the
meeting takes place. In the last few meetings the specific intervention of the General
Technical Director was requested.
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The Riva Group’s EWC aims to foster “the exchange of information, the discussion
and consultation on economic, social and industrial issues.” The arguments that are
indicated as possible discussion points for the EWC highlight the understanding of the
negotiating parties that they will go beyond the accessory prescriptions contemplated by
the Italian legislation assimilating the European Directive no. 94/95. Indeed, the points
are:
• Structure of the Group and branches
• Economic and financial situation of the Group
• Development of the activities, the production, the sales and the business volume
• Situation and likely employment developments
• Investments
• Fundamental changes concerning the organisation
• Introduction of new technologies, working methods and new productive processes
• Transfer of production inside and outside the Group
• Mergers having an impact on the personnel organisation, cutbacks in size or the
closure of companies, plants or important parts therein
• Collective dismissals
• Training activities and vocational specialisation
• Trends in working time
• Safeguarding of Health and Safety at work and the development of issues concerning
the work and environmental protection at European level
• Equal opportunities
THE SELECT COMMITTEE
Within the EWC itself a leaner body endowed with its own internal regulations has
been created, namely the Select Committee, whose task it is to agree on the agenda of the
meetings with the Group’s management and at the same time to act as coordination
between the EWC members. The above said organism encompasses 7 of the 13 members
and specifically these are: 3 Italians, 1 German, 1 Spaniard and 1 Greek, while the
Belgian switches with the French out of respect for a linguistic rationale. The founding
agreement only specifies what the structure and the function of the Select Committee
should be, while its composition was decided later, that is during the first EWC meeting
held on 22nd – 23rd March 2000. According to the founding agreement, the Select
Committee also has the duty to draft the protocol for each meeting and to pass it on
subsequently to each individual member.
The agreement lays down two ordinary meetings per year of the Select Committee,
in which the management also take part, and a meeting of the EWC. Subsequent
adjustments resulting from the meetings between the EWC and the management have led
the latter to allow for two EWC meetings to be held and one meeting of the Select
Committee, making a total of 7 EWC meetings since 1999, 6 of which starting from
2000. Each EWC meeting is preceded by a meeting “behind closed doors” in which the
workers’ representatives discuss which queries should be put to the management on the
following day, and they exchange information and experiences concerning their national
industrial relations situations.
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The founding agreement does not provide a specific definition of the information and
consultation procedures but establishes in a general way that the EWC has “the role of
fostering the exchange of information, discussions and consultations on economic, social
and industrial issues” and in all of those thematic areas mentioned previously. So the
methods and the timescales by which the information and consultation procedures should
come about are not specified. Furthermore, it is underlined that the EWC cannot replace
“claims existing at national level with information and consultations with the workers.”
The negotiating parties agree on setting a duration of 4 years for the founding
agreement of the Riva group’s EWC. At the end of this period there will be an automatic
renewal of the agreement, unless there is written cancellation by one of the parties with at
least 6 months notice prior to the deadline. In the event of cancellation, the negotiations
between the EWC and the Group’s management should begin with a view to reaching an
agreement within 12 months, during which period the agreement will remain applicable.
Should a common position not be reached within the set time, then the parties will
follows the requirements set down in the accessory clauses included in the Italian
legislation assimilating the European directive no. 94/95.
The processes
THE RESOURCES OF THE EWC
At the present time the EWC does not have its own independent facilities but for
each and every technical and logistic or communications needs it turns to the Industrial
Relations and Human Resources Manager, who makes available his own secretarial and
office facilities in the various plants. The EWC members do not therefore enjoy an
instrumental autonomy. The company provides interpreting assistance, the translation of
the documents relating to the meeting, but only if the EWC members specifically request
it, and allows visits to the plants where the EWC meetings are held; however no budget is
specifically allocated for the EWC.
From the interview with the Chairman of the EWC it is apparent that the EWC
delegates have access to the internet but that the management does not give them a
corporate email address. Indeed, to get in touch with the other EWC members the
chairman uses his personal email account. At the moment, following a request made by
the EWC, a computerisation operation of the plants is in progress, with particular
attention being paid to the sites where the EWC delegates performs their activities.
According to the founding agreement it is established that the Riva Group will pay
for all the expenses relating to the EWC meetings, both plenary session and in the
preliminary encounter, as well as the costs relating to the Select Committee meetings. In
particular, it is specified that the travel expenses, accommodation, translation and
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documentation costs will be covered. At the end of the meetings the management side
does not deal with drafting the minutes of the meetings, arguing that the oral
communication is sufficiently exhaustive, and according to the Industrial Relations and
Human Resources chief no union request has ever been made for a written
documentation. The report is drafted, but not on a regular basis, by the EWC Chairman.
For the EWC members a specific hours total is not laid down. In order to take part in
the preparatory meetings and the official meetings, the EWC delegates make use of paid
leave just for the time necessary for the journey and the EWC meeting. It is also provided
that the leave that is used up is additional to those laid down by the legislation applicable
in each country.
At the present time, the EWC delegates have thought it to be quite satisfactory to
make use of the technical and know-how assistance and support of the three outsider
unionists, without so far inviting other professional figures in the role of experts. From
the interview with the German EWC delegate it appears that a seminar has been
organised concerning the legislative situation in the various European countries in which
the participation of a non-union expert external to the company is provided for. The
agreement provides that the Group pays for the expenses relating to the three experts,
while the other expenses are borne by the summoning union organisation. Usually the
external unionists, who offer their own professional contribution, are an Italian, a German
and a Belgian, even if in the last meeting the Belgian unionist was replaced by a Greek
unionist. The German unionist seems to be the main point of reference for the EWC
members. The presence of the external unionists reflects the important contribution
offered by the union organisations in the inception phase of the EWC. Both of the
interviewed parties recognise the added value provided by the external unionists, capable
of not enveloping the issues faced by the EWC in a single national context and of raising
the qualitative level of the meeting by also acting as a liaison between the participants in
order to smooth over the linguistic and cultural differences.
TRAINING
The agreement for the founding of the EWC establishes the company’s commitment
to intensify the communications inside the EWC through training courses, above all as
concerns languages. Until now an English language course has been organised, and at the
moment the delegates are awaiting a basic course in computing in order to make then
independent in the management of email and web surfing. The English language course
lasted for 50 hours and the costs were completely taken care of by the company.
According to the Italian delegate as well as the German delegate the language course
does not provide a sufficiently complete preparation. Indeed, the EWC chairman
describes the only language course performed by the EWC members as a “survival
course” in that it only provided a highly limited language preparation.
The management side has never taken part in the meetings addressed to EWC
training. The German outsider delegate states that he had attended an EWC training
course organised externally to the Group.
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THE MEETINGS
The Select Committee
In compliance with the founding agreement the Select Committee should meet twice
a year but the practices of the meetings have led to there being two meetings of the
extended EWC, and to reducing the Select Committee meetings to just one. A few
months before the official meeting of the EWC, the Select Committee meets in the
presence of Italian union executives (national or regional) with a view to assessing
whether the draft of the agenda drafted at the end of the last EWC meeting is still up-todate, and it also deals with sending a copy of it, together with company documentation, to
all of the EWC members and the management representatives. Before sending a copy of
the meeting agenda, the Chairman of the EWC, thus also a member of the Select
Committee, calls the Human Resources and Industrial Relations chief for possible
integrations. In the case of very important events whose effects could affect the workers,
the extended EWC is entitled to summon on its request, or via the select committee,
extraordinary meetings with the group management. It is then established that the
meeting should take place within 15 days of the request. Until now there has been no
need to call an extraordinary meeting. It is very likely that this year’s December meeting
will be brought forward to September in order to discuss the crisis that has been affecting
the group in this period. At the end of the select committee meeting the workers
representation normally writes up a report in which the meeting’s discussions are
illustrated.
The yearly assembly of the EWC
The yearly ordinary meeting is articulated over 2 days. On the first day the EWC,
widened to all of its members, meets with the expert unionists to discuss any additions to
be made to the pre-set agenda and to draft, in writing, a list of questions to be put to
management the following day. As this is a chance to meet exclusively for the insider
worker representatives and the expert unionists, the opportunity is taken to reciprocally
exchange national experiences and feelings in regard to industrial relations.
On the second day there is a meeting between the EWC and the Management in this
case represented by the Human resources and Industrial relations chief of the group, his
collaborators and usually by a managerial representative of the country where the
meeting is held. The first phase of the meeting with the central management consists in a
presentation on the company trends and the possible strategies, trying to keep as close as
possible to the issues highlighted in the agenda presented. In the second part of the day,
as the meeting occupies the morning and the afternoon, there is a debate between the
Management and the EWC by means of which there is an attempt to resolve some doubts
or misunderstandings that have remained even after the management presentation, and
specific issues are analysed further, particularly Health and Safety. Issues of a national
character are also examined.
At the end a report of the final discussion is not always drafted, as instead it should
be according to the agreement, and only if there are specific requests does the company
bother to send the written documents to the various members of the EWC. The person
whose job it is to write up the reports is the chairman of the EWC who does so on his
computer. The report is not a joint document. The report is then translated into the other
languages, or at least into German, through the computerised translation programmes, To
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concluded the meeting the EWC delegates jointly decide on the general issues to be
discussed at the next meeting.
CONTENTS OF THE INFORMATION AND ITS EVALUATION
The information provided during the management presentation tends to touch upon
all the issues listed in the acts of establishment: from the balance sheet data to the
approval of the balance sheet, from the economic trend to the market situation to the
market situation, from the prices to the product trends and finally all the quantitative and
qualitative employment data and all the significant evolutions of the group and in the
period of reference. The documentation relating to the Management presentation is sent
to the EWC members in the days preceding the meeting and also all the corporate and
employment data are commented upon and explained by the management during the
presentation, by means of interpreting, so that none of the data are not understood. The
chairman of the EWC has highlighted a progressive increase in the quality and the
quantity of the information, above all in the last two years with the arrival of the new
Human Resources and Industrial Relations director, but it should improve further in
terms of the translation of the documentation and above all in terms of speed. Actually,
the information is communicated at the Community level exclusively during the yearly
meeting, so that the same information could be quickly disseminated if the operative
decisions were taken before the date of the meeting or otherwise they would be belated.
The Chairman of the EWC hopes that the quality of the information will improve
with the introduction of the new computerised system. There is the complaint that at
times the national information and the European information overlap. The actual added
value in terms of information thus appears to be what is learned about the situations in
the other countries.
The point of view of the German EWV delegate seems to be more critical in relation
to the speed of the information. As a matter of fact it is stated that the company decision
of a transnational nature, above all within the scope of company reorganisation, is
communicated to the EWC only when this decision has already been taken thus making a
consultative function of the European representation body rather unlikely.
The German outsider delegate identified as added informational value of the EWC
the better control and the greater communicative transparency in regard to the issue of
Health and Safety in the group.
The fact that inside the Select Committee there is a worker representation for each
country in which the group is present (except for Belgium and France who take turns)
excludes the possibility that a country can remain unaware of the dynamics internal to the
EWC.
OTHER INTERACTION DIMENSIONS
Interactions within the management
The distribution of the information at management level is put down to the discretion
of the managerial interlocutor who attends the EWC meetings: i.e. the Human Resources
and Industrial Relations director. As a matter of fact, as there are no written minutes and
by putting the oral communication before the written documentation, the distribution of
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the results emerging at the EWC depend on a system of informal and unstructured
distribution. From the interview with the management representative external to the EWC
it is apparent that there is no systematic or institutionalised involvement of the
management before the EWC meeting but everything takes place occasionally through
informal channels. The Italian outsider manager also reports that he had been called on
the occasion of an EWC meeting by the Human Resources and Industrial Relations chief
concerning the topic of Health and Safety.
Interactions between the Select Committee and the management
Practice has led to the setting up of an informal coordination built upon the frequent
relations, due to the geographical proximity, between the Chairman of the EWC and the
Human Resources and Industrial Relations chief of the Group. As a matter of fact, the
two spokesmen of the parties at play, meeting within the scope of the Italian level
industrial relations, keep reciprocally informed on any occurrences and demands that
concern European dynamics. The Human Resources and Industrial Relations manager of
the Group also keeps in touch with all the other members of the EWC in that out of need
he has the chance to relate with all the union representations in the plants, above all with
the German workers’ representatives.
From the interview with the German outsider manager it can be seen that there are no
international level meetings by the management side through which it is possible to come
into direct contact with the managerial areas of the other countries in which the Group is
present. The only contact existing is with the central management in Italy.
Interactions between the workers’ representatives within the EWC
In Italy the distribution of the information among the workers’ representatives inside
and outside the EWC comes about informally and very much depends on the “goodwill of
the EWC member” of spreading what emerges from the meeting with the EWC. The
unsystematic elaboration of the written minutes makes the activity of sharing the results
even more difficult.
The informal report of the workers’ representatives is hampered by the fact of not
having a common language. None of the representatives knows English particularly well,
and in order to communicate among themselves they turn to the technique of “getting
by”. In the last few years the EWC chairman has noticed a slight increase in the
frequency of contacts between the EWC members. The contacts are not systematic and
depend upon the interpersonal relations that are created during the meetings. The
communication between the members of the EWC usually comes about by fax and only
recently by email, and practically never by telephone. The EWC body has contributed in
a significant way to increasing the contacts between the workers’ representative both at
national level and at European level, but has not developed any process of sensitisation
involving all the workers of the group, who are still not particularly interested in the
international issues.
The Human Resources and Industrial Relations manager, together with the German
delegate of the EWC, highlight the fact that the best preparation of the German EWC
delegates at times involves some tension between the workers’ representatives. It would
thus appear that for the German delegation there is a greater consideration which the
Italian delegation opposes, claiming a leading role for itself.
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Interactions between the EWC and the union organisations
Three representatives of the union organisation participate in the Riva Group’s
EWC: one Italian, one German and one Belgian, or the Greek representative as a
replacement. The special negotiations delegation was made up of external unionists
belonging to the Italian national unions and the German union Ig Metall. The Italian
representative of the national trade union belonging to the Fiom-Cgil does not
contractually deal with the Group, a function that is performed by another unionist, but
acts as EWC coordinator in Italy for the EFM (European Federation of Metalworkers).
During the meetings of the EWC and the Select Committee outside unionists from the
Italian union at regional and national level take part as well, in the role of observers.
There is a the complaint, however, from the standpoint of the Italian outsider
delegate, about the scarce impact of the European union in its role as European
coordinator of the worker dissent towards the company. Indeed, in regard to the recent
corporate reorganisations which have taken place in Italy a lack of support has been
perceived from the European union in terms of promoting initiatives addressed to
sensitising European public opinion to the Italian cause.
The issues that have arisen at Italian level concerning union unity have had,
depending on the person interviewed, some different repercussions on the EWC activity.
For the EWC chairman the union policy divergences have not had any after-effects on the
EWC activities. Instead for the German EWC delegate the lack of strategic unity in the
Italian union is then translated in operative terms also at European level, this hampering
the working of the EWC itself.
Interactions between the EWC and the national level representation
structures
From the interview with the outsider union representative it appears that not all of the
workers’ representatives are called upon to provide informational input before the EWC
meeting, but exclusively those who have, over the years, developed a friendly
relationship with the EWC Chairman. It is commonplace to extend this information,
received informally, to the delegates of the relative union structures of membership.
As regards the countries in which the Group only has plants employing a small
number of workers, the Human Resources and Industrial Relations manager only keeps in
touch with the workers’ representations inside the company but not with the union
representations at national level.
Upon returning from the EWC meeting, the German delegate regularly informs the
union representations and the workers’ company-level representations. A better
distribution of the information also reflects a different industrial relations structure in
Germany and a greater commitment of the German delegate in spreading the results
achieved during the EWC meetings.
In Germany during the ordinary assemblies of the company representation structures
topics are discussed that are subsequently also reported at the EWC.
Interactions between the EWC and the workers
The distribution of the company information is not particularly thorough owing to
the lack of written reports. Indeed, if we consider the fact the oral communication is
preferred to written communication and that the EWC delegates do not represent all the
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plants of the Riva Group, it can be easily inferred that the EWC results do not reach all of
the workers. Owing to the scarce distribution of the information and, as underlined by the
Italian outsider delegate, the lack of concrete initiatives developed by the EWC, the
workers show little interest in this European-level body of representation.
In Germany the information received at the EWC is properly communicated to the
company representation bodies and the latter then disseminate the information to the
workers during the periodic company assemblies..
The results
THE IMPACT ON CORPORATE DECISION-MAKING
The EWC has not yet acquired bargaining powers but in the last few years some
occasions have arisen during which the company has believed it to be worthwhile
transferring what had been operatively proposed and advised by the EWC. First of all, the
Constitution of the Bilateral Commissions with a view to monitoring the multifarious
manufacturing situations in regard to Health and Safety. In the second place, the request
was made and granted to set up a national coordination in France so that a body could be
found to liaise between the numerous productive units on French territory. Indeed, in the
countries where there is only one plant the control appeared to be less difficult, while in
France, where a sub-holding was set up, the number of plants obliged the company to
find an alternative solution.
According to the outsider manager interviewed, the EWC has developed some
benchmarking processes that have influenced the company choices both from the point of
view of industrial relations, by increasing the company’s sensitivity to the needs of the
unions, and from the technical point of view, in the choice of certain manufacturing
facilities, such as the smoke-reduction facilities.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
The problem of safety in the workplace has always been a much felt issue both by
the company and by the workers, above all after the rapid increase in the frequency of
accidents which went up from 40-45 cases per million working hours in 1995-1996 to a
maximum of 80 cases occurring between 2000 and 2002.
During the meetings with the EWC there emerged on the part of the workers’
representatives the desire to set up a body ad hoc that would deal with the issues
concerning Health and Safety. Such a desire took shape, with the company’s
endorsement, through the setting up of bilateral commissions on Health and Safety, in
which there are both management representatives and the representatives of workers of
the plants of the Group that already take part in the EWC meetings.
The objective they have set themselves is to get as close as possible to the German
model of the “Work Safety Committee”, that is to say a body that meets once a month
and is made up of a doctor, the relevant company manager, by a union representative, by
the Safety representatives, chaired by the technical director and the managing director
responsible for workplace safety.
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The future hypothesis of enlargement includes the involvement in representative
terms of all the Group’s plants, thereby extending the participation to the smaller sites as
well. The aims that such Commissions wish to pursue is, from the union point of view, to
know and monitor all the Group’s situations in relation to Health and Safety and, from
the managerial point of view, making the parties feel more responsible by getting them to
play a more incisive role in the decision-making. At the moment, then, several different
Commissions on Health and Safety coexist from which information relevant to the
discussions internal to the EWC can be drawn.
The EWC of the Riva group has thus gone beyond the mere information and
consultation procedures laid down in the European Directive, and has actually taken on,
again limited to the health and safety scope, a negotiating role. From the point of view of
Italy, the application of the above-said German model has led to an operative
improvement in regard to the requirements laid down in decree no. 626 (the decree that
regulates the norms on Health and Safety in Italy) concerning the yearly prevention
meeting.
For the German outsider delegate the fact of having available a larger number of
statistical data on the issue of Health and Safety represents the only piece of
informational added value provided by the EWC.
CORPORATE IDENTITY
The creation of the EWC satisfied, according to the Human Resources and Industrial
Relations manager, a dual purpose. On the one hand, the company was interested both in
monitoring the various manufacturing situations spread out across Europe and in
amalgamating the Group’s fragmented corporate identity into a single spirit of
membership through an extension of the sense of corporate identity. On the other hand,
some interest was shown on the part of the workers’ representatives for an easier access
to information on the Group’s strategies, new experiences of working and contractual
conditions to draw from for future claims for improvement.
HARMONISATION OF THE HUMAN RESOURCES POLICIES
Through the setting up of the Bilateral Commissions on Health and Safety the aim is
to manage to outline a regulatory framework towards which all the individual European
manufacturing situations will have to converge. So the objective is to provide a common
direction to all the national disciplines on the issue of Health and Safety. On the one
hand, such bodies could represent a continuous stimulus for improvement in the light of
constructive benchmarking, and on the other it could represent an instrument useful to the
company in maintaining a constant control over the local situations. The Human
Resources and Industrial Relations manager hopes that the Health and Safety policies
will eventually reflect the German model.
In the last few meetings, there have been discussions about introducing a single
mechanism for the group to calculate the results incentive bonus.
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Conclusions
From the comparisons between the interviews with the Italian actors and the German
ones some contrasting information has been observed in relation to the working and the
development of the EWC. The diverging information probably reflects a confused
negotiating phase in which the decisions were subject to an intense discussion phase that
had paradoxically made the boundaries between founding process and formal constitution
of the EWC rather fuzzy.
According to the Chairman of the EWC, the industrial events that in some way have
involved the Group have always had a national connotation and so the EWC has never
been called to deal with company decisions that had an international character. As a
consequence the EWC chairman feels satisfied with what has so far been obtained
through the EWC body, but at the same time is aware that today the EWC has only
performed a function of “flanking” the company and has not taken on an autonomous and
independent role. The lack of organisational autonomy is also strongly criticised by the
German outsider delegate, who expresses his disappointment particularly in regard to the
scarce impact of the European representation body.
The European Works Committee seems to be strongly influenced by the figure of the
Human Resources and Industrial Relations Director who weaves informal relations,
drawing advantages from the geographical proximity and his managerial rank, both with
the EWC chairman and with the company managers having an interest in the EWC. The
central role of the management figure has thus involved an intensification, in practice, of
the informal relations preferring them to an institutional recognition. In such a context
there is a risk of linking the potential development of the EWC to an industrial relations
culture in the Group and its capacity for international growth.
In regard to the cultural union diversities and how these affect the normal
performance of the EWC activities, two different positions emerge from the interviews
with the managerial executives and the Italian delegates. The first one, emerging from the
interview with the EWC Chairman, highlights the different national union approaches,
but he believes that such discrepancies are superseded by the delegates’ desire and
commitment to find a common as well as a Community position, as has already indeed
happened with the issue of Health and Safety. The second opinion, expressed by the
Human Resources and Industrial Relations director, identifies in the different union
attitude a real obstacle to the fulfilment of the EWC functions. In fact, he describes the
French and the Greek industrial relations culture as being conflict-based, and he reckons
they are unprepared to join a Community rationale in terms of the acquisition and
construction of information that should not see in the European body its place for
negotiations. In this regard, it is significant to underline the area of application of the
mechanism for the calculation of the company production bonus: Italy, Germany and
Belgium adopt the same method of calculation of the productivity while France and
Greece are hostile to accepting an evaluation of the productivity by mans of a common
procedure.
Furthermore, according to the Human Resources and Industrial Relations director,
the different union approaches also reflect a different professional preparation on the part
of the union delegates. Indeed, the German delegates have an industrial relations system
which is highly collaborative and participative, while the Italian delegates show that they
are better prepared from the point of view of the conceptual elaboration on issues that
transcend the national domain. The esteem nurtured by the Group for the German
industrial relations system and the skills of the actors working within such a system has
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been and still is, according to the German EWC delegate, a source of rivalry and friction
between the EWC delegates. This occurs above all with the Italian delegates who claim
and demand, again according to the insider German delegate, a central role in the EWC
activity. Even in these terms the continuous rotation of the EWC members is considered
to be counterproductive in that it would make the efforts addressed to a mitigation of the
divergences fruitless.
From the interview with the internal management representative we can see the
company’s intention to use the EWC as an instrument for exporting an industrial relations
culture hinging on a collaborative principle. Evidence for this is the preferential
communications channel granted to Italy and Germany. Indeed, according to the Human
Resources and Industrial Relations director, the Group seeks to achieve, through a
benchmarking process, homogeneous rules for industrial relations and have a single
European headquarters for the coordination, based on the model of the German system.
To demonstrate the above-said hypothesis we can also highlight the management attempt
to control those national situations characterised by a conflict-based industrial relations
culture, through the creation of a national coordination in France and a direct
management in Greece.
The Italian outsider workers’ representative reckons that the EWC experience is
positive in that it allows for a comparing of national industrial relations experiences,
which can be useful towards enhancing expertise. Furthermore, by means of the EWC
body there has been a chance to clarify come union as well as company positions, thereby
managing to resolve some misunderstandings that with the passing of time would have
embittered the union-company relations.
The Human Resources and Industrial Relations director of the Group feels it is useful
to have turned to external unionists in the negotiating and inception phase in that they are
competent people capable of assimilating and interpreting the information provided by
the management. At the same time, however, criticism is levelled against the excessive
rotation of the unionists that has hampered continuity in dialogue and a thematic
coherence between the Management and the union. The rotation thus makes the
contribution of the external union less influential and useful, and with the passing of
time, according to the Human Resources and Industrial Relations director, it will be
progressively replaced by the growing autonomy of the workers’ representatives.
The German EWC delegate stresses the length of the bargaining period that had led
to the setting up of the EWC and puts this delay mainly down to the conflict internal to
the three Italian unions that have shown towards the EWC different objectives and ideas.
For the other nations hosting the Group plants the designation of the representatives did
not represent any problem whatsoever. The political and operative disunity of the Italian
union, and in this specific case that of the metalworkers, is also believed to be the cause
of an inadequate functioning of the EWC and a lack of coordination between the various
national delegations in the EWC. The opinion of German delegate concerning the
organisational capacities of the Italian delegates is definitely a negative one in that until
now the meetings have always been organised by the central management, and if there
had not been the commitment and the determination of the Human Resources and
Industrial Relations director it is quite likely that the EWC would have ceased its activity
altogether.
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Outlook
The EWC chairman suggests giving the EWC a partial negotiating power, a sort of
general negotiating platform, in that it is recognised that the national idiosyncrasies in
terms of the labour market are still too strong to allows them to be run univocally. So the
proposal is advanced to set up, on the positive experience of the Commissions on Health
and Safety, bodies that are capable of analysing a specific issue and subsequently, on the
basis of a benchmarking at Community level, define a common orientation that the
various local situations mist adhere to. The latter proposal has met with the favourable
opinion of the Italian outsider management representative.
From the management point of view there should be greater investment in terms of
time and commitment in the EWC preparation phase so as to obtain as much as possible
from the European meetings between central management and the workers’
representatives from the different countries. It would thus be hoped that there would be a
greater thematic coherence in the discussion points upon which the EWC, according to
the agreement, should focus its own activity and thus maintain the discussion on an
international level and not advance only claims of a national kind.
From the point of view of the Italian outsider workers’ representative there comes
the suggestion to improve the circulation of the information ensuing from the meetings
by accentuating its penetration and coverage so the usefulness of the European Works
Committee can be fully expressed. In this regard there is also the criticism expressed by
the German delegate in regard to the use of computerised translation programmes whose
results are “not very convincing”.
On the part of the Italian outsider delegate there is the request for greater
organisation support from the European union and there is the hypothesis of integrated
negotiations at Group level.
The Italian outsider manager would like to institutionalise the information flow
between EWC insider and outsider because he has realised that the European benchmark
and the chance to have an impact also at European level, above all in regard to the Health
and Safety topic, also increases the management’s credibility vis-à-vis the workers’
representatives at local level.
The moment when the EWC meets, according to the insider German delegate, does
not grant any real chance for an exchange of information between the delegates from
different countries in that often each individual is interested in his own national issues.
Moreover, the knowledge of the different legislative and union situations does not allow
one to avoid misunderstandings and incomprehension. In order to overcome this
situation the suggestion is to enhance the relations by creating a network between the
EWC delegates in such a way as to maintain a constant communication also in the period
going between one meeting and the next. Furthermore, it is hoped that the Group will
invest more in language training and education addressed to illustrating the legislative
systems in the other European countries.
References
Agreement on the inception of the European Works Committee at the Riva Group
Web site of the Riva Group
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The interviewees
Italian delegate, insider:
• He has worked for the Group since 1976
• He has been a full-time delegate for the Fiom-Cgil since 1990
• He has taken part in the provincial and regional directorate for the trade union Fiom
(CGIL) as well as the CGIL confederation
• He is a member of the national Group coordination
• He took part in a meeting during the inception phase but was not part of the Special
Negotiations Delegation
• He has taken part in the EWC ever since it was set up in 1999
• He is the Chairman of the EWC
Italian management, insider:
• He has worked for the Groups since 1992
• From 1992 to 1996 he filled the role of Personnel Manager in Germany
• At the moment, besides occupying the previously mentioned post, he has also taken
over the role of Human Resources and Industrial Relations Director for the Group
• He took part in the inception phase
Italian Management, outsider:
• Has worked for the Group since 1978 as Technical Director of the plant
• He was the Technical Administrator of the plants in Germany until May 2002
• He is currently the General Technical Director for Italy of the Ilva Division
Italian delegate, outsider:
• He has worked for the Group since 1989 as electrical workers in the central workshop
of Cordigliano
• Works Committee representative (RSU) for the Fiom Cgil
• Takes part in the provincial and regional directorate both for the Fiom and for the
CGIL
German delegate, insider:
• The interviewee has worked for the company since 1978.
• He started as a maintenance mechanic apprentice.
• From 1984 on he carried out the job of cable/rope splicing (Seilspleißer) in the
mechanical department.
• In 1992 he was elected in the works council for the first time.
• in 1996 he became a works councillor with full-time release from work.
• he has been head of the works council since 2001.
Delegato Tedesco, outsider:
• the respondent has worked for the company since 1997
• he started as an industry mechanic apprentice
• he has been a works councillor on full-time work release since 2002.
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Manager Tedesco, outsider:
• The respondent has been head of the Personnel Department since 1998
• She was a tools inspector apprentice (Werkzeugprüferin) in the company and studied
tool technology engineering (Werkzeugtechnik).
• she moved to the Personnel Department in 1972
•
Before 1969 she worked as a work study engineer
127
The Merloni Group
Volker Telljohann,Davide Dazzi
Summary
The Merloni group was one of the first Italian groups to set up an EWC, proving
their interest in creating a proactive European image on the issue of industrial relations.
This feature is also manifested by the underwriting of a Code of Conduct at group level.
The activity of the EWC is influenced by the centralised structure of the group’s
industrial relations system in Italy where the external union organisations cover a very
important role. The Italian union and the Industrial Relations manager cover a central
position in the EWC. In spite of the growing interest in the international relations
displayed by the group, the Merloni EWC continues to have a merely informative
function. Until now there does not appear to have been any real chance for the EWC
members to put forward to the have management a concrete proposal on issues having a
transnational nature. The EWC has not yet acquired negotiating powers, a development
that is desired by the workers’ representatives both inside and outside the EWC, bit is
premature according to the management representation. One issue that seems to worry
the workers’ representative is the possible growth of competition inside the group due to
the acquisition of factories in Eastern Europe, in regard to which the EWC asks to have a
monitoring function.
The group
The Merloni Elettrodomestici multinational is one of the top three producers in
Europe in the sector of domestic electrical appliances (it controls 14% of the European
market) and among the world leaders it is the youngest company. Its industrial policy has
always been inspired by an idea of sustainable development, nicely summed up in the
philosophy of Aristide Merloni, the founders’ father: "In every industrial initiative the
economic success has no value unless there is also a commitment to social progress".
2001 saw some important goals achieved with a 23.1% growth in turnover and a 76,2%.
improvement in net profits. Furthermore, for the third year running there was a growing
trend in yield taking the operating margin to 7.1% and the ROE to 20%.
For the household electrical appliances market 2001 witnessed a progressive
economic slowdown on a world scale, with an inevitable drop in consumption. In the
presence of a weak rate of growth in demand there was a 10% redistribution of the
market share among the manufacturers. In this process of division the Merloni
Elettrodomestici Group played an important role by dilating its own market share from
9% in 2000 to 14% in 2001. The expansion of the Group is placed within a general
market trend for household electrical appliances towards centralising production in very
few companies. In Europe, at the present time, just four companies hold 58% of the
electrical appliances market, a share that in the next 5 years is destined to increase up to
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80%, inexorably tracing the same patterns as for the United States where 92% of the
market is concentrated in just 4 companies.
Started up in1975 from the Divisione Elettrodomestici of the Industrie Merloni
founded in 1930 by Aristide Merloni in Albacina (Fabriano – Ancona), the Merloni
Elettrodomestici Group broadened its own commercial objectives and developed a
network of partners all over Europe. It conquered important market shares in France and
Great Britain and penetrated the other main markets as well. In 1987 it was floated on the
Milan Stock Market and the same year it bought Indesit, which together with Ariston
represent the two historical brands of the Group. Two years later it was the turn of
Scholtès, the French brand that produces high quality goods. The company started its
growth in the sector of built-in products. The entrepreneurship of the managerial ranks
pushed the Group to explore new frontiers in the Eastern European market, where it soon
took on a leading position. Since July 2001 it is listed in the Star, the segment of the
Italian Stock Market that group together the stock with high requisites and in March 2002
the Italian stock market gave Merloni Elettrodomestici the Blue Chip status, thanks to the
impressive results achieved in terms of capitalisation.
At the present time, the Group has 17 plants, mainly situated in Europe (Table 1),
and 21 partners in the world: Western and Eastern Europe, Central and Southern
America, Africa and the Middle East, the Far East and Oceania. The Shared Service
Centre (SSC), the only one of its kind in Italy, centralises at it head quarters in Fabriano
the administrative, legal, financial and fiscal services for the whole of Europe, allowing
the market management to focus its attentions on the business results.
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Table 1: Distribution of the plants of the Merloni group
Country
Italy
Portugal
United Kingdom
Plants
Co-ordination centre for marketing
and customer services
Albacina and Melano (Fabriano - Ancona), Comunanza Paris
(Ascoli), None (Torino), Carinaro and Teverola
(Caserta), Brembate (Bergamo), Refrontolo (Treviso)
Setubal
Paris
Peterborough, Blythe Bridge, Kinmal Park, Yets
Paris
France
Thionville
Poland
Lodz
Turkey
Manisa
Russia
Lipetzk
Source: EWC Gubbio, 19th July 2002
Paris
Lugano
Lugano
Moscow
The Group’s organisational strategy thus tends to centralise in Italy the executive and
the strategic activities, and decentralise towards the outside strictly commercial functions.
Indeed, the coordination centre for all the activities connected with marketing and
customer service of the commercial areas are, respectively, in Paris for those markets
considered to be mature, in other words the so-called “Old Europe”, Lugano (where there
are 60 employees) for Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Moscow, for Russia,
Buenos Aires for Central Southern America, and Singapore for the Far East and Oceania.
During 2001 the acquisitions area was reorganised, elevating the level of specialisation
and realising at the same time a structure dedicated to the simplification of the
components. The acquisitions were then incorporated together with logistics and the
planning of production under a new Management, the Supply Chain, in order to improve
the service both to the productive units and to the clients.
The distribution of the group’s labour force has in the past few years 1999-2001,
undergone a clear-cut transformation in that it has gone from a prevalent concentration of
the labour force in Italy to a majority of workers of the Group employed abroad (Table
2). This growing attention to foreign activities is also shown by the Group’s investment
decisions. Indeed, in 2002, within a general contraction in the industrial investments at
Group level there are two different trends apparent: in Italy the value of the investments
has gone down by about 32.5%, while abroad they increased by 12.5%. The trend
towards orienting the strategies abroad, rather than in Italy, indicate a corporate design
aimed at abandoning a strictly national connotation or in any case rooted in the home
territory, with a view to taking on a global character. This is also confirmed by the
decision taken by the Merloni family to appoint a Managing Director from outside the
family at the end of a process of management overhaul. Total employment was 13,386
people in 2001, which was to become about 20,000 following the recent acquisitions in
the United Kingdom, and are mostly concentrated in the manufacturing plants. The
unionisation rates in the various union situations differ from one another to a large extent
(Table 2), thus not just reflecting an uneven union sensibility but above all an
institutional and political distinction.
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Table 2: Employment and unionisation, 1999-2000-2001
Country
Rate of unionisation
Employment
1999
3701
439
370
131
296
2000
4385
431
339
338
259
5974
11726
1946
13672
4757
8915
2001
Italy (plants)
50%-55%
4213
Portugal 1(plants)
40%
375
France (plants)
35%
303
Poland (plants)
0%
531
Turkey (plants)
High participation
254
Russia (plants)
Nearly 100%
5527
Total (plants)
4937
11203
Total (non-plant)
2352
2183
Total workers 2001
7289
13386
in Italy
5098
4888
abroad
2191
8498
2
United Kingdom
25%
7000
Total workers
20386
(1): The Sabugo plant, which numbered 131 workers in 2001, was reconverted to warehouse space by 31/03/2002
(2): The data for the United Kingdom have been added only subsequently as the acquisition took place during 2001.
For the unionisation rate we take as point of reference the British plant sold four years earlier.
Each manufacturing unit takes on a functional role, and a market role, that is
autonomous in the space circumscribed by the lines of strategic conduct differentiated for
the business units: three for the product and one for the services: Cold, Cooking,
Washing and the transversal Consumer Care service. Each business unit corresponds to a
different director. Each market is managed by a country manager who has a great
international experience, and starting from the specific needs of the market, guarantee the
commercial development and the proper placing of the Group’s brands.
The Cold Business Unit represents 32% of the Company’s production with about 3
million units produced each year. The size and the nature of the products, i.e.
refrigerators and freezers, has implied the logistic choice of locating production as near
as possible to the distribution markets. Hence there are three so-called ‘cold’ factories: in
Portugal the plant at Setubal mainly serve the Iberian peninsula; in Turkey the Manisa
plant addresses the local market and Eastern Europe; in Italy the Melano factory (near
Fabriano) and that of Carinaro, in the province of Caserta, send their production to
western Europe; the Lipetzk plant, 400 kilometres south-east of Moscow is addressed to
the Russian market. A significant budget share allocated to the Business Units is invested
in the development of the productive capacity and to the product quality.
The Business Unit dedicated to Cooking represents 29% of the overall production of
the Group. The main axis of the Business is the technological innovation capable of
accelerating and making the production flexible while respecting the qualitative
parameters. This substantial effort to make improvement is concretely expressed in the
development of a new productive platform with the chance to change product design
every four months. Each plant has a precise mission to fulfil. The research and
development activity is mainly carried out at the Albacina plant which is at the heart of a
virtual network connecting up all the Business Unit facilities, allowing for the circulation
of information and the development of new products.. Thionville, in the Loraine, is the
Scholtès plant, one of the favourite brands of the French. High level and refined quality
products are manufactured in this plant. The Company’s great development in the eastern
European markets has led to the kitchens being produced in Poland as well, one of the
132
liveliest markets in the area. Today the Lodz plant serve all the markets of central and
oriental Europe.
The ‘Washing’ Business Unit represents 39% of the total output and is in second
place among the great European manufacturers. The production of washing machines and
dish-washers, the other main product of the Business Unit together with the digital
component, is organised by productive platforms that allow for greater flexibility. The
plants of the Business Unit are situated in Italy: at Comunanza (Ascoli) with a digital
factory having completely automated processes; at Teverola (Caserta) around which
rotates one of the largest industrial pole in the South of Italy; at Brembate (Bergamo)
where the latest top-loading washing machine projects have been developed; at None
(Turin) where there is the dishwasher factory whose output capacity is one million units.
The turnover achieved in this area represents 60% of the consolidated revenues of
Merloni Elettrodomestici.
All of the Business Units cited above are transversally supported by a network
specialised in the delivery of household services and in the technical assistance that
makes an autonomous and independent Business Unit. This service inside the Group
consists of 1,500 service centres spread out across Europe.
The last few years have been characterised by an intense overhaul of the corporate
dimension through acquisitions and transformations, without modifying the ownership
set-up. During 2001 50% of the capital of the GDA (General Domestic Appliances) was
purchased and subsequently in June 2002 the remaining 50% was taken over thus
achieving complete control of the British brand Hotpoint. At the same time on the
Eastern European market the Russian factory “Stinol” became integrated in the Merloni
circuit, a process that had already started in 2000, covering a share equal to 36% of the
Russian market of the sector. At the beginning of 2001 the industrial activities of Philco
were also integrated while the electrical appliances factory producing motors at None
were sold off. The plant in Sabugo, Portugal was reconverted to warehouse space in
March 2002.
The desire to broaden the information and consultation procedures at transnational
level is contractually expressed with a company agreement within the scope of which the
company’s intention to set up a “qualified” centre for information called “European
Committee” has been clearly expressed. The nature itself of the company agreement thus
leads us to consider the founding of the EWC as the result of the common understanding
between the management, the structure of company representation of the Italian factories
and the representatives of the three Italian metalworkers’ unions (Fim-Cisl, Fiom-Cgil,
Uilm-Uil). The EFM (European Federation of Metalworkers) is not represented. Most of
the interviewees consider the group’s industrial relations system to be participative.
Instead, a minority think it is a system of conflicting cooperation.
The manager of the industrial relations for the Merloni Elettrodomestici group
defines the group’s industrial relations as being pragmatic and the working of the EWC
reflects this pragmatism: “We have preferred…to take a more pragmatic approach,
which is useful; let’s not get stuck in the red-tape that very often is a weight and not a
solution to our problems…if there is an expert too few or too many it doesn’t make much
difference, the important thing is to meet and discuss the complex issues”. Again the
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industrial relations manager of the group states that at Italian level the industrial relations
have gone beyond the procedures of information and consultation, and by means of the
setting up of theme-based commissions even procedures of codetermination have been
achieved. In Italy, following the divergences between the three national confederations
(Cgil, Cisl and Uil) there has been, according to the interviewed unionist, a “rapid
worsening” as regards the tripartite union relations at group level. This worsening has not
for the moment had any repercussions on the EWC activities.
The setting up of the European Committee of the
Merloni Group
THE SETTING UP PHASE
With the company agreement underwritten on 21st September 1993 the Merloni
Group, together with the signatories to the national contract (i.e. the three Italian unions
of the metalworkers Fim-Cisl, Fiom-Cgil, Uilm-Uil and the bodies of company
representation of the Italian factories), expresses the wish to broaden the right to
information and consultation at European level through the setting up of a “company
committee” at European level. This desire is materialised contractually, experimentally,
on 19th July 1996 with the agreement for the founding of a European Works Council with
reference then to article 13 of the EU Directive no. 94/95. In the setting up phase the
workers’ representatives did not take part. The above said agreement is valid for three
years and is automatically renewed, unless one of the parties provides written
cancellation.
The founding of the EWC came about upon the initiative of the Industrial Relations
manager, on the company side, and the three International Offices of the metalworkers’
unions at national level, at first, later on followed by the National Secretariats. In the
negotiating phase the union Fim-Cisl played a central role. Although relations already
existed between the Italian union and the French and the British unions before the
founding of the EWC, the idea of setting up a European representation developed in Italy.
The European Federation of Metalworkers (EFM) only indirectly took part in the setting
up of the EWC as the manager of the International Office of the Fim-Cisl was at the
same time also responsible for another office at the EFM.
SCOPE OF APPLICATION, STRUCTURE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE
MERLONI EWC
The agreement identified in the EWC the natural response to a growing
Europeanisation of the industrial and commercial activities and the growing need to
complete, at the group level, the development of the industrial relations in terms of
participation, information and consultations. The EWC aim to be the place for an
exchange “of information and discussions on economic, industrial and social matters,
which, owing to their global nature, should usefully be dealt with at that level”. In that
sense the accessible issues will be, as laid down in the agreement:
• The macroeconomic situation of the sector
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• The economic situation and the prospects for the group’s development
• marketing strategies
• investments in products and processes, productive missions and productive volumes in
the group facilities
• employment situation
• in general, decisions that have consequences on supranational scale concerning the
employment levels and the working conditions
When it was set up the EWC aimed to be a place to meet and provide information for
the workers’ representatives from Italy, France, Great Britain and Portugal.
Subsequently, after the selling of the British plant, the British representatives stopped
attending. At the present state of affairs the plants that are represented in the EWC are
those of Italy, France and Portugal, while the British members are expected to return in
representation of the new plants acquired during 2001. At the same time the proposal to
allow the workers’ representatives from Russia, Turkey and Poland to join as observers is
being discussed. This issue will be the subject of analysis at the EWC meeting scheduled
in 2003 in Russia where there will also be the participation of the Russian workers’
representatives.
The make-up of the Merloni EWC participants basically follows the framework laid
down in the 1996 founding agreement, with the only difference being the addition of a
representative for the Italian plants. The agreement states that the EWC should be made
up of 18 workers’ representatives, even if at the moment there are just 16, according to
the principle by which each country in which the group owns at least one plant must have
one representative. Supply members can be designated. At the moment, the EWC is
composed as follows: 10 Italian members (4 Fim, 3 Fiom and 3 Uilm), so that the works
committees of all the plants are represented, 3 French members (the 3 main organisations
are represented) and 3 Portuguese; the reintroduction of 3-4 British members will reflect
the new company dimension deriving from the acquisition of GDA. The Italian
representation also reflects the geographical distribution of the group’s plants. Indeed,
there are 3 representatives for the north, three for the centre and three for the south. The
tenth, as mentioned previously, recently joined as representative of the plant at Brembate
(Bergamo). At the moment the latter plant has 1 representative belonging to the union
Fim-Cisl but in the next few meeting of the EWC there will be a rotation in order to
allow other trades unions (Fiom-Cgil and Uilm-Uil) to attend the meetings. Among the
Italian EWC members there are only two white collar workers, whereas in France the
whole national delegation is represented by white collar workers. Apart from the
workers’ representatives, participation is also allowed for a maximum number of seven
experts, the cost of which is incurred by the Group: 5 Italians (2 Fim-Cisl, 2 Fiom-Cgil
and 1 Uilm-Uil), 1 French unionist and 1 Portuguese unionist, to whom the British
representatives will soon be added. On the other hand, the central management
representatives who pose themselves as interlocutors to the workers’ representation are
the Industrial Relations manager, the Human Resources Director and the three Product
Managers: Cold, Cooking, Washing.
Although inside the Group there is a substantial percentage of women in the
workforce (40%), the exception being Turkey where the female component is a
minimum, the gender make-up of the EWC reflects the traditional male predominance of
the union in the European context. Indeed, out of 16 representatives altogether, just two
women are called to represent the Group’s worker interest. The female participation is
mainly concentrated in the commercial area which in Lugano, the coordination centre of
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the Eastern European Area, reaches a percentage of around 45% and 60% in the Bulgaria
branch.
The composition of the Merloni group’s EWC reflects the structure of the “German
model”, i.e. the full members of the EWC are worker’s representatives. The fact of
belonging to the German model is also reiterated by the fact that the Select Committee is
exclusively made up of two worker’ representatives. From the interview with the Italian
management “insider”, it can however be understood that the managerial representation,
in particular the Industrial Relations manager, plays an important role in the workings of
the EWC, because it is a committee with consultation duties and normally has to provide
information to the company’s workers, so it is the central management’s task to liaise
with the workers’ representation in its role as company representation.
The founding agreement states that “with a view to calling the meetings and setting
the agenda, two representatives from different countries will be chosen from among the
components of the same Committee and/or among the experts and communicated to the
Management…”. At the moment, within the EWC component two people have been
chosen, one Italian and one French, whop have been given the task of calling the
meetings and setting the agenda, together with the Industrial Relations manager. This
organism functions as a Select Committee, acting as a information link and pivot
between the individual Group situations, and is contacted by the management not long
before each yearly meeting. The select committee and the central management thus meet
once a year. While the Italian coordinator has the task of acting a the spokesperson and
reference for the Italian industrial situation, the French coordinator has the same role and
responsibility both for France and Portugal, and soon also for Great Britain.
Formally speaking, the Select Committee, as mentioned above, is made up of two
workers’ representatives but until now when they have met they have always done so in
the presence of the Industrial Relations manager in his role as company interlocutor.
The agreement states that the function of the European Works Council shall be to
“exchange information and discuss economic, industrial and social issues which, owing
to their global nature, are worthwhile dealing with at that level”. Hence, the definition of
information and consultation procedures appears to be rather vague in that it doe not
specify the timescales or the means by which it should take place. It should also be noted
that the term “consultations” has been substituted by the term “discussion“ which,
compared with the former, appears to be much less are binding and implies a reduced
proactive scope of action for the workers’ representatives.
The founding agreement states that every 3 years the agreement will be automatically
renewed “unless written cancellation is given by one of the parties, within three months
of the termination”. As the Merloni group’s EWC was set up in 1996 it is plain to see that
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there have been two renewals: one in 1999 and the other in 2002. The company has
shown a certain willingness to adapt the scope of application of the EWC founding
agreement to the newly acquired companies.
The processes
THE EWC RESOURCES
In compliance with what has been laid down in the agreement, each member of the
EWC is entitled to 32 paid hours to take part in the meetings, usually 16 hours for two
days of meeting and 16 hours for any transfers. Informally the management grants a
larger hour allocation so as to allow the two coordinators to take part in the preliminary
meetings and any other activities pertaining to the EWC.
The secretariat does not have a fixed headquarters as the central management
provides it whereas for the daily activities the local Personnel Office is used.
In order to avoid the organisational rigidity there is a mutual agreement to waiver
the formal identification of a budget. The facilities made available to the EWC members
are the interpreting service during the meeting, and office equipment such as fax,
telephone and computer. Not all the EWC member have internet access and email, but
only the white-collar workers as they use such instruments within their working context.
As reported above, most of the EWC members, at least in Italy, are shop-floor workers
and so very often in order to carry out their jobs they do not need any electronic
instruments of communication.
The agreement provides for the right to request the skills of up to a maximum of 7
experts whose role is supposed to be a skilled support careful not to undermine the
management autonomy of the EWC components. Usually only the Italian experts take
part and hardly ever reach the maximum number allowed. There is usually only one
Fim-Cisl representative as he has taken on the coordination role on behalf of the FEM
(European Federation of Metalworkers). Having received the structural proxy from the
FEM, the Fim-Cisl representative guarantees continuity between the union and the EWC.
At the last meeting the Uilm-Uil representative also took part. The experts are part of the
national secretariat.
TRAINING
On the subject of training, the Merloni Group has so far organised 3 language
courses (Italian language for the Portuguese and the French, and French language for the
Italians) and following the proposal of the EWC to broaden the field of the training for
the past two years they have introduced a labour policy course at the European Union
level. The training courses on the latter subject have been organised by the Industrial
Relations manager and directly funded by the company. By calculating how many days
were invested in 2002 in training it turns out that the Italian, French and Portuguese
members of the EWC attended language courses for 14 days and labour policy courses of
the European Union for 2 days. The training programme for 2002-2003 states that the
training days and the course subjects will remain unchanged. The courses have been
organised in the respective national head offices so they were not performed at the same
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time. The language knowledge is in any case deemed to be inadequate for fluent
communication and understanding of the issues under discussion.
Over the years there have been congresses, open to all of the EWC workers’
representatives, organised by the national trades union of the Fim-Cisl, with a view to
informing and coaching the workers’ representatives in regard to the EWC.
At the last EWC meeting the coordinators have highlighted the need for a further
analysis of the European labour legislation “concomitantly, in other words hypothesising
a time when the EWC representatives of France, Italy, Portugal can meet for two days’
training and not separately with each one in his own country of origin”.
As pragmatism is a distinguishing feature of the Group’s industrial relations, the
management has never asked for the support of the entrepreneurs’ organisations, but has
always “found solutions to everything at home”.
THE MEETINGS
The select committee meeting
The Select Committee, made up of the French coordinator and the Italian
coordinator, meets with the Management two months before the date scheduled for the
EWC meeting. On this occasion the two coordinators and the Industrial Relations
manager, in the presence of the Manager of the International Offices of the Italian Trades
Unions organisations, write up a draft of the agenda comparing the issues proposed by
the management and the requests of the workers’ representatives, previously gathered in
by the two coordinators. The Select Committee is the organism whose task it is to liaise
with the company in the time interval between one meeting and the other. This leads us to
suppose that if there are going to be some organisational changes in the future, the
company management will inform the Select Committee members.
The yearly assembly of the EWC
The founding agreement lays down one EWC meeting a year lasting two days, the
first of which is dedicated to the information exchange between the workers’
representatives and the second to the meeting with the management component. From
1996 until today, including the founding meeting, 7 meetings have been held. No
extraordinary meetings have been held. Before each yearly meeting of the EWC there is a
pre-meeting usually planned two months before to set down the points of the agenda.
The programme of the meeting drafted in the Select Committee’s pre-meeting is
presented to the other EWC members during the preparatory meeting held the day before
the plenary meeting, without the participation of the management. On this occasion the
news on staffing levels, production and general problems have become the core of the
discussion from which more ideas are brought up to be added on to the agenda. Only on
the day of the plenary meeting do all the members receive the file with the presentation,
only in Italian, of the events, dates and company results which took place in the year
under examination and the Group’s future prospects. Later on, there is a discussion phase
in which one of the coordinators puts forward the agenda and the issues to be examined
with the management which will take care to illustrate its replies and conclude with a
summary of the company’s future strategies. At the end of the meeting, which the whole
day is usually dedicated to, the Industrial Relations Manager drafts the minutes of the
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meeting and will send it on for any corrections to the two coordinators whose job it is to
distribute it, during the next meeting, to the other EWC members.
During the interview with the Industrial Relations Manager the information activities
performed at the EWC are illustrated in detail. First of all, the macroeconomic scenario is
illustrated by providing data, first of all, on the market trends at world level, and then at
Italian level. Also illustrated are the sector’s growth rates, how the financial resources
have been deployed, what the competitor situation is, what the acquisitions and the selloffs were during the year, the group’s financial turnover, the investments per factory, the
staff levels (at world level and per factory), the rates of absenteeism and injuries and the
training activities performed. An overview is also provided of what strategic policies the
Group intends to follow both in Italy and abroad.
The quality of the information is deemed to be satisfactory in that it is organic and
reflects the future strategic prospects. According to the Industrial Relations manager, the
management inform the EWC about any sell-offs and acquisitions taking place at the
same time as the company transformation and show a willingness to hold any
extraordinary meetings, which however there has never been a need to call yet. As
regards the case of the acquisition in Russia and in the United Kingdom, for example,
prior communication was given by letter. In the case of the sell-off in Portugal, on the
other hand, as stressed by the Italian union representative, the management pushed by the
insistent requests for clarification by the Portuguese representatives and then by the EWC
all together, communicated its intention to sell the plant one year before its actual
corporate transformation.
According to the Industrial Relations manager, the tendency to focus attention on the
critical domestic issues is very much present among the Portuguese EWC members who
see, in the European body, a chance to have discussions with the Group’s management,
which they would not have other wise at the level of national industrial relations.
The growing concern over possible internal competition linked to the Group’s
internationalisation is posed as a discussion issue in the EWC, but according to the Italian
union the answer received from the management was not satisfactory. At the moment, the
process started up inside the EWC has nevertheless improved the quality of the
information especially for the plants situated abroad in that for the national productive
units the information provision was already guaranteed by the national information and
consultation procedures.
The Industrial Relations manager, as emerges from the interview, takes on the task
of distributing within the managerial area, both Italy and abroad, the documentation
relating to the company presentation. In spite of his availability, it appears that some
problems had emerged as regards the speed and coverage of the distribution both as
regards the management area as and the workers’ representatives. The French outsider
manager states that he receives the meeting report only 6-8 months after the date of the
meeting and so the main information is received informally from the French workers’
representatives.
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OTHER DIMENSIONS OF THE INTERACTION
Interaction internal to the management
On the management side two meetings are recorded with the managerial
representations of the other countries where the Group is present on the occasion of the
two important company transformations which had taken place first of all in the United
Kingdom and then in Portugal. The aim of these tow meetings concerned the chance to
carve out a negotiating space and to overcome ‘painlessly’ the corporate restructuring.
This objective was achieved in both cases.
The outsider manager feels satisfied with the flow of information that comes about
before and after the meetings. Indeed the Industrial Relations manager, as EWC
interlocutor, formally summons the Human Resources managers and consults them first
of all on the possible integrations to be made to the company presentation and, upon
returning informs them about how the issues were developed and which problems had
emerged. During these occasions the minutes of the meeting are distributed. Apart from
these institutional meetings, the Industrial Relations manager meets and brings up to date,
informally, the managerial area that might be interested in the EWC activity.
Interactions between the select committee and the management
The Select Committee of the Merloni EWC, consisting of two people, meets the
management once a year to decide on the agenda. Before setting down the points for
discussion, the coordinators contact the management in order to see whether they are
open to discuss particular issues more deeply. The Italian coordinator meets the central
management more frequently than the other EWC members and compared with the
French coordinator. The meetings nevertheless come about within the Italian level
industrial relations. In the space of one year the Italian coordinator has the chance to have
talks with the central management about 4-5 times altogether.
Furthermore, the select committee is recognised by the Industrial Relations manager
as the natural interlocutor in the event that extraordinary situations need to be discussed.
Interactions between the workers’ representatives within the EWC
At the present time, the two coordinators are the people who see to distributing the
information emerging from the EWC meeting. The Italian coordinator is the person
responsible for Italy while the French coordinator is the person responsible for the
foreign factories. After the meeting the Italian coordinator summons to an informative
meeting exclusively the workers’ representatives of his own manufacturing unit from
Caserta without directly involving the other factories. Parallel with the activities of the
coordinators, all the members of the EWC, by means of photocopies of the minutes and
the files concerning the company presentation, act as communications link-up between
the EWC and the workers’ company representation. The subject of the EWC is still
perceived of as something distant and as a formal moment. The Italian workers’
representation reckons that the distribution of information to the outside is not
sufficiently broad or systematic, whereas the Italian management considers it to be
sufficiently capillary.
From the interview with the Italian coordinator of the EWC we can intuit the wish to
gather inside the EWC the proposals of all the workers’ representatives. At the moment
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there is no formal exchange, at least in Italy, between coordinator and local workers’
representatives in the phase leading up to the yearly meeting, but the hearsay seems to be
the main yardstick.
Furthermore, there are complaints of a lack of interrelations and coordination
between the workers’ representatives at European level mainly due to a claims-based
attitude that is still too closely bound to the national situation and thus lacks a panEuropean vision. The disarticulated approach of the workers’ representatives appeared to
be clearly visible, according to the Italian coordinator interviewed, when the French
representation read out, at the EWC, a communiqué requesting a change in the working
hours in accordance with the national laws without first of all making the issue known to
the other members of the EWC. It is also underlined that the issues presented by the
Portuguese delegate of the EWC regarding the flexibility of the working hours, health
and safety and job safeguards could have been dealt with more effectively if there had
been the adoption of “a single common method across all of the factories in the European
States to put pressure on the company”.
One obstacle that is constantly highlighted by the EWC members is the language
difference that prevents ease of conversation and a fluent exchange of opinions. This
difference has a dissuasive impact on people who might otherwise wish to cultivate
informal relations.
The French EWC delegate highlights the scarce cooperation between the union
representations of the European countries where the Merloni Group is present. The scarce
attention demonstrated by the Italian union to the suggestions put forward by the French
delegate and the fact that he had not received any documentation on the restructuring that
had taken place in the United Kingdom from the British delegates and unions are
provided as examples to demonstrating the quality of the dialogue inside the EWC.
Interactions between the EWC and the union organisations
At the EWC meetings, the group of workers’ representatives always invited the
delegates of the EFM (European Federation of Metalworkers) and the IFMU
(International Federation of Metalworkers’ Unions). From the interview it emerges that
the Fim-Cisl delegate has the role of coordinator on behalf of the FEM on the basis of a
structural proxy and an IFMU representative took part during the Code of Conduct. At
the Italian level the EWC of the Merloni group is followed by the International Office of
the Fim-Cisl, which, besides being the most representative union in the company, acts as
a point of reference for the other two Italian trades unions in the event that none of their
representatives takes part in the meetings.
Until now the problems that have emerged at national level between the three Italian
confederations (Cgil, Cisl, Uil) have not had any repercussions on the working and the
activity of the EWC. From the interview with the Italian union representative we can,
however, perceive the fear that the tripartite union relations will get worse at Italian level,
and that this might also have some negative repercussions on the European body of
representation.
In Turkey the Group has some difficulties relating to the local unions in spite of the
very high rate of unionisation in the companies. The reason for this can be found in the
fact that the union is a pro-government union and is thus a more formal organisation than
one representing the needs of the workers. Furthermore, the Turkish union’s progovernment character leads us to think that there is no real interest in relating with a truly
representative body above all if this organism has an international dimension.
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The Italian coordinator works in close contact with the international offices of the
three trades unions in Italy, so that the latter are informed of any problems that may arise
within the EWC.
The Italian EWC delegate reckons that the EWC is not valorised or utilised fully by
the union and in particular by the union in France and Portugal. The EWC could be an
instrument for coordination between the unionists of different countries but, still in the
opinion of the Italian EWC delegate, it is only considered to be a formal event.
According to the Italian EWC delegate, the Italian union follows the activities of the
EWC members with less interest than it did initially. It is therefore asked that the union
support should become more intense because, although the delegates’ skills have
increased in the past few years, in the international context “there’s always a lot to learn”.
Interactions between the EWC and the nationwide representative
structures
After the EWC meeting, as there is a representative for each plant in Italy, the results
are disseminated by means of the factory assemblies so as to involve the largest possible
number of workers. At the Italian level the contents of the EWC do not appear to offer,
except for the information on the foreign part, an real added value in that the EWC
meetings are scheduled close to the national level information encounters. The Italian
workers’ representatives who take part in the EWC also take part in the Group
Coordination at national level, the reason why there is a direct communication
relationship between the EWC and the national representations.
From the interview with the Italian delegate of the EWC, it can be observed that the
union representatives in the company perceive the EWC as a body of little use. This is
mainly due to a scarce distribution of the EWC results and the fact that the EWC activity
has never had any direct effects on the local level union activities. The lack of negotiating
powers is felt as an impediment to the EWC expressing its full potential.
Interactions between the EWC and the workers
Through the two figures of the coordinators of the select committee, the individual
workers theoretically have the chance to put forward proposals as to which issues to
discuss at the EWC, but for this purpose no structural moment is provided, so the
communication takes place informally through the personal knowledge of an EWC
delegate. As underlined by the Industrial Relations manager, the formalisation of the
moments when the workers’ proposals are listened to would push the EWC to
concentrate mainly on issues having a national relevance. The managerial representation
has always shown itself to be open to examine national issues as well.
Generally speaking the EWC is seen by the workers as a formal meeting in which the
workers’ representatives and the management meet without any real capacity to actually
affect the strategic decisions of the central management. The scarce impact of the EWC
due to its inability to carry out negotiations involves an underestimation of the role of this
European body of representation, above all in the eyes of the workers. The EWC body is
unknown to a fair number of workers.
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The results
WORKING OF THE EWC
Under some circumstances the company has shown itself to be sensitive to the
requests of the workers’ representatives as expressed through the coordinators. This
attention to the union proposals can be understood through two example: the first one
concerns the coordinators’ request, later granted, to have email and the second refers to
the coordinators’ wish to transmit to the EWC office the results reached concerning the
Conduct Agreement, a request later put into practice.
The EWC activity has led to a progressive and continuous mitigation of the internal
frictions and the divergences due to the different industrial relations cultures. The
benchmarking and the exchanging of experiences have allowed the members of the
various countries to better understand what the peculiarities of the other industrial
relations systems are and at the same time have allowed the participants to acknowledge
that the national level issues are often similar. Certainly the nationalisms have been
erased but the EWC delegate himself perceives that over the years the EWC has
contributed to enriching the members’ knowledge and has developed, even if not in a
complete way, a perception of the group no longer limited to a national territory but a
European one.
IMPACT ON THE CORPORATE DECISION-MAKING
At the moment the Merloni group’s EWC performs a mainly informative function. In
the case of the restructuring in Portugal the EWC members have received the information
on the company reorganisation one year before the concrete implementation of the
company strategy, and the commitment expressed by the company in regard to resolving
the problem of any employment cuts in a non-traumatic way has avoided, according to
the Industrial Relations manager, the arising of conflicts within this European body of
representation. It should nevertheless be underlined that in those circumstances,
according to what had emerged from the interviews, the EWC members did not put
forward any specific requests to the central management, and so they did not perform a
consultative function. In any case, according to the Italian union, the expansive phase
which the group is currently going through helps the relationship with the workers’
representatives both at national and at European level in that no problems are posed
concerning the cut in the employment levels.
CODE OF CONDUCT
Awarded the “Pa-Vision” prize for Social Responsibility, Merloni Elettrodomestici
has also been one of the few European multinationals to have underwritten with the
national Italian unions (Fim, Fiom, UIlm) and with the Fism (International Federation of
the Metalworkers’ Unions) a Code of Conduct on the Corporate Social Responsibility, on
17th December 2001. Formally speaking, the Code of Conduct was not underwritten by
the EWC but through the interviews with the Industrial relations manager of the Group it
was understood that the idea of reaching an agreement at international level was born
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inside the EWC. Having had the availability of the Management, it was then decided to
set up a group of EWC experts and management representatives whose purpose it was to
lay down the contents of the agreement.
The Italian insider representative recalls how the initiative of drafting a code of
conduct at world level was initially considered by the other EWC members as an
initiative of the Italian union finalised to extending the national practices to a world level
and for this very reason it was looked upon sceptically.
The forbidding of any form of exploitation, the application of ILO standards in the
field of Health and Safety and the environment, and social development are among the
principles that the Code of Conduct extends to all the States where the Group is present,
even to the States outside the European Union such as Russia, Poland and Turkey. The
Code of Conduct also poses some constraints upon the network of suppliers and the
companies that operate in providing service assistance. The agreement thus structured
sets down the formal commitment of the Merloni Group to respect the norms on child
labour, the principles of union freedom, labour organisation and the safeguarding of
equal opportunities. The monitoring of the actual respect for the social conditions
contemplated by the Code of Conduct is the responsibility of the National Equal
Opportunities Commission, contemplated by the national group agreement. Furthermore,
article 5 of the same Code of Conduct envisages the group’s commitment to provide
information on the implementation and the developments of the agreement during the
national information encounter lad down by the National Collective Labour Contract. For
the countries that do not take part in the EWC it is provided that the information will be
provided to the workers’ representatives and the union organisations in the individual
plants by the local managements.
CORPORATE IDENTITY
The Italian EWC delegate considers the act of recognising the European Directive as
a need on the part of the company to “give itself a European image because it comes from
a family management and needs to build itself the managerial image of a European
company”. It is this believed that Merloni wants to put itself forward in a new European
role as social interlocutor by extending abroad its own industrial relations procedures,
described as “participative” by the management. The work of the EWC certainly has
some implications on the management’s coherence for the coordination of the different
business areas in the different countries. However, the same organisational group set-up
has so far avoided the development of any tension dictated by competition arising
between potentially competing factories. Actually, the group tends to specialise in its
production across different brands, thus excluding a market overlap. Following the
acquisition of some factories in Russia, where 6,000 people are employed, the fear has
increased, especially among the local Italian representatives, of possible employment
reductions within the European Union, as a result of the shifting to low-cost production.
The EWC also takes on the appearance of a “slow enlargement” capable of
accelerating the process of sensitisation to the good industrial relations practices in that it
contributes to triggering off the mechanism by which the worker becomes aware of
belonging to an international business and no longer a local strictly one. According to
the management outsider, the EWC can also act as a kind of “litmus paper”, an ultimate
test to understand the company’s policy and to see how the industrial relations are
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developing in the other countries. The EWC has also contributed to developing greater
attention towards critical issues, such as illegal labour.
HARMONISATION OF THE HUMAN RESOURCES POLICIES
The group’s Industrial Relations manager highlights how the EWC activity has
contributed to a European approach as regards Health and Safety, Equal Opportunities,
Training and Development, Working Conditions and Environment. The workers’
representatives consider the EWC to be the appropriate place to compare the local
situations and the underline the discrepancies in the policies management in order to start
up a process of harmonisation of the Human Resources policies. In this regard, there is
once again the complaint about the lack of the negotiating powers on the part of the
EWC.
Conclusions
From the interview with the Industrial Relations manager it emerges that the issues
dealt with in the EWC are still very much linked to the national problems and so
transversal that involve several countries are not often dealt with. The results achieved by
the EWC seem to be much more useful to the workers’ representatives of France and
Portugal as the Italian representatives already have a direct as well as frequent contact
with the group’s management within the scope of the industrial relations at national level.
In this regard the informative usefulness of the preliminary meeting between the workers’
representatives and the experts should be underlined, a moment in which information and
experiences are exchanged concerning the different situations affecting the national
industrial relations systems.
The Merloni EWC pursues aims that are mainly to provide information and it does
not yet have a consultative and negotiating function. Broadening the EWC powers also in
the negotiating direction is something that the outsider workers’ representatives and the
EWC delegates hope for as the natural continuation of their national activities. Instead
the management reckons that the specificity of the national industrial relations are an
insuperable obstacle to the possible transfer of the different national contractual practices
into a single negotiating channel.
Even the Italian union representative suggests dealing with the theme of extending
the powers of the EWC very carefully indeed as he believes it is still a “very
complicated” matter.
What is inferred from the interviews is the awareness of a growing evolution of the
EWC in the next years. The Italian “outsider” delegates are well disposed to a
development of the EWC powers coherently with the intensification of the European
integration. Therefore, increasing, at the same time as the functional broadening of the
European Union, the powers of the EWC transcending the functions of information and
consultation and elevating it to a negotiating dimension. Actually, although it has not yet
taken place, there is an increased risk of restructuring following the unstoppable
internationalisation of the group. Instead, the management seeks to reduce the national
cultural discrepancies on the issue of industrial relations that hamper and delay the
ordinary fulfilment of the functions that the EWC was contractually supposed to perform,
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making futile the opportunities to achieve structural and functional harmonisation.
However, as the outsider manager suggests, the EWC could be given a great proactive
weight in the field of very broad, generalised issues without ever getting into the details
of the bargaining itself.
From the interviews both with the Italian actors and the French ones it emerges that
the role of the EWC is influenced by the pre-existing relationship between the Italian
union, in particular the union Fim-Cisl, and the central Management. The important role
performed by the national union in the setting up phase of the EWC and the central
function that it still continues to play in the running of the EWC are the result of its
centrality within the scope of the industrial relations at Italian level. The possibility of
evolution of the EWC mostly depend on the cultural set-up of the Italian actors and by
the capacity to develop an international vision of industrial relations even more.
The important role occupied by the national union can be seen in the dynamics that
have led to the underwriting of a world level Code of Conduct with the group. Even on
this occasion the handling of the negotiations was carried out by the external union thus
demonstrating that the activity of the workers’ representatives at company level is
influenced to a greater or lesser extent by the direct impact of the national union
organisations. The French delegate of the EWC feels that the presence of the outside
unions, in the role of experts, can in some way reduce the responsibilities of the workers’
representatives, thus leading them to feel demotivated as regards the issues related to the
EWC.
Another point that emerges from the interview with the Italian actors of the EWC is
the informal way in which the requests made by the workers’ representatives are handled.
Indeed, the Industrial Relations manager satisfies some of the requests raised by the
workers’ representatives without however institutionalising them. If, on the one hand,
this aspect may be interpreted as a positive sign of opening to the proposals of the EWC
delegates, on the other it contains a critical element. Indeed, when there is a changeover
in the people involved in the EWC there will arise a problem of reacquiring those rights
that had previously been granted but had not been formally recognised.
Prospects
One proposal for improvement emerging from the interviews with the “outsider”
workers’ representatives consists in hypothesising a greater frequency in the meetings. In
the first place, with reference to a moment of evaluation, after the meeting with the
management, in which discussions can be held inside the EWC as regards the contents of
the information obtained and/or planning a second yearly meeting at the EWC level. In
the second place, the Italian EWC delegate suggested increasing the number of meetings
of the Coordination Committee in order to intensify the contacts and thus avoid the
problem, which had occurred several times, of overlapping requests from the French and
the Italian coordinators. Another proposal launched by the Italian EWC delegate
consisted in planning immediately at the end of the EWC meeting an encounter with the
Group Coordination at Italian level so as to disseminate the information obtained both
reapidly and efficiently.
The company’s internationalisation phase is not at the present time felt to be a source
of danger in terms of the competition inside the company. Indeed, the products
manufactured in Eastern Europe not only supply different markets but also have
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inadequate technical standards to enter the Western European markets. The fear that is
perceived very clearly from the interviews, however, is that when the technological and
qualitative gap is bridged then the low labour costs characterising the manufacturing
units in Eastern Europe could trigger off a competitive mechanism inside the company.
In this light, the EWC could carry out a phase of monitoring and control of the company
dynamics. In order to prevent such a situation, the Italian EWC delegate would like the
management to invest more in the technological innovation of the manufacturing units of
Western Europe.
The management considers it to be worthwhile extending the chance to join the
EWC also to Poland, Turkey and Russia so as to be able to provide the parties in play
with some indications about the company and the conduct by means of which to start up
a cultural development addressed to shaping an industrial relations attitude no longer
limited to national dynamics. This objective appears to be compliant with what is laid
down in the introductory phase of the founding agreement of the EWC in which the
participative climate of the industrial relations of the Merloni group are considered to be
“the cultural premise to achieve, in the company, a definite multinational vocation”. The
external EWC management representative suggests setting up some training meetings for
the management in which the different national industrial relations system are illustrated,
especially in regard to the Eastern European countries. This would help the managerial
class to better orient themselves in strategic terms in a territorial area that is still not very
well known industrially speaking.
In order to start up a prudent phase of negotiations the Italian EWC delegate put
forward the proposal of setting up some commissions inside the EWC on specific issues
and in particular as concerns Health and Safety, and Training. The project would consist
in regular three-monthly meetings of the commissions whose members, also developing
negotiating skills, compare the national situations and deal with formulating proposals for
improvement that would then be discussed at the EWC.
The French EWC delegate believes that the EWC should have a greater influence
and above all try to better analyse the affiliated companies putting greater effort and
attention on the information coming from the outlying group situations. The French EWC
delegate also suggests integrating the EWC inside the Coordination Committee set up
with the Code of Conduct in order to see whether the company’s behaviour has always
been compliant with the principles laid down in the Code of Conduct itself. Furthermore,
the French delegate of the EWC complains of the scarce consideration afforded by the
Italian unionists to the outlying union representatives who take part as experts in the
EWC meetings.
The Italian union has a dominant role in regard to the company-level workers of the
other countries in that it is the interlocutor with which the group relates within the scope
of the industrial relations at Italian level. This central position is perceived of as a limit
by the French EWC delegate who suggests containing the number of trades union
representatives. The Italian EWC delegate highlights the fact that some thought should be
devoted to how to transform the role of the external union so that it no longer acts as a
protagonist but takes on a supporting function by means of which the EWC delegates
themselves can be helped to grow.
147
References
Minutes of the meeting on 21st September 1993
Documentation (management presentation) relating to the EWC meeting in Gubbio on
18th-19th July 2002
Agreement on the Code of Conduct
Founding agreement of the EWC on 19th July 1996
148
The interviewees
Italian Delegate, Insider:
• she has worked for the group since 1975 as a manual worker
• has dealt with union activities in the company for 20 years
• is a member of the company-level works committee for the Fim-Cisl
• member of the works committee executive for the Caserta factory. The executive has
the job of coordinating the work of the commission and organising the bargaining
• member of the group coordination
• takes part in the territorial, provincial, regional, national, and sectoral trade union
directive (Fim-Cisl)
• takes part in the provincial and regional directive of the confederation (Cisl)
• has been a member of the EWC since 1996. She was elected by the works committees
of the Fim-Cisl
• she did not take part in the negotiations for the founding agreement of the EWC
• the motivation that pushed her to accept was the desire to “broaden her horizons”
• Italian coordinator of the EWC
Italian Delegate, outsider:
• has worked on the assembly line at the Caserta plant for 18 years
• has dealt with union activities inside the company for 12 years
• is a member of the works committee for the Fim-Cisl
• is a member of the provincial secretariat of the Fim
• is a member of the provincial and regional directorate of the Fim
• is a member of the national group coordination
Italian Delegate, outsider:
• works in the pre-assembly sector of the Caserta plant
• has dealt with union activity in the company for 6 years
• is a member of the works committee for the Fim (trade union of the Cisl
metalworkers)
• is a member of the provincial trade union directorate of the Fim
Italian management, insider:
• is responsible for the group’s industrial relations
• has worked for the group since 1996
• took part in the negotiations for the setting up of the EWC
Italian unionist who follows the Group at national level
Italian management, outsider:
• has been the Human Resources manager of the plant at Caserta
• has a dual role: Human Resources manager as regards Customer Care and since
January 2003 also Human Resources manager for Eastern Europe (with head office in
Lugano)
149
French delegate, insider:
• Union delegate of the FO union: central union delegate appointed to the Central
Works Council and secretary of a Works Council (Thionville site)
• Departmental secretary of FO (Metallurgy) in Moselle (USM)
• Coordinating Member of non-Italian representatives at the Merloni EWC since its
establishment in 1996
French Management, outsider:
• Assistant Director of the Thionville site for several months now, after having been
Human Resources Director for many years.
150
Whirlpool Group
Summary
The Whirlpool Europe Employee Committee (WEEC) has been operative for seven
years and is fitted into an industrial relations context having a co-operative nature. In
this period the WEEC has on several occasions taken on an active role within the scope
of restructuring processes. Even if in certain cases the WEEC has managed to influence
the way certain Whirlpool Europe management decisions had been implemented, there
nevertheless remains the problem of a clear and shared definition of the role of the
WEEC. Evaluations and expectations of the workers’ representatives vary from country
to country and depend on the efficacy of the respective industrial relations model. While
the management rates the WEEC experiences to be very positive the workers’
representatives see the need for a further development of this new representation body. In
order to achieve this shift it is believed to be important to invest in training activities.
One of the most important issues for the future regards competition between the facilities
at international level. In order to deal with this challenge the workers’ representatives
identify the group’s social responsibility, in general, and the standardisation of the rights
at group level, in particular, as issues to be faced at the WEEC level.
The company
Founded in 1911 Whirlpool is today the largest producer and distributor of large
electrical appliances in the world, with its main brands being KitchenAid, Roper,
Bauknecht, Ignis, Polar, Estate, Inglis, Laden, KIC, Brastemp, Consul as well as the
world brand Whirlpool. The Group, in spite of its current world set-up, bases its
corporate foundations on the family-styled activities that had developed over the years in
small American cities, and which were progressively taken over. As a matter of fact, the
main nucleus of the group took shape at St. Joseph in Michigan (United States) from a
factory making electric washing machine engines, the Upton Machine Co., which was
joined by the Nineteen Hundred Kasher Co. in 1929 through a merger, changing its name
to Whirlpool Co. in 1950.
With its central headquarters at Benton Harbor, Michigan (United States), the Group
has plants in 13 countries and markets products with 11 main products in over 170
countries. In North America and in Latin America, where it actually holds a market share
double that of its closest competitor, Whirlpool is the major supplier of electrical
appliances. In 1991, following the acquisition of the shares remaining from the 1989 joint
venture with the Dutch N.V.Philips, Whirlpool Europe became to all effects an associated
partner of the Whirlpool Corporation. In 1995 the Group also extended its presence to
India, China and Pacific Asia. In 1996 Whirlpool Europe penetrates South Africa with
the acquisition of Gentrade and it opened two commercial subsidiaries in Romania and
Bulgaria. In 1997 it acquired 66% of Brasmotor and established a strategic alliance with
151
Transamerica Co. through the sale of the Whirlpool Financial Co. Starting from 1998
there has been a tendency to shift the operative responsibility for the Asiatic Business
towards Europe.
As a result of the acquisition of the Polish producer of electrical appliances Polar in
2002 Whirlpool has consolidated its presence in Eastern Europe.
152
Table 1: Key Statistics for each territorial Area.
Geographical
area
Market
position
Sales Volume
(millions)
2001
2002
Operating profit(millions)
2001
2002
2001
2002
North America
n.1
$ 6.580
$ 7.306
$ 758
$ 830
26.000
32.000
Europe
n. 3
$ 2.060
$ 2.199
$ 39
$ 81
12.000
14.000
Latin America
n. 1
$ 1.490
$ 1.266
$ 134
$ 107
15.000
17.000
$ 391
$ 19
$ 14
6.000
5.000
Leader among
the western
Asia
companies
$ 373
and no. 1 in
India
Source: Balance 2002, Balance 2001.
Workers
Productive
sites
United States
Canada
Mexico
Sweden, France,
Germany, Italy,
Slovakia, South
Africa, Poland
Brazil
International
(Embraco)
India
China
The Group subdivides its business activity into four macro geographic areas: North
America, with head office at Benton Harbor, Europe, with head office at Comerio (Italy),
Latin America, with head office at San Paulo (Brazil) and Buenos Aires (Argentina) and
Santiago (Chile), and Asia, with head office at Hong Kong (China). Each macro-region
presents an autonomous managerial structure, that is to say for each geographical area a
Chairman and some Vice-Chairmen is identified. The management structure at macro
regional level, such as Europe, is separate from the managerial structures at national
level. The group activities are thus in the first place organised according to the criteria of
the macro-regions. Inside the macro-regions a differentiation by function is applied. The
main functional areas of the company rest mainly on a structural framework the national
or the macro-regional level. Some functions are centralised at global level owing to their
strategic role. This is true for example of the technological area. The function of
acquiring component supplies is instead situated on the European management level. The
strategic policy has been decided together by regional and global management.
Whirlpool’s European operative centre is in Italy, along with 4 plants (Varese,
Trento, Siena and Naples) that employ about 6,000 people altogether. Comerio (Varese)
is also identified as the head quarters of the Commercial Division Italy, distributing large
electrical appliances across the whole of the national territory. The Group in Europe
ranks third as producer and in first place with the brand Whirlpool. The other European
nations hosting plants of the group are Sweden, France, German, Slovakia, Poland and,
out of a purely taxonomic necessity, South Africa, making a total, including the Italian
workforce, of 14,000 workers and an operating profit of $81 million in 2002.
The Whirlpool Group disposes of a single platform and global business structure,
indeed focussed on electrical appliance, from which to develop strategies aiming
principally to conquer or to maintain the brand’s leading world ranking. Hence, the
strategy main focuses on continuing technological research addressed to product as well
as service innovation, in order to implement a process of loyalty, thereby meaning the
brands will be appreciated and requested by the customer for their uniqueness. With the
aim of pursuing evident advantages in terms of labour costs and to ensure itself a direct
153
presence in the new markets, the group is implementing a policy of penetration in the
Eastern markets, mainly through the acquisition of companies with a consolidated
position on the local market. An example is the recent acquisition of two plants in Poland
and one production transfer, from Sweden to China, of a product whose range was not
considered to be competitive enough for the western market..
The international crisis has brought about in the last few years, particularly in 2001, a
rapid drop in profits and as a consequence the Group has had to cut staff levels on a
world scale, bring the number of employees down from 62,527 (2000) to 61,923 (2001),
after which there was a rapid recovery in 2002 with 68,272 (see Table 2). In Italy the
redundancies involved 185 workers, 90% of whom white-collar workers, who, following
the agreement with the three trades unions (FIOM, FIM, UILM) were subdivided as
follows: 86 in Cassinetta, 58 in Comerio, 18 in Naples, 14 in Trento and 9 in Siena.
Table 2: Global statistics of Whirlpool Corporate. Sales, Profits and Employees (1992-2002)
YEAR
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
Source: Balance 2002
Net sales
(millions of dollars)
Net profits
(millions of dollars)
Workers
7.097
7.368
7.949
8.163
8.523
8.617
10.323
10.511
10.325
10.343
11.016
205
51
158
209
156
15
325
347
367
21
394
38.902
40.071
39.671
46.546
49.254
62.419
59.885
62.706
62.527
61.923
68.272
The net profits had indeed fallen in the last three months of 2001 to 21 million
dollars, compared with the 367 million dollars of 2000, while the sales volume had
remained unchanged, considering the same time interval. 2002 saw a constant recovery in
net profits and at the same time a 6.5% increase in net sales, considering the recent
acquisitions of Polar S.A. in Poland and Vitromatic S.A..
Both the management and the union side believe the industrial relations system
inside the group to be co-operative, without in any case excluding the chance of there
being conflicts a priori. In Italy the group’s industrial relations history could be
subdivided into two main phases. The first one when the group was still called IRE
(Industrie Riunite Elettrodomestici) characterised by persistent conflicts and the second
phase that followed the acquisition by Whirlpool Corporation, marked by a more cooperative approach. The co-operative nature of the second phase appears, in the Italian
case, through the company level establishment of a dense network of works committees,
at times also with the decision-making powers on specific issues. The climate of
reciprocal trust led to the signing of the first integrative contract in 1995, later renewed in
154
2000, without recording a single hour’s strike. The co-operative model is not limited to
the Italian territory but also extends to the whole of the European context.
As regards the presence of the union in the European sites of the group, on average
there is a very high union membership rate. According to the management estimates in
Italy, German and France the unionisation rate is around 80%, and in Poland it is around
60%.
According to the WEEC representatives, the industrial relations culture in Europe is
positively distinguished from the practices of the group in the United States where the
relations are less co-operative and where it may happen that the company will try not to
let the union enter the group companies. Instead, as regards Whirlpool Europe the
corporate-level management has been sufficiently far-sighted to a heed the suggestions of
the European managers in regard to industrial relations, and in particular in relation to the
establishment of the WEEC.
The establishment of the European committee of
Whirlpool employees
THE ESTABLISHMENT PHASE
On 11th September 1996, in Varese, an agreement was signed between Whirlpool
Europe srl and the workers’ representatives, concerning the establishment of the
Whirlpool Europe Employee Committee - WEEC. Considering the date of establishment,
it is a voluntary agreement based on art.13. The negotiations lasted for eight months, but
the idea had already been born years before during a meeting at Bellinger (near Stuttgart,
Germany) where the representatives of the European facilities tool part, particularly
interested in a benchmark on the international plan, and organised by the German
metalworkers’ union IG Metall in relation to the Italian unions FIM, FIOM and UILM
and the European Metalworkers Federation (EMF)].
Then the Italian and the German delegates together with their respective
metalworking unions take the initiative for the establishment of a European committee.
On 15th and 16th February 1996, at a meeting between union delegates and managers it
was agreed to ask the management to open the negotiations to set up a European
Company Committee, and for that purpose it was decided to call a negotiating
commission empowered to carry on talks with the company about the setting up
agreement. The commission involved company representatives from the Varese-based
FIM, FIOM and UILM, and the representatives of Italy and German of the national union
organisations belonging to the FEM. The agreement was then also signed by two German
delegates, two French delegates and a Swedish delegate. The management representation
comprised the then-Chairman of Whirlpool Europe, now number two at world level, the
Human Resources Representatives of France and Germany, as well as two Italian
management representatives. In the agreement itself it is laid down that the committee’s
headquarters should be in Varese, in other words, at the Management headquarters of
Whirlpool in Europe and the Human Resources area.
In 1994-95, in preparing for the establishment of the WEEC, some Whirlpool group
workers’ attended some specific training seminars on the specific issues concerning the
electrical appliances sector, organised jointly with the national Italian, Spanish and
155
German unions. The delegates of the Merloni and Electrolux unions were also present at
these seminars. In the initial phase the Italian management representatives also took part
in some European and national training seminars on the issue of the European works
committees. At national level they received consulting from the Confederation of Italian
Industry network.
OBJECTIVES OF THE WEEC
The scope of application of this agreement is not just limited to the countries affected
by the directive, but is also extended to Slovakia and Switzerland. Initially, the
agreeement also provided for the enforcement of the provisions in the United Kingdom,
when that country had not yet enforced the EC 94/95Directive .There is an opening
clause in the WEEC agreement that lays down that "the extension of the geographical
area in order to cover the other other European countries will be taken into consideration
time by time, as the activities of Whirlpool in Europe further develop". In this regard,
there is the presence, as guests, of 2 representatives from the Polish facilities whose
particiaption will be officialised starting from June 2005. Furthermore, the management
has been asked that the South African representative should also be allowed to take part
as a guest at the upcoming meetings. The objectives set down in the setting up agreement
provide for information and consultation procedures within the scope of a dialogue
between workers' representatives and the management in a transnational perspective
without undermining the practices for providing information and consultations already
existing at local level. The parties are keen to define the issues relevant to the WEEC
competencies and those that are excluded a priori. Indeed, after having assumed bona
fide and reciprocal confidence as key principles and having decided that the management
(both central and local) will continue to have exclusive responsibilities for their own
activities and their own decisions in the financial, commercial and technological fields,
the competencies of the WEEC are listed (art. 5):
• the economic and financial developments;
• the situation and the employment trends;
• the environmental issues and the subject of health and safety;
• developments in the field of production and sales;
• investment programmes;
• the introduction of new working methods or production processes;
• the transfer of production, the mergers and the collective staff reductions;
• significant changes of an operative or organisational nature.
Issues lying beyond the scope of the WEEC are identified as being the following ones:
• issues mainly concerning a single country or company, that would normally be dealt
with locally;
• issues that refer to individual, personal or political matters.
Initially, the WEEC was made up of 23 workers’ representatives. The workers’
representatives are elected or appointed in the various national contexts by their
respective representative bodies, as long as they have been workers of the group for at
least a year. At the moment the number has gone down to 22 owing to the closure of a
factory in Germany (Table 3). In general, all the European countries with over 75
workers are represented. It should be underlined that also the non-Community countries
156
like Switzerland and Slovakia are fully represented. In spite of the repeated invitations
until today the delegates of Switzerland and Austria have never taken part in the WEEC
assemblies. The United Kingdom delegate had instead taken part once in 1997, then
never took up any of the subsequent invitations. At the meeting in 2003 of the WEEC
two Polish delegates also took part as guests; indeed, as alredy mentioned, they will
become ordinary members of the WEEC as of 2005. The Whirlpool group has thus
always proven to be willing to guarantee some representation in all the European
countries, inclduing the non-European ones. Also in the initial phase of the WEEK when
the UNited Kingdom had not yet assimilated the European directive the group
nevertheless accepted the inclusion of a United Kingdom representative. It can thus be
argued that the WEEC,but adopting this practice, has gone well beyond the standards laid
down by the European directive.
On the one hand, if the WEEC is made up of employees' representatives, on the other
the WEEC assemblies are chaired by the Chairman of Whirlpool Europe, or by a
substitute designated by the management. During the meetings, besides the Chairman, the
management team is also made up of the Operations managers, two representatives of the
Human Resources area, by the Manufacturing Directors, the European Director of
Communications, the Human Resources Directors from each country represented in the
WEEC and by any other company leaders compatibly with the issues added onto the
agenda. Unlike the all-maleunion representation, the management delegation shows a
near equal gender make-up.
157
Table 3: Composition of the WEEC and number of Whirlpool Group employees, 2003
Country
Austria
Belgium
Portugal
Spain
Denmark
Sweden
Finland
France
Germany
Great Britain
Greece
Holland
Ireland
Italy
Europe EU 15
Letonia
Lithuania
Hungary
Poland
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Estonia
EU candidate countries in 2004
Norway
Switzerland
Romania (candidate 2007)
Bulgaria (candidate 2007)
Rest of Europe
Total Europe
Rest of the World
World
White Collar
38
122
20
51
22
182
24
352
913
115
35
169
122
1.581
3746
6
3
30
441
37
132
5
654
28
171
20
5
224
4.624
1
1
2
2
3
1
1
1
8
21
2 invited
1
1
1
1
22
Employees
Blue Collar
476
669
1.569
4.339
7.053
1.595
818
2.413
9.466
Total
38
122
20
51
22
658
24
1.021
2.482
115
35
169
122
5.920
10.799
6
3
30
2.036
37
950
5
3.067
28
171
20
5
224
14.090
54.182
68.272
THE CO-ORDINATION COMMITTEE
The agreement also provides for the establishing of a co-ordination committee made
up of four members:
The chairman, or his substitute, will co-operate, according to the terms of the
agreement, with the co-ordinators and the secretary, as referent for the approval of the
agenda, the minutes and the meeting location.
Two co-ordinators, one of whom chosen by the company management (ViceChairman of Human Resources Europe or substitute) and one chosen by the workers’
representatives. Their role consists of preparing, in accordance with the terms of the
agreement, the proposals for the agenda and the minutes of the meetings, and establishing
the location of the WEEC meeting, in co-ordination with the secretary and the approval
of the Chairman.
The secretary will be chosen from among the workers’ representatives in the WEEC
and will co-operate, according to the terms of the agreement, with the co-ordinators on
the agenda proposals and the drafting of the minutes of the committee meeting.
158
In actual fact, the Industrial Relations manager at the level of Whirlpool Europe
takes on the role of secretary of the co-ordination committee.
Formally speaking, seeing its composition, the WEEC could be classified as an
example of the German model. But the actual role of the management during the yearly
assemblies and its formal presence in the coordination committee through the figures of
the Chairman, the Co-ordinator, and the Secretary brings the WEEC closer to a Frenchstyle experience.
The workers' representatives can make use of the support of two experts whose
intervention, if they are outsiders, requires the approval of the Chairman. In general two
experts take part from the union organisations. On eof the experts is a representative of
IG Metall, while the second expert participates on behalf of the territorial structure of the
FIOM, one of the three Italian metalworkers unions. The Italian expert is nevertheless a
Whirlpool employee, whereas in the past it was an ordinary member of the WEEC.
The agreement provides for two meetings a year: besides the yearly meeting of the
WEEC there is also a meeting of the co-ordination committee 3 months before the
WEEC meeting. The yearly WEEC meeting with the management is preceded by a premeeting of the workers' delegates and is followed by a half-day evaluation meeting introduced with the renewal of the agreement -, that too only among the delegates'
representatives. lastly, there follows a short final encounter between the WEEC and the
management delegation during which a joint reprot is drafted. Also contemplated is the
chance to hold extraodinary meetings in cases of reorganisation and closures having an
impact in terms of employment figures.
Regulations to govern its functioning have not yet been approved.
THE PROCEDURES FOR PROVIDING INFORMATION AND
CONSULTATIONS
The setting up agreement for the WEEC defines the concept of talks as “… an
exchange of points of view and the opening of a dialogue between the management and
the workers' representatives”. This amounts to a rather vague formulation in that it does
not specify the timescales and the terms by which the talks must take place. At the same
time it is underlined that the agreement establishing the WEEC “… will not affect the
prerogatives of central and local management that will continue to have exclusive
reponsibilities for its activities, the financial, commercial and technological decisions at
local, transnational and European levels."
According to the secretary of the co-ordination committee the approach of the
Whirlpool Europe management is nevertheless characterised by a willingness to hear the
WEEC suggestions. The preventative discussions are considered to be the best way to get
to a shared decision and to avoid the costs of a possible conflicts that could arise
following the failure to participate.
On 26th and 27th June 2000 the WEEC met at Schorndorf, near Stuttgart in
Germania, and during that meeting the workers' representatives, as the setting up
agreeement had a four-year duration, officially presented the application for the renewal
with the necessary changes to make the committee closer and more relevant to the
159
workers' needs. A negotiating body, appointed on that very occasion, was given the task
of defining with the company the variations and the integrations to be brought to the 1996
agreement.
The contract renewal again took place in 2000. The representativse of Italy,
Germany and Belgium took place in the renewal of the agreement. On that occasion some
important changes were made of an organisational and functionalnature as compared with
the original draft. First of all, the number of members of the workers' co-ordination
committee was increased to now include the representatives of Germany, France and
Belgium. In particular, these are two workers' representativees from Italy. a Belgian, a
Frenchman and a German. For germany and Italy there are also the respective union
experts participating at the meetings of the co-ordination committee. In general, the
management is represented by the secretary, the coordinator and a German management
representative. The select committee, set up as just described, meets about three months
before the yearly meeting of the WEEC in order to lay down the issues to be added on to
the agenda. Under these circumstances the company does not provide any interpreting
services. It should be stressed that with the new make-upof the co-ordination committee
the workers' representatives dispose of the majority of the seats which means that their
role has become more proactive than in the past. The fact that with German and Belgium
two more countries are represented in the co-ordination committee assures that also from
the standpoint of the affiliates it is taken into consideration more. So the co-ordination
committee contains representatives from those countries that had been represented in the
contracting group, and France as well.
Another variation introduced following the renewal of the agreement was the
prolonging of the yearly meetings of the WEEC to three days, as compared with the two
days previously allowed. The third additional day is partly reserved to allowing a
moment for evaluation on the part of the workers’ representatives and the definition of a
joint WEEC and management document to be distributed among the workers and to the
various management bodies. The renewal of the agreement has thus contributed to an
improvement in the working of the WEEC.
The Processes
THE RESOURCES OF THE WEEC
In order to fulfil its functions the WEEC makes use of the technical instruments and
the secretariat made available both by the company-level works committees (RSU) of the
Varese facility, and the company offices of the Human Resources Area of Whirlpool
Europe. In the practice of the WEEC it is the secretary, that is the manager of Industrial
Relations at the level of Whirlpool Europe who has the task of guaranteeing the
operations of the WEEC and acting as an element of continuity between management and
the workers’ representatives.
The WEEC members have telephone and fax at their disposal. Also, each member of
the WEEC has an internet access available and an email account, with password, so as to
ease and accelerate the flow of internal information. Teed on all three days of the yearly
WEEC meeting. As English is the official language the simultaneous translations are in
Italian, French, German and at the last meeting in Polish as well. As the representatives
of Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden and Slovakia are able to understand one of these
160
languages or English as the official language, a simultaneous translation is not provided
for their languages.
At the meeting of the co-ordinating committee the language spoken is English and no
translation service is planned. Also thanks to the presence of experts and management
representatives it is nevertheless possible to make up for the lack of a simultaneous
translation service by resorting to the personal language skills of the participants. During
the three days of the yearly meeting, the workers’ representatives have the chance to visit
the plant where the meeting is being held. The company incurs all the organisational
expenses accruing from the meeting but does not set aside a specific fund or budget.
Apart from the authorisations that are granted for the participation in the yearly meetings,
there is no specific additional hourly total dedicated to the activities related to the WEEC.
For some of the Italian representatives it would not even be possible in that they are
detached and already carry out union activities on a full-time basis.
The setting up agreement of the WEEC provides for the presence of two experts, at
the present time one Italian and a German. The contribution made by the Italian expert
derives from his own working position. Indeed, as he is employed at the management
centre, he has a knowledge of the organisational set-up, the group strategies and the
sector in general. The German expert, in his role as a shop steward, offers skilled
consulting in regard to the working and the role of the European company committees, on
community norms concerning the procedures for providing information and
consultations, and also acts as a link-up between the WEEC and the FEM. The skills of
the two experts are considered to be complementary and as a whole very useful for the
working of the WEEC.
TRAINING
Following the renewal of the agreement the commitment of the group to offer
English courses to the WEEC members is reconfirmed. Ever since the setting up of the
European committee in 1996 there have been English language training courses that had
not been as successful as hoped in that, according to the management, the rotation of the
workers’ representatives, which is due to processes of turnover concerning the delegates
at the level of the national structures of interest representation, meaning that there are
always new workers’ representatives who have to start to study English. According to the
Italian member of the WEEC the courses have contributed to developing enough skills as
to be able to conduct telephone conversations and write and read emails in English.
According to the members of the WEEC the group’s availability to provide language
training courses aims to contributing in the future to containing costs through the
elimination of the simultaneous translating costs. The WEEC, on the other hand, believes
that the English language courses are useful, but believes simultaneous translation to be
equally indispensable during the yearly meetings in order to have the chance to express
oneself in one’s own native language.
The secretary of the co-ordinating committee reports that the group has also
organised some courses for reading economic data. These courses, along with the
language courses, have been organised at national level. Furthermore, there have been
courses concerning, for example, the new company procedures.
Part of the workers representatives consider it important to analyse more deeply the
training in specifically corporate issues so as to have a clearer and more accurate view of
the data presented during the meeting and thus have greater competence and authority in
161
the discussion phase. Requests for further training courses have been put forward by the
workers’ representatives, but they have not yet been implemented, above all owing to a
lack of funding.
The Swedish member of the WEEC has exclusively taken part in a seminar
organised by the metalworkers’ union at national level whose aim was to promote an
exchange of experiences.
THE MEETINGS
The meeting with the co-ordination committee
The agenda of the meeting is established by the co-ordination committee three
months before the official meeting. This meeting, lasting one day, is usually made up of
two phases: a meeting of the workers’ representatives alone and subsequently a meeting
with the managerial representation making up the co-ordination committee. The members
of the co-ordination committee are committed to disseminating the agenda together with
the documentation translated into the various languages at least 4 weeks before the
WEEC meeting in order to allow all the members to examine and, if need be, supplement
the agenda and study the management presentation. While the agenda and the
documentation can generally be sent early it is not always possible to send the translated
documents out in all the languages. Nevertheless, it seems that this failure has not so far
been the reason for any criticism. Generally speaking, the rule is that all the members of
the WEEC are informed of the results of the meetings of the co-ordination committee.
According to the co-ordinator of the WEEC, the workers’ co-ordination committee
often meets twice a year: once to prepare the yearly WEEC assembly, and another time
for reasons of extraordinary events such as the cases of restructuring in Germany and
France, or for the acquisition of the site in Poland. Up until 2003 the co-ordination
committee has had four extraordinary meetings. It should nevertheless be noted that an
extraordinary assembly of the WEEC has never taken place, which had been provided for
by the agreement. In all cases the co-ordination committee was summoned, at times
broadened to involve the delegates of the affected country. In any case until now this
practice appears to be sufficient, seeing that it is not criticised by any of the interviewees.
Since 1996 the WEEC has always met yearly, making a total of eight time including the
2003 meeting.
The yearly WEEC assembly
Within the scope of the yearly assembly of the WEEC the preparatory meeting
represents an occasion in which the various workers’ representatives, in the absence of
the management, can benchmark their own experiences at the level of national industrial
relations and through a process of international benchmarking they can draw inspiration
from any good practices enforced in the other countries. Relations with the various
WEEC members are then also compared with the management information in order to
see whether there exist any contradictions. The reports of the WEEC members also have
a controlling function. Furthermore, this worker representation meeting serves to prepare
for the meeting with the management on the following day. According to the Swedish
member of the WEEC the time made available for the preparatory meeting is not enough.
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It would important for the WEEC to have more time available to deepen the discussion
among the delegates.
On the second day, usually in the morning, the management starts the meeting with a
presentation that also takes account of the requests of the workers’ representatives. After
that a debate is started with the workers’ representatives aimed at discussing their
remarks and questions. The members of the WEEC may ask questions quite freely, but it
is mentioned that the time available is not enough. The afternoon of the second day is
dedicated to the evaluation phase just for the workers’ representatives. At the start of the
third day the workers’ representatives again meet with the management in order to
express their observations according to what had been said during the assessment the day
before, and here a joint report is also drafted between the WEEC and the management
representatives. This communication is then disseminated by the secretary and displayed
on the notice-boards of the various facilities. The rest of the third day is dedicated to a
visit to the relevant production site, and to the cultural programme which is considered to
be important in order to foster cohesion inside the WEEC.
From the point of view of the Italian members of the WEEC, the quality and the
speed of the information are deemed to be satisfactory in that the company usually tends
to inform the WEEC members early on through ordinary or extraordinary meetings, as in
the case of the restructuring in German, Sweden and France. The information is provided
immediately prior to making the decisions public.
The bulk of the information presented by the management during the official meeting
is sent to all of the WEEC members at least 4 weeks before in order to facilitate
intelligibility. Also from a quantitative perspective the information receives a positive
judgement. The information provided does not just regard the European situation but also
the global context, thus including information about the trends and the orientations of the
group at corporate level. The problem that does emerge is the participants’ inability to
select and read the data shown. There is thus the risk of not achieving an exact and
complete picture of how and in what the direction the company is heading.
In order to deal with this problem, but also to verify the coherence of the information
received, the workers’ representatives have decided to circulate a kind of questionnaire
among the WEEC members in order to survey information on the various facilities and to
compare these reports with the information provided by the management. This procedure
should, consequently, also serve to prepare better and make the encounter with the
management more effective.
Within the scope of the procedures for information and consultation at national level
the Italian delegates have had a good amount of access to the information on the group’s
strategic choices. The good level of information was obviously also due to the proximity
between representation bodies and the central management of Whirlpool Europe.
Nonetheless, the Italian member of the WEEC states that now at European level the
Italian delegates obtain some information, above all as regards the situation in the other
countries and the corporate strategies, which they previously did not have access to. This
information is useful aslo from the national point of view and thus represent an added
value for the Italian delegates. The added value could be even more significant for the
representation structures in the other countries, seeing that they do not have this
advantage of being situated close to the central management.
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This hypothesis is not confirmed by the Swedish delegate. For the Swedish
representatives inside the WEEC the information received through the procedures of
information and consultation at national level is more advanced as compared with what
was presented during the WEEC meetings. Thus the information obtained within the
scope of the WEEC do not provided any added value.
OTHER INTERACTION DIMENSIONS
Interaction between the co-ordination committee and the management
Before the drafting of the agenda the co-ordination committee informs all of the
management bodies so that they all have a chance to express their opinion or proposals to
be added to the agenda. The Italian management outsider is also generally asked for some
data to be provided to whoever is participating for the management in the WEEC
assemblies. Furthermore, in the past few years he has also taken part in two briefings
concerning the WEEC.
The minutes produced at the end of the WEEC meeting are sent by email to all “the
country leaders and all the plant directors” and is translated into three languages: Italian,
French and German.
Among the Italian members of the co-ordination committee there are very frequent
relations. The representatives of the workers and the management representatives,
particularly the secretary of the co-ordination committee meet, including informally,
nearly every day. Obviously their meetings occur nearly always within the scope of the
national industrial relations.
Interaction between the workers’ representatives inside the WEEC
The Italian representatives inside the WEEC do not voice any particular problems
concerning misunderstanding between the different workers’ representatives due to the
cultural duversities but, on the contrary, highlight the substantial exchange of
information. The Italian worker’ representation is perceived as being dominant by the
Swedish member interviewed. This domination, however, does not appear to have had
any negative effects on the working of the WEEC; indeed, it is seen to be a sign of good
cohesion inside the WEEC.
In the time interval elapsing between one meeting and the next, the WEEC members,
mainly from Germany, France, Belgium and Italy, are in touch by telephone or email,
getting up-to-date on the company trends in their respective countries and calling
extraordinary meetings if the situation called for such action. This kind of exchange and
updating between one meeting and another comes about above all when preparing for the
yearly assembly and according to the Swedish representative this is insufficient. In his
opinion there should be a more systematic communication between one meeting and the
next. The contacts between the yearly assemblies take place in English.
There is no exchange of information and experiences between the WEEC and other
European company committees.
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Interaction between the WEEC and the union organisations
The peculiar nature of the experience of the WEEC is the absence of any support
from the national union bodies. The union support is only present at the provincial or
territorial level. From the interview with the Italian WEEC members there emerges the
request for a greater involvement from the national Italian unions on the issue of the
WEEC. Only in the initial phase did an outside Italian shop steward take part in his role
as expert in the WEEC meetings, but then the union bodies decided to withdraw from the
WEEC as they believed that the Italian members were skilled enough not to need their
direct support. According to the Italian member of the WEEC, this orientation showed
that in general there was not a real interest from the union towards the European
company committees.
The representatives of the Italian workers complain about this little involvement on
the part of the national union bodies that should have offered the WEEC more substantial
support. Actually they felt left alone. Only recently has the interest of the unions towards
the European company committees started to grow. In the case of the WEEC a
representative of the national FIOM has again been appointed, who in future should take
part in the WEEC as outside expert. The FIOM representative should cover this role also
on behalf of the FEM. Indeed, the FIOM shop steward should cover the role of coordinator on behalf of the FEM and should thus have the task of acting as a liaison
between the WEEC and the European Federation.
The interaction between the WEEC and the representation bodies at
national level
In Italy the meetings of the national company-level works committees and the
factory assemblies have occasionally become the places in which to divulge the
information received at the WEEC. The satisfactory level of the distribution of
information in Italy can also be put down to the presence in the WEEC of at least one
workers’ representative per plant. Although the information are well-distributed, the
WEEC body does not arouse the hoped for interest. This is probably due to the fact that
according to the members of the works committees the WEEC activities have no direct
link with their activities as union representatives at company level. Furthermore, there is
the point that the WEEC does not have a negotiating role, unlike the works committees in
the national context. The fact that the WEEC cannot have an impact on the group
strategies is perceived as a major limitation. The unity of this representative body is also
put into question.
In Sweden the minutes are received by the WEEC delegates but are not distributed
among all the workers. The Swedish workers’ representative does not receive the
documentation concerning the WEEC meeting but is informed of it by word of mouth
during the factory assemblies. Both the workers’ representatives of the Italian parent
company and those of the affiliated company in Sweden and Italy have never received
any inputs from the WEEC that were relevant for their activities of representation. While
the Italian workers’ representative feels it is necessary for the WEEC to deal with the
standardisation of rights at the group level the Swedish delegate suggest the WEEC
should deal with issues of health and safety. There remains the fact that until today the
integration between the activities of the WEEC and the representation bodies at national
level is not yet well developed.
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The interaction between the WEEC and the workers
The joint communication produced at the end of the meeting arrives in all the plants
and is displayed on the notice-board, giving the chance, at least in Italy, to the people not
participating in the meetings to know what had happened. The workers’ interest is
nevertheless very low and some of the workers do not even know what the WEEC even
is.
Outcomes
THE IMPACT ON THE CORPORATE DECISION-MAKING
The first achievement of the WEEC on which all of the workers’ representatives
seem to agree is the enhancement of knowledge in regard to the different industrial
relations traditions and practices in the various countries represented in the European
representation body.
The WEEC has not yet taken on a negotiation function but, both according to the
Italian representatives of the WEEC, and according to the central management
representative, its intervention has at times influenced the management decisions. What
best lends itself to corroborating the previous statement is the role of the WEEC in the
restructuring that took place in Germany and France. In the former case, in 1997 an
extraordinary meeting was called to inform the co-ordination committee in regard to the
closure of the plant of Calw in Germany. Following the announcement in which it was
stated they intended to close down the plant, the WEEC acted as a megaphone for the
German claims in Europe. Indeed, the WEEC participation in a seminar organised by IG
Metall and financed with European Commission funds, specifically concerning the
closure at Calw, gave greater international visibility to the German situation and allowed
for the organisation of protests in several European plants of the group. A European-wide
strike could not be organised seeing that in several countries, such as Sweden, the
national legislation did not allow for the organisation of solidarity strikes. Furthermore,
the WEEC released an official communication protesting against the closure of the plant
in Germany. By means of a targeted information strategy by the WEEC all the European
plants were nevertheless involved. In every country some initiatives were chosen that
were deemed to be appropriate for informing all the workers about the closure in
Germany. Among the most significant initiatives are the publication of several specific
articles in the local Italian press, the protest by the German workers in front of the main
group head quarters in Italy and a solidarity strike organised by the Trento (Italy) facility.
According to the Italian WEEC delegate the international protest did not prevent the
closure of the plant but, by making the matter public domain, pushed the company,
interested in safeguarding its own image, “…to reach the best possible agreement.”
Lastly, the agreement underwritten provided for a solution based on the relocating of
staff to other factories in Germany, on the one hand, and the use of the early retirement
scheme, on the other. According to the Italian member of the WEEC the German
representatives have positively evaluated the role that the WEEC has managed to taken
on within the scope of this restructuring process.
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It can thus be argued that the WEEC has in some managed to develop a shared
position in regard to a case of restructuring. In the implementation of the actions at
European level it then had to adapt to the existing constraints of a legal nature within the
scope of the industrial relations of the various countries involved. The fact nevertheless
remains that the WEEC on this occasion had managed to take on an active role and in
some way also an incisive one. In this case it was the WEEC itself that had won itself this
role. Inside the WEEC it was instead the German union that pushed the WEEC to take on
an active role in defence of the employment levels.
In 2002 in France the WEEC was involved in a process of staff-cutting. As it had
become aware of the upcoming employment cuts in a French plant at the WEEC, the coordination committee decided to summon the French representatives to the Italian head
office for an extraordinary meeting and ask them to advance all the requests that they
would have wished to insert in the agreement with the company. On that claims platform
the negotiations were then articulated, at national level, with the company in France.
Even in this case the 150 redundancies were handled with early retirements and
relocations to other areas. In this case the WEEC was informed and consulted very early
so that it could take on a significant supporting role for the French representation bodies.
Both in the case of the acquisition of the plant in Poland, and in the case of the
selling off of a company branch in Sweden to China, the WEEC was informed without
directly or indirectly having an impact on the decision-making phase.
During the yearly assemblies the Swedish member of the WEEC perceives that there
is no pressure on the management. It is interesting that also the Swedish management
representative reaches the same conclusion when he says he is surprised that the workers’
representatives are not more aggressive and more determined in defending their interests.
Generally speaking, the Swedish member of the WEEC says critically that it still isn’t
clear what the role of the WEEC should be, and what its goals are. Consequently, again
in the opinion of the Swedish delegate, the WEEC has not yet managed to develop a
really common strategy. In order to get some answers to these challenges it would be
necessary to meet more than once a year. But here he also sees the problem of a lack of
availability on the part of the management who, in his opinion, grant only what is
requested by the European directive.
Despite this critical evaluation, the fact remains that there have been experiences in
which the WEEC has been actively involved. It should also be underlined that its
involvement came about in relation to management decisions that had already been taken
and thus was limited to being able to discuss the means of implementation and the effects
of these decisions that had already been made. There have not been experiences of a truly
prior involvement, during a phase when the management’s underlying orientations could
still have been subject to modification.
CORPORATE IDENTITY
The group globally shares a set of values that constitute the so-called corporate
identity. In 1997, for example, a campaign was launched called “High Performance
Culture”, for the sharing and dissemination of the common company values. In this light
of propagation of company culture the WEEC played a dual role from the management
point of view: “It was the achievement of a part of these values” and at the same time “it
was the vehicle by which to disseminate these values”.
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According to the Italian management ‘outsider’, the WEEC is used by the company
both to spread a culture of collaborative industrial relations, especially towards the
countries of Eastern Europe that are already members of the WEEC, like Slovakia, or
about to join, such as Poland, and as a means to extend the corporate identity, a value,
according to the management ‘outsider’, typical of a company with an Anglo-Saxon
attitude.
From the point of view of the workers’ representatives what is lacking is a proactive
corporate drive towards the harmonisation of labour policies. On the management side,
the labour policies, by strategic definition and thus not due to the influence of the WEEC,
tend towards a convergence.
According to the management side involved in the WEEC the group policies are
always submitted to an international benchmarking and in this context the WEEC has
acted as a stimulator and a catalyst.
If the WEEC ha snot contributed to harmonising the labour policies it has
nevertheless allowed for a better understanding of the dynamics inherent to the industrial
relations of the single European states. This evaluation is shared both by the
representatives of the workers and by the representatives of the management.
Conclusions
The overall evaluation of the Italian delegate at the WEEC, as well as that of the
secretary of the co-ordination committee, in regard to the working of the WEEC, is
positive, at least in relation to the goals set down in the setting-up agreement. It is
highlighted by the workers’ representative that the first seven years’ activity of the
WEEC have mainly represented an important learning period for a large number of union
representatives.
The WEEC of the Whirlpool group presents a good level of advancement and its
powers are not just reduced to an information-providing role. The information process
seems to be mostly fast and of a qualitative and quantitative level that are deemed to be
satisfactory. As compared also with the experiences of other European company
committees that often do not go beyond the information provision procedures, it should
be considered a positive thing that in at least two cases the WEEC took on an active role.
The early intervention by the WEEC is definitely also the index of the company’s
attention to worker involvement and confirms the availability, also expressed by the
secretary of the co-ordination committee, to heed the suggestions that are made by the
WEEC. According to the secretary, the WEEC does not slow down the decision-making
processes, but improves them.
It should nevertheless be remembered that the evaluation of the Swedish workers’
representative concerning the usefulness of the WEEC is more critical. It seems that the
efficacy of the industrial relations at national level makes the WEEC experience for the
Swedish delegates only relatively useful. The evaluation of the WEEC’s added value thus
depends to a certain extent also on the efficacy of national industrial relations.
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Generally speaking, the different industrial relations cultures do not seem to hamper
or slow down the working of the WEEC but have actually served as a stimulus in
developing a critical capacity, both union-wise and company-wise. The international
experience has helped the participants, particularly the workers’ representatives, to have a
broader vision, measuring up with the group strategies at central level, as well as with the
situation and the issues that the representation bodies in the other countries have to deal
with. It is thus agreed by all the workers’ representatives that the WEEC has contributed
to enhancing the knowledge of the industrial relations in the other countries. This is
considered to be an important result but certainly not yet a sufficient one.
In the development of the WEEC the renewal of the contract represents an important
phase in that it has contributed to a significant improvement of the WEEC. A major
obstacle to the improvement of the WEEC, which according to the workers’
representatives still exists, is the scarcity of resources that the company has set aside for
the European body. A lack of funds that, for example, prevents greater investment in
training, the deeper analysis of issues through the setting up of work groups and a greater
frequency of meetings.
But the main challenge, from the point of view of the Italian WEEC member, is
represented by the need to give the WEEC a real role. According to this position, a
European representation structure that does not have concrete powers will struggle to be
legitimated vis-a-via the national-level representation structures as well as vis-à-vis the
workers themselves. But a problem also arises inside the WEEC in that, for example, the
Swedish delegate is disappointed by the results achieved so far, and as regard the future
there could also be a problem of motivation. The definition of powers does not, however,
just depend on the availability of the management, but also on the willingness of the
outside union organisations. The Italian WEEC member is indeed asking for the union to
provide more incisive and determined support.
Outlook
The penetration of the Eastern markets has aroused some fears on the part of the
workers worried by a possible shift in production, above all of the low-range products,
towards those countries where the cost of labour still represents a strong competitive
advantage. An enhancement in the WEEC potential is thus seen as being welcome, from
the point of view of the workers’ representatives, in that it could foster a structural and
formalised monitoring of the group’s strategies for expansion. The workers’
representative outside the WEEC feels the drafting of a code of conduct at corporate level
is also important in order to contribute to the harmonisation of the rights at group level
and thus avoid internal competition based on social dumping.
Seeing that one of the major concerns of the workers’ representatives concerns the
possible competition between the various facilities of the group in Europe, the question is
asked as to what the future role of the site in Poland will be. From this point of view, the
co-opting of the Polish representations in the WEEC is seen as a positive factor. In order
to be able to better understand the strategies of Whirlpool Europe it is also asked to
extend the WEEC representations to all the countries that are part of the Europe macroregion, and thus also to South Africa. The participation of the South African delegates
and the extension of the information to the South African context is considered to be of
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great importance in order to be able to better evaluate the productive capacities of the
various sites and the possible orientations of the group inside the Europe macro-region.
Although the quantity of the information is deemed to be sufficient, the workers’
representatives inside the WEEC complain of the incapacity to fully grasp what the
company data are supposed to mean, thus running the risk of losing powers as an
interlocutor before the management. In order to avoid this problem two requests are put
forward. First of all, to plan a further meeting of the workers’ representatives two weeks
before the presentation of the company data. In this way the reading and the
understanding of the huge amount of information could be made easier. In the second
place, a request is made for the understanding of the data to be guided and supported by
experts who need not necessarily be shop stewards. An investment in training above all
by the delegates of the Eastern countries is thought to be useful also by the Italian
management ‘outsider’.
The request for a further meeting of the WEEC is unanimous. Both the Italian
delegate and the Swedish one agree that a representation structure such as the WEEC
cannot be effective one only meets once a year.
Again from the interview with the workers’ representative inside the WEEC, the
need emerges to extend the powers of the WEEC also in the bargaining direction so as
not to lose the initial enthusiasm in terms of European representation. The negotiations
should be limited to general issues, without delving specifically into details and should
involve more significantly the outside union in that it is an authoritative interlocutor
capable of getting European funding useful for a functional and organisational
improvement of the WEEC. On the part of the workers’ representatives the need for a
qualitative leap forward is strongly felt, because otherwise there is the risk of losing
motivation on the part of the delegates who light end up casting doubts on the reasons for
the very existence of the WEEC. It seems that the request for a further development of
the WEEC is also in a certain sense the expression of a lack of forward planning for this
new representation structure. As a consequence, both the management and the unions are
asked to reassess the WEEC.
The management side could also be willing to accept the broadening and revitalising
of the WEEC powers as long as the national-level bodies were willing to grant upwards
sovereignty, that is towards Europe. This transfer of powers would avoid, from the
management standpoint, an overlapping and a duplication of the bargaining levels. At the
same time, the Italian ‘outsider’ Management ‘outsider’ feels it is not appropriate to
entrust the WEEC with bargaining powers as the number of actors present would make
the decision-making phase extremely confusing.
References
Whirlpool Corporation, 2002 Annual report.
RSU Whirlpool, Speciale Europa, Varese, November 1996
Agreement for the setting up of the Whirlpool Europe Employee Committee, Varese
1996 and 2000.
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The interviewees
Italian delegate, insider:
• Employed for the company (Varese) since 1966
• Has been union representative in the company for 28 years, is a member of the works
committee secretariat RSU (that is, the company-level union representation)
• Also, he is a member of the national co-ordination of the works committee of the
Whirlpool Italy group
• Has been a union worker since 1984 (he is a full-time delegate)
• In the union organisation he is a member of the steering committee of the
metalworkers’ union (FIOM) at provincial and regional level; he is also a member of
the confederate union steering committee (CGIL) at provincial and regional level.
After having been for a certain period a union manager he then returned to the
company to act as full-time union representative;
• he has been a member of the WEEC from the very beginning (1996); like all the other
Italian members he has been appointed by the works committees;
• from the very start he has been the co-ordinator of the co-ordinating committee on
behalf of the workers’ representatives;
• he has taken part in negotiating the setting up agreement.
Industrial relations manager, Whirlpool Europe
• has worked for Whirlpool since 1997;
• from 1997 until 2000 he was the personnel manager for a Naples factory;
• since 2000 he has been the industrial relations manager at the head quarters of
Whirlpool Europe in Varese (Comerio);
• in regard to the WEEC he covers the position of the co-ordination committee
secretary.
Italian Delegate, outsider
• metalworker in Varese (Cassinetta);
• member of the works committee for the metalworkers’ union FIOM-CGIL.
Italian Manager, outsider
• site manager at Cassinetta/Varese and director of the refrigerator facility in
Cassinetta/Varese;
• first he had been the director of a plant in Naples (manufacturing of washing
machines).
Swedish delegate, insider
• chair Metal Workers Union at Whirlpool, Norrköping;
• metalworker, employed in Whirlpool since 1993. Shop steward since 1994;
• member of WEEC since 2001, elected by metalworkers, before that he had been a
substitute at the WEEC for several years.
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Swedish Manager, insider
• Human Resources and Communications Manager;
• he has worked for the company for 19 years. First 15 years after which he returned for
a new stint four years ago. Started as technical engineer, later became HR-manager;
• he is one of six employers’ representatives in the EWC.
Swedish delegate, outsider
• metalworker, Head Health and Safety steward;
• company: Whirlpool, Sweden in Norrköping;
• plant for the production of microwave ovens with 500 employees;
• he has worked for the company for 10 years.
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The EWC of Air France
Peter Kerckhofs
Introduction
Air France is to be found among the largest passenger and freight transporters in civil
aviation. It is different to other companies having installed EWCs, in employing about
95% of its European workforce in its home-country France. Other characteristics are: its
privatisation process, the development of its “shared service” ticketing call-centre in
London, and the development of its alliance SkyTeam. The Air France EWC is
performing well, especially thanks to its working group practice and the important role of
French and European trade union organisations.
The company history
Air France has a long history, going back to 1933 (Autier, Corcos and Trépo 2001)
making it a part of French national pride. It resulted from a merger between small aircarriers, out of the early days of civil aviation.
On 26 June 1945, French civil aviation was nationalised and Air France became
State owned. Until 1998 the French State held 94,5% of the capital. Since 22 February
1999, Air France shares are traded on the stock market5. In 1999, the public stake was
reduced to 64% and further on to 54% in 2003. When the share price provides a
reasonable return, the State will continue to sell, aiming to keep about 20% of the capital.
Through this privatisation operation, employees acquired 13% of the Air France shares.
As such, more then 72% of the employees have become share-holders.
5
The privatisation is to be placed in the context of the Maastricht Treaty’s EMU-convergence
criteria, that encouraged governments to sell State assets and stakes in companies like Air France and
France Telecom. Other large companies, British Airways and Lufthansa have already been privatised,
while smaller ones, like Iberia and Olympic Airways are still public. Arguments in favour of privatising
are the possibilities of further concentrations and the access to new capital through low interest
obligations that are convertible in shares. The low profitability of Air France (currently at 1,22% return
on investment) is among the arguments against.
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As majority share-holder, the State has an important say in the strategy of Air
France, as well as in the nomination and dismissal of the president of the company.
Changes in the government often resulted in a change of the CEO of Air France. As such
Air France had four different presidents between 1984 and 1988. In the spring of 1988,
under Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, Jacques Friedman became president of Air France.
Later on in 1988, he was replaced by Bernard Attali; only a few months after Michel
Rocard had become Prime Minister (Bouaziz 1998).
In January 1990 Air Inter merged with Air France. The higher salaries of Air Inter
were supposed to be reduced to those of Air France employees. Those years, the
company was making losses, and the so called “Attali plan” included 4000 lay-offs and
wage cuts. After some weeks of industrial conflict, the Attali plan was scrapped and the
head of the airline forced to resign (Workers solidarity, N°41, 1994;
http://struggle.ws/ws94/france41.html). Appointed by the Balladur government, Christian
Blanc became the new president of the company, bringing along the last 20.000.000.000
French Francs state support (Bouaziz 1998). After 1993 such state support was no longer
possible, and because of EU liberalisation directives and because of the EMU
convergence criteria Air France was gradually privatised. In the beginning of 1997 new
strikes, could not be prevented by Christian Blanc’s threat to step down. He resigned in
September 1997, and was replaced by Jean-Cyril Spinetta, the former chair of Air Inter
(EirOnline).
The creation of a single European market required the liberalisation of European
civil aviation from 1988 to 1993. To face the increased competition alliances were
constructed. This was formalised in June 2000 through the creation of SkyTeam, with
AeroMexico, Delta Airlines and Korean Air as partners. In 2001, CSA Czech Airlines
and Alitalia joined SkyTeam as well.
After the events of 11 September 2001, the civil aviation sector was confronted with
hard times. Luckily for Air France, it depended much less on its traffic to the USA, than
its competitors, British Airways and Lufthansa. On top, Air France could benefit from the
disaster of Swissair & Sabena, by taking over part of their passengers and freight.
Especially their African market brought additional gains. The potentiality of the Airport
of Roissy-Charles de Gaule and its TGV connections are structural trumps. The high
number of connection flights, make the Airport an attractive “Hub”, which is served with
the code sharing with its partners. As such Air France strategy is to extend the SkyTeam
alliance. In the USA, Delta Airlines is exploring cooperation with Continental and
Northwest. In Europe KLM considers a merger with Air France, after the latter is further
privatised6.
The European workforce of Air France
Air France is characterised by its home-country workforce concentration. Even
though in its activity, transporting passengers and freight, this company is most of all
internationalised, a very large proportion of its European workers are employed in
France. In 1997 when the Air France EWC was created, 44.000 or 96% of the 46,000
European workers were based in France.
6
The management of KLM and the Dutch government to merge KLM consider international flight
connections with Amsterdam crucial for the Dutch economy, and therefore they can not be given in the
hands of a company controlled by the French national interests (Minutes EWC meeting 7-11-2002, p7).
174
Within the French workforce a high degree of diversity can not be ignored. There are
pilots and cabin crew, being higher educated and having higher salaries than most of the
ground staff. In March 2003 the ground staff comprised 39.672 workers, while 13.062
were counted among the 'Personnel Navigant Commercial' (PNC). The French operations
of Air France are structured in several regional and functional divisions, each of them
having proper worker representation structures.
Other Air France operations in Europe, are much smaller, and their workforce
completely different in its composition and structure. Most of their staff is highly
educated, speaking several languages, and much more mobile and intercultural than
average. Furthermore, the number of employees in each of the European countries has
been rather stable since the existence of the EWC. The only significant changes occurred
in the UK. The workforce three rose from 590 to 1370, partly because a shared service
centre was created in London to centralise the ticketing.
year
France
Germany
UK
Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Netherlands
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
CH
Norway
total EEA
worldwide
% in Europe
1997
44000
446
590
32
61
27
12
45
12
206
55
39
243
49
136
13
45966
55000
84%
2002
50000
470
1370
44
61
30
17
60
330
230
56
40
232
65
143
20
53168
63000
84%
Except for the VAD (vente à distance) call centre that was installed in London and
the AFSL operations in the UK that became much bigger, the structure of the company
did not change last five years. There were no mergers or take-overs in which Air France
was involved recent years. The strategy of the company however has been to develop the
Skyteam Alliance with Alitalia and perhaps also with KLM in the future.
The EWC history
In 1988 there has been a first contact between TGWU and CFDT concerning certain
problems in the Air France operations in London. Five years later, a German
representative, Hartmut Beckmann, asked the DAG, his trade union to get in touch with
French trade unions to check the possibilities to set up a EWC. In February 1993, the
trade unions took the initiative to organise, in Paris, the first real European staff
175
representatives meeting for Air France. At that stage, Central management did not yet
want to start negotiations to set up a EWC, before the French transposition7 of the EWC
Directive had entered into force8.
The Belgian worker representative present at the February 1993 meeting leaves Air
France in 1994. In the meantime André Haillez, who was doing marketing before 1992
for Belgium and Luxembourg, is confronted with the decision that his Dutch colleague
gets the function of director marketing Benelux. André Haillez stays with Air France,
without most of his former responsibilities. These circumstances make him the ideal man
to take over the pre-EWC tasks from the former employee representative from 1994 on.
Furthermore the tensions with local industrial relations made him convinced of the need
to establish a EWC. The local directors in Belgium are French expatriates that rule the 60
persons working for Air France in Belgium, like in a SME, with the argument, Paris has
decided, "there is no alternative". Also in Germany similar experiences were reported.
Knowing about the meeting in 1993, André Haillez contacts CFDT in 1995 and hears
from them that they see the need to put continuity in the initiative, but they don't have
time or money to invest in a next meeting. André Haillez discusses the idea of organising
a meeting in Brussels, with Setca's officer Albert Faust, who organises a two day meeting
in January 1996. All those who were present in 1993 are contacted, and after a lot of
telephone calls, a list of participants is established. During this 1996 meeting
management announces that there is no question to install a EWC before the restructuring
of the merged Air France and Air Inter into Air France Europe and Air France
Intercontinental is completed in 1997. Nevertheless, two other preparation meetings held
in Brussels in April 1996 and March 1997 aiming to get the Special Negotiation Body
(SNB) to launch negotiations to set up a EWC. These activities were based upon the
wide-spread willingness to get a EWC established, that was voiced by FST (the former
European Transport Federation, now called ETF) as well as by Giancarlo Crivellaro of
the European Cockpit association (ECA). Other experiences were made in 1996 in the
civil aviation sector, in the EWCs set up for Lufthansa, Aer Lingus and British Airways.
In spite of these favourable conditions, the procedures to designate SNB members
were not free of problems. For example, the local director in Brussels tried to get the
responsible for HRM designated instead of the trade union worker representative André
Haillez. While in Italy, it was trade union pluralism that caused difficulties. Both CGIL
and CISL wanted to be represented in the SNB. The single Italian SNB-mandate finally
went to CGIL and not to CISL, while within the EWC two Italian mandates were
provided. Finally for Scandinavia, the problem was that management wanted only one
representative for 4 countries, because all together there were only 100 employees. The
resolving compromise here was to have a seat for Sweden and Denmark in the SNB, and
providing in the EWC a mandate for Sweden, Norway and Finland, and a substitutemandate for Denmark.
The president of Air France accepted to see the delegates of the SNB preparation
meeting of 26 April 1996, where he was given the list of all SNB members. A next
meeting was promised for November 1996 but did not take place. In March 1997 Albert
Haillez contacted CFDT to organise a next meeting in London. A demand for financial
support was made towards the Budget-line B3-4003 by the Belgian socialist white collar
union “Setca”. At this March 1997 meeting, a first draft was discussed with the 17
official members of the SNB. Difficulty in the text is the notion of chair of the EWC.
7
This was done in the adoption of law number 96-985 of 12 November 1996.
This "legalistic argument" has (only) been reported by H. Beckman, who is specialised in social law in
Germany.
8
176
Based upon their national experience, this should be an employee representative in the
eyes of the Germans delegates, while for the French delegates it was evident that this role
was taken up by a management representative. Another difficult issue was the
formulation of the timing of the information.
When in March 1997 management also presented a draft EWC agreement,
negotiations were activated. A series of negotiation meetings were held in Paris between
March and November 1997. Several drafts were prepared and negotiatiated with the
support from FST (the former European Transport Federation, now called ETF). This
active negotiation agenda resulted in the creation of a EWC on the basis of the agreement
signed on 25 November 1997. The Air France EWC met for a first time in December
1997. The second meeting was held in the spring of 1998 and the third in June 1999.
The official name of the EWC is “comité de Groupe Européen d’Air France”
(CGEAF). The EWC has its own logo.
The EWC agreement
The initial agreement from 25 November installed a joint (French model EWC) with
thirty members, that is entitled to meet once a year. The provided resources are precisely
formalised in the text. For the EWC members, the agreement serves as a safety-belt. They
don’t need the text of the EWC agreement very often, except when delicate matters or
question about the limits of their competences rise, one or the other refers to the text to
get it done or not.
From the side of the Central management the provisions of the agreement are put in
practice in a flexible way so that practice sometimes goes beyond the text of the
agreement. Things are completely different with local management in the foreign
operations of Air France, where such flexibility would not be possible, here they would
even try to violate the agreement.
The 25 November 1997 agreement defines in its first article the Air France Grouplevel works council as a permanent body for information, consultation and social
dialogue. This clarity in the agreement on the permanent functioning of the EWC is an
important tool. Despite of this, hierarchical superiors of some EWC members needed to
get used to it, and sometimes it has been necessary for the French select committee
members to intervene. The strength of the EWC has been the solidarity that did rose from
the support in implementing the agreement. Workers representatives in smaller entities,
who do not have the power, the contacts and experiences as the French EWC members
have, could count on their support, so that they felt less isolated.
Together with the recognition of the continuity in the functioning of the EWC, the
necessary means and time-off are provided in its establishment agreement. In its article
seven, the possibility is foreseen to establish working groups or to have (maximum two)
additional employee, only meetings of the whole EWC.
"The employees’ representatives delegation on the CGEAF may meet without the
Management being present, at the request of the Secretary and after consultation
with the Chairman, holding a maximum of two meetings a year. The Secretary shall
take responsibility for organizing these meetings.
In order to deal with certain specific subjects falling within its area of
competence, the CGEAF may decide on specific occasions to create a working group
177
from among its members, chaired by an employees’ representative. The principle of
establishing these groups, the topics they cover, composition, their tasks and their
duration must be determined by the CGEAF with the agreement of the Chairman."
The Air France EWC agreement is governed by the French law number 96-985 of 12
November 1996, which transposes the EWC directive. It is concluded for a fixed period
of four year. A mid term assessment is made of the implementation of the agreement 2
years after it has been signed. In its article 13, is underlined that the EWC agreement will
not become indefinite at end of four years. Eight months before expiration renegotiations
shall start.
That is exactly what happened in 2001. A special negotiation body of 17 members
was composed to renegotiate the initial agreement, from March to November 2001. In
this period of time four SNB meetings took place. Even though all select committee
members were member of the SNB, they did not play any specific role in preparing or coordinating these renegotiations. The resulting renegotiated agreement was signed on 19
November 2001, during an extra-ordinary meeting of the EWC to discuss the economic
and social consequences; the events of 11 September 2001 could have for Air France.
The most important changes were the doubling the number of ordinary meetings of
both the EWC (from 1 to 2) as its select committee (from 3 to 6). From 2002 on, the
EWC would meet at least twice a year, while the select committee was entitled to have
six instead of three regular meetings. The interviewed EWC members indicated that it
had not been difficult at all to get this doubling of the number of ordinary meetings.
"Ich muss sagen, man hat darüber gesprochen, wie die Bedürfnisse in der
Vergangenheit waren. Man hat sich angesehen, was man tatsächlich gemacht hat.
Die Direktion hat nicht angefangen daran zu ziehen, wir haben so und so viel
vereinbart, das andere waren Ausnahmen und es könnte Zeiten geben, wo das wieder
reduziert wird. Sie hat einfach gesagt, ja, so wie wir gearbeitet haben, war das
vernünftig, lass uns mal die nächsten vier Jahre schauen, ob die Basis die gleiche
bleibt und wir fixieren das jetzt erst mal. Das ging relativ einfach, sag ich mal. Das
war ein Verstehen und Einsehen. Air France ist da sehr, sehr großzügig, man hat
verstanden, dass man soziale Arbeit auch unter diesen Mitteln erreichen kann, indem
man miteinander kommuniziert und sich trifft".
The select committee would be designated by the EWC, during the first meeting of
the newly composed EWC. This meeting took place on 17 January 2002, while the
mandates for the first four year period of the EWC ended in November 2001. Therefore,
select committee members expected that their local management would make problems
of their EWC-work in-between. Having understanding or these potential problems, and
supporting the continuity of the EWC, central management agreed upon a special
protocol agreement formalising that the select committee members of the first period,
would stay in function until the 17th of January 2002.
The select committee members appointed on that day started later on negotiations
with central management to determine the modalities of their functioning. With this
additional agreement providing for the means of the select committee, its permanent
mission of contact for central management is recognised in the words of the agreement as
well as in the rules of procedure of the select committee.
In the preamble of the renegotiated EWC agreement reference is made to the Air
France Ethics and social rights charter that was signed on 25 June 2001. It aims to
underpin the corporate identity of Air France and guide its social and ethical policy. As
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such it is a commitment to promote social dialogue, employee shareholding, mobility,
training, health, safety, equality, dignity, job security and the conventions of the ILO and
the social charters of the EU. Air France pledges to be attentive that these principles are
also respected by all subcontractors with whom it maintains relations anywhere in the
world. The follow-up of the implementation of this charter is an additional competence
given to the EWC.
"The General Management of the Air France Group and the Air France EWC
shall oversee the application of this social charter. Monitoring its effective
application will be the responsibility of the EWC, consulting with but not substituting
itself for the representative bodies in the countries concerned. In this way, the EWC
will be in a position to alert the appropriate personnel representatives and divisions
of the Charter. The agenda for each annual meeting of the EWC will include a report
on the application of the Charter."
The EWC has not made any house-rules, but for the Bureau there are standing orders
annexed to the new 2001 agreement. After its signature in November 2001 new renegotiation-demands have not been formulated.
The composition of the EWC
According to the EWC installation agreement, the EWC is composed of 30 members.
In reality it has 31 members. An important strength in the EWC agreement concerns the
not completely proportional distribution of mandates. While almost 95% of the Air
France Employees are based in France, giving a similar proportion of EWC mandates
would not make any sense. Because EWC was created especially to give a European
representation to the Air France workers outside France, only 10 EWC mandates reserved
for the French. This way, the distribution of the mandates is not much related to the
proportion of the European workforce. In fact, only in the UK there is another 2% of the
European workforce, while the Air France operations in all other European countries
employ per country less then 1% of the European workforce.
The EWC agreement provides for a representative in the EWC for each country in
which Air France employs 30 persons or more. Consequently, there are 15 countries
represented in the EWC, of which 10 only have one member. Spain and Italy are sending
two EWC members, while three are coming from Germany and four out of the UK.
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year
France
Germany
UK
Austria
Belgium
Finland
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Netherlands
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
CH
Norway
total EEA
1997
10
4
4
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
2
1
1
1
32
2002
10
3
5
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
2
1
1
1
31
% in 2002
32%
10%
16%
3%
3%
3%
3%
3%
6%
3%
3%
6%
3%
3%
3%
select committee
2
1
1
1
1
In 2001, the UK worker representatives, wanted to have an extra seat because their
workforce had more then doubled. Management did not want to give an additional seat,
so that another distribution of the seats had to be considered. The German delegates were
not pleased with the idea to shift one German mandate away to give the UK one more.
But that is the way things went.
The EWC resources
The EWC has a proper secretariat on the fourth floor of the trade union-building at
Roissy. Besides an ICT equipped office and a meeting room, the EWC has an
administrative secretary paid by Air France. Nathalie Pasquereau, serves the internal
communication and the continuity of the EWC-actions. Every Friday, the Belgian select
committee member, André Haillez, does EWC work from the EWC office at Roissy.
During plenary meetings of the EWC, there are interpreters and a steno-typist is
transcribing all words spoken in the meeting. These minutes are only for internal use. To
inform a wider public a website and a newsletter are available. The EWC website (www.
cgeaf.free.fr) is developed in French only, while the EWC news-letter is also available in
English.
Except two, all other EWC members speak French. The language skills of the EWC
members are an important resource. Language training has not been provided yet,
although a project aims to organise this in the future.
For each four year mandate-period, eight days of collective training for the EWC are
provided for in the EWC agreement. The agreement also stipulates that the training
organisation is recommended by the ETUC. Consequently, ETUCO, the European Trade
Union College of the ETUC, has organised the EWC training seminars for the Air France
EWC in close cooperation with its select committee.
For the overall costs of the EWC, there is no fixed budget. All costs linked to the
functioning, training and meetings of the EWC are covered by central management. This
includes the travel and salary-costs of the participating EWC members, but also hotel,
180
translation and any other expenses are accepted by management. On top of that,
additional time off and budgets are foreseen.
The additional budget of 4000 Euro is available for the select committee to cover any
other kind of expenses, autonomously. Furthermore free plane tickets are available for
the members of the select committee. This way, they can meet with the employees and
their representatives in the various European Air France operations.
In addition to the working time that the EWC members and observers have available
for their local and national representation tasks, they get one extra working-day each year
for various EWC work. The EWC agreement stipulates that this day is on top of the days
needed to attend the training and the meetings of the EWC. Furthermore, a collective
pool of 15 working days can be distributed by the select committee to workers
representatives.
For the select committee members, the EWC agreement provides for six additional
days off each year. For some of the select committee members, an individual agreement
is made with Central management. On such a basis, the Belgian select committee
member has half of his working time to contribute to EWC actions, in combination with
his local representation work. Also for the German select committee member this is 50%,
while for the UK member it is 20%, and for the two French members 100%.
The plenary meetings of the EWC
From 1997 to 2001 there was held one plenary meeting every year. From 2002
onwards two meetings of one and a half day are foreseen every year. They take place in
June and November, because the winter-season from 1 October until 30 March is
evaluated in the June meeting, the summer season in the meeting in November.
The meetings normally take one day and a half. This means a half a day employee
only preparation meeting, and a full day meeting of the EWC composed by employee and
management representatives.
All EWC members arrive in the morning of the first day. That afternoon there is an
employee only preparation meeting. This is the moment where all representatives’ report
from their countries after the Bureau has made some short communications. During this
preparation meeting questions are prepared and formulated for the next days meeting
with management.
The next day there is plenary with and chaired (very formally) by management, from
9 to 16h30. Directly after the end of the meeting everybody returns home. The idea of a
debriefing meeting afterwards has occurred, just as the idea of prolonging the preparation
meeting. Both ideas however would add another hotel-night which management does not
want to cover. A post meeting is needed most of all to make a synthesis, draw
conclusions and agree on a follow-up.
The employee only preparation meeting and the meeting with management are
considered equally important. For the select committee members it is important to get
reports from the operations in other countries in the preparation meeting. While the
ordinary EWC members can get certain background information from the select
committee members. In the meeting with management, the select committee members
might get less new information; they can sometimes play an important role in formulating
certain questions in a way to get the answers required.
181
The location of the meetings is Roissy (Charles de Gaule). Evening activity is a
dinner. Once it has been tried to get a DJ to play some music, but at midnight it is all
finished, it is not a big party. The evening does not really add to the informal contacts,
these are already steady via missions and because they know each other quite well
through the training seminars of ETUCO for example.
Even though on the basis of its agreement, the EWC is entitled to have maximum
two additional employee only meetings of the EWC and extraordinary meetings in
exceptional circumstances, these possibilities have not yet been used.
In case of problem, the select committee meets to try to solve it eventually by
extending the select committee with some EWC members of countries concerned. If this
is not successful, an exceptional plenary meeting is asked for by the select committee.
Such a crisis however did not occur yet to the EWC.
Only one exceptional circumstance that happened in 1997 has been reported. This
matter was simply put on the agenda of the 1998 meeting. So that no extra-ordinary
meeting needed to be held. The problem consisted of the installation of a European
reservation centre, which replaces the reservation staff in the separated countries. When
this matter was debated during the 1998 meeting two working groups were created, one
investigating the economic ground for the decision. Their advice was positive. And
another working group was held on the social consequences, which got a permanent
character.
To discuss the merger-plans between Air France and KLM, there has been organised
a joint meeting with the EWC of KLM.
Information and consultation
The EWC receives information on European matters with possible repercussions on
employment. Reports are given on economical trends and information on the number of
planes put on certain destinations, number of seats and tickets sold, incomes, etc. Issues
regarding restructuring are not so much mentioned. The information received is always
linked to possible consequences for the staff in the airports. Important agenda points are
for example, the process of privatisation of the company, the installation of a shared
service call-centre for reservations in London, or its merger-plans with Alitalia and KLM.
What could be improved is the moment on which information is received. This has
been an important matter in the renegotiation of the EWC agreement. It stipulates that the
information and consultation must take place in due time (“en temps utile”), permitting a
consideration of the comments, observations and advises of the workers representatives.
This is however a never ending question, independent from the words in the agreement.
If information is not coming too late, it is never too early. When it is not on “touchy”
issues like the alliances, then the quality is OK, otherwise it is rather vague. Information
is basically given oral, with the support of PowerPoint presentations. On a written
question comes a written answer.
If there is really new information then it is given oral to the bureau, accompanied
with the demand to keep it confidential. On the issue of the alliance with KLM there has
already been an exchange of new information with management. Officially the EWC has
not yet been consulted, on this matter. Opinions or motions are however issued after
every plenary meeting. The text for such motions is drafted by the bureau during the
plenary meeting and circulated to the others for their consent. The voting of this text
182
happens in presence of management chairing the EWC. This does not hinder, "it is a
French habit, it goes quiet fast".
The agreement does not allow that strictly national or local issues are raised. This
however is done anyhow. Management reacts according to the rules of the game, saying
that this is not an issue for the EWC. Nevertheless the massage is passed on to them, they
hear it and make note of it.
Internal communication and cooperation
The EWC counts 30 members and another (30?) substitutes. The ten French EWC
members are not dominating the EWC with their number, but by taking the largest part of
the speaking-time. Their interventions are however European in nature, so that the nonFrench delegates can benefit from the stronger position of the French employee
representatives. Consequently there are no complaints reported on the more compelling
presence of the French delegates. Although the French select committee members are
well aware of their slightly dominant position and the inherent risks.
C’est un problème difficile déjà parce que les deux membres du Bureau français,
ce sont deux permanents syndicaux qui ont une certaine notoriété puisqu’il y a le
secrétaire général de la CFDT, et moi, j’ai été secrétaire général et j’ai quand même
un poids. Ca peut être un déséquilibre, mais on fait des efforts pour se mettre un peu
en retrait. Par exemple, on essaie de faire en sorte que les Européens, à la session
hors de la France, puissent intervenir un peu plus. On n’y arrive pas toujours, là, il
faut se remettre un peu en question. Parce que c’est un danger effectivement. Ceci
étant, lorsqu’il y a des problèmes, on a deux principes : c’est que le Comité de
groupe européen ne se substitue pas aux organisations syndicales locales. On peut
les aider mais il n’est pas question d’aller négocier à leur place ou de faire quoi que
cesoit. Lorsqu’ils nous sollicitent, on y va. C’est arrivé dans des conflits, mais on
reste quand mêm sur… c’est une aide, c’est aussi la solidarité dont je parlais au
début, mais c’est eux qui doivent être maître des prérogatives.
Est-ce que les représentants des autres pays peuvent profiter de votre position
forte ?
Oui et je pense qu’ils le font, mais ils ne sont pas toujours satisfaits du résultat.
The stronger French position can also stimulate a special kind of solidarity between
the other delegates.
When they arrive in Paris, they often get the impression that issues have already been
discussed between French representatives and management at other occasions. Another
thing in common is their position towards local management is more difficult. All this
brings them closer together. This results in for example a good exchange on the activities
in the working groups or on difficulties at local level.
Internal communication is most frequent between the six members of the select
committee. There are also frequent contacts of select committee members with other
EWC members. Even thought the select committee is the central point in the internal
communication, it does not control, nor does it aim to control all the transversal
communication flows between EWC members.
183
Within the Air France EWC there are no barriers perceived in the different
languages, cultures or ideologies among the EWC members. This might be due the
mobility and the language skills of the workers representatives from the foreign
operations. Nevertheless a lot of intercultural learning has already been done by the EWC
members. The preparation meetings before the negotiations of the first EWC agreement
were particularly helpful to understand these differences. Delegates remember from that
time that it was difficult for the German SNB members to understand and accept that
somebody from management side would chair the EWC. Other delegates were surprised
by the high number of different unions within the French operations of Air France, and
with the ambivalent relation between the UK worker representatives and their trade union
organisations.
Apparently the cultural differences have been perceived most between the French
and the German delegates. Apparently, the German representatives did not get accepted
right away by some of the French, because they were looked at as co-directors. The
Germans are elected worker representatives, not union representatives, while the French
only wanted to deal with trade union delegates. German employee representatives work
rather autonomously, trade unions support, especially when there are difficulties;
otherwise they let us do our work without much intervention. A French EWC member
admitted that it had a lot to do with cultural prejudices.
Oui, on a souvent des préjugés, par exemple sur la question de l’indépendance
des syndicats vis-à-vis du patronnat, qui est devenu une question importante pour
moi, je pensais que les Allemands étaient beaucoup plus liés au patronnat que…
J’avais un préjugé. Je me suis aperçu qu’ils étaient quand même très proche de nous
dès l’instant où ils travaillent sur la défense des intérêts des salariés. Et que leur
système avait des choses positives et un pouvoir que nous n’avons pas. Donc l’idéal
serait de trouver un équilibre entre les deux.
While the German EWC member reports from his intercultural learning experiences
in a way that we can conclude that the German approach of patiently fighting to get their
rights respected, impressed the French colleagues. And over time the learned to
appreciate each other more and more. In making clear the way certain issue could be
dealt with in Germany, the EWC members are encourages the others to find in their own
way, acceptable solutions. Nevertheless, the strong legal background of German workersinterest-representation has not yet served as a support for the others. If German EWC
members ask central management some things they get the answer that they need to get
this at national level, because if it would be given to them at European level, then it
should just as well be given to worker representatives from other countries, who would
then get more then they are entitled to according to their national laws on workerrepresentation.
"In Frankreich sieht das manchmal anders aus. Was ich auch schwer, schwer
gelernt habe, ist, wenn man ein mündliches Versprechen bekommt, heißt das noch
lange nicht, dass man im Erfolg ist. Es ist in Frankreich so, es ist offensichtlich in
Spanien und in Italien so, da habe ich schon Beispiele von den Kollegen gehört.
Wenn die Direktion sagt, ja, wir machen etwas für Sie, dann müssen sie genau
hinhören, dh nur das sie was machen werden, dh nicht, dass sie das machen werden,
was man gewünscht hat. In Deutschland gibt es einen Vertrag, wenn der
unterschrieben ist, muss man das auch halten, die deutschen Direktionen machen
das auch. Und in Frankreich kann es sein, es wird ein Agreement gemacht, aber es
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wird nicht so präzise geschrieben oder es fehlen einfach viele beweisbare Dinge, und
dann kommt etwas anderes dabei raus. Das ist natürlich immer schwierig. Damit
kann man zunächst schlecht umgehen, das muss man lernen. Man muss in
Frankreich zB vielmehr das Wort glauben eines Managements, auf einen promi und
wenn das nicht kommt, dann hat man Pech. Also viele Sachen, die in der deutschen
Kultur üblich sind, müssen wir AF schwer abringen. Sie kennen die Methode, die
französische Arbeitsmethode und wir sind relativ darauf angewiesen, dass wir sie
überzeugen, dass sie uns das geben müssen, dass wir das Recht haben. Aber auf der
anderen Seite, wenn es nicht anders geht, wenn wir die Information ganz dringend
brauchen, dann haben wir die Mittel, sie auch so zu überzeugen, dass sie wissen,
dass sie nicht anders können. Ich möchte nicht sagen, wir zwingen sie, es ist so, dass
wir sie so überzeugen, dass wir sagen: Hier stehts im Gesetz und sie müssen das
machen, denn wenn sies nicht tun, dann haben wir legale Mittel."
On the way the EWC was consulted on the matter of the shared service call-centre for
reservations in London, the cultural differences were even more articulated. In addition to
the language skills the mobility of the EWC members helps in such circumstances to
build bridges across the cultural differences. As the following example shows, there are
French employees working for Air France in for example Germany, who got to know the
German system of industrial relations that well, so that they can help in raising
understanding for the differences in approach.
"Es war wie ein kleiner Kulturkampf, weil die Methoden so unterschiedlich
waren. In Deutschland müssen sie diskutieren, wenn ich eine Initiative habe, müssen
sie mit mir überlegen, ob es vielleicht Sinn macht. Das ist in Deutschland üblich. In
Frankreich, also die französische Direktion entscheidet und wir werden informiert
und Schluss. Das haben sie klar gesagt. Und das hat meine Kollegen, meine
deutschen Kollegen, Französinnen, alle Französinnen, aber sie leben in Deutschland
und sie wissen, wie in Deutschland das soziale Leben ...sie standen alle da: Das kann
ja nicht sein, wir wollen eine Antwort. Das hat den französischen Gewerkschaften
imponiert. Ganz vorsichtig haben sie uns Unterstützung gegeben.
Working groups
The Air France EWC Agreement stipulates that working groups can be created to
deal with certain specific subjects falling within the competences of the EWC. Such
Working groups are created on the basis of a decision made by the entire EWC, including
the management representatives. Or in the words of the EWC agreement; "the principle
of establishing these groups, the topics they cover, their composition, their tasks and their
duration must be determined by the EWC with the agreement of the (management-side)
Chairmen. Different to the entire EWC he working groups are chaired by an employee
representative. They are composed by four worker representatives and three or four
representatives from management side that are well acquainted with the subject of that
particular working group.
In the first six years of the EWC history, eight different working groups have been
active. In average they existed for about two years, and held five or six meetings. A
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variety of approaches have been developed along with the different issues. The working
group on the economic aspects of the London call centre, for example, came close to codetermination talks, while the social working group on the same matter deployed a follow
up of social measures in a restructuring, delocalising certain activities. Most success-full
was the working groups that resulted in the social charter. While the working group on
complementary pension schemes was more an exploration of challenges for the future
that might lead to some kind of European demands.
The first working group was initiated by German employee representatives. When a
change in the working conditions of sales-officers was introduced without respecting
German codetermination rules, they informed the other EWC members about this. This
way they found out that similar arrangements would be introduced also in other European
countries. To deal with this matter in a European way, a EWC working group was
created. Its outcome, however, was not satisfying. Management did not want to work
towards one single European arrangement, and solutions were found separately at
national level. The fact that sales-officers are known to work rather individualistic, made
it even more difficult. The EWC working group could only add some exchange of
information, like for example the German agreement from the 'Gesamtbetriebsrat', which
was presented to the other working-group members as an example.
"Da ist eigentlich nur eine Folge von Sitzungen, mit Kleinprotokollen. Ich find
diese Arbeitsgruppe auch nicht sehr befriedigend, es ist kein Produkt entstanden
dadurch. Das einzige Produkt...wir haben in Deutschland eine
Betriebsvereinbarung, eine Gesamtbetriebsvereinbarung, geschrieben, und das ist
ein Vertrag. Und diesen Vertrag, das ist das schöne am EBR, den haben andere
Kollegen in Europa angefragt in Deutschland. Und sie haben davon gewusst durch
die groupe de travail. So ist es in viele Länder gegeben worden, und sie haben
versucht, etwas gleichwertiges zu installieren.Das war natürlich ein Vorteil."
Also in the first year of existence of the EWC, a second working group dealt with
mobility-questions. It identified as problems of employees that wanted to work for Air
France abroad, the fact that they had to resign in one country and start from scratch in the
other country, without their established degree of seniority, neither with the same
working conditions for their position. The working group realised an agreement on the
transfer of Air France seniority levels across borders. For two other identified mobilityproblems other working groups were established. The first of which was given the
challenge of establishing a classification-grid, permitting mobile employees to be put in
appropriate remuneration categories abroad. While the second working group took up the
issue of the different complementary pension-schemes, which caused problems for
employees that had worked parts of their Air France career abroad.
Not all countries are in represented in all working groups. In the working group on
mobility, for example there is no German representative, because the rights in Germany
for posted workers are stronger. Nevertheless, the Austrian and German members keep
each other informed, just like for example the Belgians and UK representatives have
privileged information-exchanges.
The working group on complementary pension schemes that resulted out of the
working group mobility was aimed to establish a European pension scheme. The problem
in doing this was exactly the transfer of capital for workers being transferred from one
country to the other. Recently developed EU-legislation might provide solutions for this,
which might mean a re-launch of this working group. This working group shows that
even though the objectives set at the beginning were not reached, important research
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work, helped to clear out certain problems. Diversity of social arrangements in different
countries, make it complicated to come to European wide solutions. Coming to the
conclusion that some problems simply can't be solved at European level, is however, a
learning process that is not always valued as constructive in itself.
"Parfois, c’est un peu la montagne qui accouche d’une souris. Mais ce sont des
dossiers compliqués. On a eu par exemple un groupe de travail sur la retraite qui est
un sujet en Europe qui est vraiment très compliqué, je dirais que c’est la quadrature
du cercle. Les régimes sont tellement opposés que… Il y a eu un très bon travail de
fait d’analyse, mais après, en matière de solution, c’est beaucoup plus compliqué."
"Après, en matière de solution, c’est beaucoup plus difficile pour l’instant. Mais
justement, c’est un des enjeux majeurs du Comité de groupe européen. Donc ces
groupes de travail ont fait un certain travail mais ça reste limité en matière de
solution. Et à mon avis, ça débouchera sur des revendications. Il y en a déjà. Alors il
y a quelques petites choses qui ont évolué mais c’est encore les balbutiements on va
dire."
The first very important matter the EWC was confronted with was the centralisation
of its ticketing services. When Air France announced its plans to regroup its reservation
services from eight countries in a London based call-centre, two working group were
established to deal with the social and economic aspects of this matter.
The group dealing with the social questions of the London call centre was composed
of eight persons. From the employee representatives there was somebody from France,
Belgium, the UK and Spain. Most important in this working group was the given word
from management, that the operation would not imply any dismissals. From that moment
on, the working group only followed up the matter. It consisted of finding a solution for
120 employees of which some could leave in early retirement while others had to be
given another function within Air France. The atmosphere in this working group was
reported to be very constructive.
Donc le problème c’était de recaser 120 personnes, 120 personnes dont on
supprimait le poste en Europe. Ces 120 personnes n’allaient pas aller travailler à
Londres à part quelques-unes unes. Donc, il fallait trouver une solution pour qu’il
n’y ait pas de casse sociale. Et globalement, ça s’est bien passé. Globalement,
personne n’a perdu son emploi, il n’y a pas eu de licenciement. A partir du moment
où on avait obtenu l’accord qu’il n’y aurait pas de licenciement, il a fallu
redistribuer les postes de travail dans les différents bureaux d’Air France, il y a des
gens qui sont partis à la retraite. Tout le monde serait reclassé progressivement. Il y
a eu tout un travail qui a été fait. Et je dois dire qu’avec la Direction centrale à
Paris, ça s’est bien passé. On a eu vraiment une relation constructive sans gros
problème. Parfois, on s’est bagarré, on s’est accroché, mais on s’est accroché sur
des cas particuliers. Globalement, ça s’est bien passé. Pratiquement tout a été réglé
en centralisé, ensuite, ce qui se passait localement… Nous, on n’a pas eu de
remontée, donc si on n’a pas eu de remontée, c’est que ça s’est bien passé
The economic working group looked at the soundness of the London call centre
project. This aspect of the matter found its origin when a German worker representative
formulated in the EWC plenary meeting the alternative to centralise in two call centres
instead of one. Because of the large proportion of German speaking clients, the presumed
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difficulty to find German speaking employees in London, and the German costumer
protection regulations, a separated call centre for them could make sense. The company
however refused this idea, arguing that the project would only be profitable if the
infrastructure, the computer-server, and the training of the officers was centralised in one
office building. While the German worker representatives feared that problems or bad
service from London could make Air France loose clients in Germany, which could
endanger jobs of German Air France employees. The whole discussion has slightly
irritated management that felt that consultation had reached its limits here.
What followed was some kind of clash of cultures. European Direction made clear
that even though in Germany, local management was obliged to discuss on decisions, that
at European level this obligation was inexistent. And, because of this, Central
management would only inform about their decisions made. That was a choc for the
German EWC members. Out of the following discussion in the EWC, followed the
creation of a second working group on economical questions related to the call centre. In
this management has given all info on how they calculated the costs for the creation of
the London call centre. Normally they would not give so much information. As it is usual
in Germany, the working group did not get the calculation for the proposed alternative,
being an eventual second call centre for German clients for example in Austria. As such,
the working group brought a certain added value, although it was not what they wanted,
that Central management would have considered the proposed alternative.
"Wir hatten Bedenken, dass man hier die deutschen Kunden gut betreuen kann,
weil es ist schwer, Leute zu finden, die Deutsch sprechen, Spanisch ist schon fast
einfacher, Italienisch auch, aber die Deutschen sind doch kompliziert. Es gibt noch
einen anderen Grund: Es gibt einen starken Verbraucherschutz. Wenn man das in
England behandelt und das wird nicht gut gemacht, dann verlieren wir Kunden. Und
davor hatten unsere Kollegen Angst. Umzugshilfen, das haben wir alles gefordert.
Das waren die sozialen Dinge, die haben wir auch lösen können, das ging sogar gut.
Aber dann haben die Kollegen gesagt, aber wenn das nicht funktioniert, dann
verlieren wir unsere Arbeit, weil AF Umsatz verliert. Und wenn AF Umsatz verliert,
dann kriegt das Lufthansa und dann haben wir ein Problem. Vielleicht gehts dann
AF schlecht in Deutschland und wir verlieren...wir denken, es ist besser, in
Deutschland ein Call-Center zu machen oder auch in Österreich, wo sie Deutsch
sprechen oder meinetwegen auch in der Nordschweiz, nur für die deutschen Kunden.
Ich denke, es gibt in Europa 100 Millionen Menschen, die deutsch sprechen, mit
Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz, in Holland sprechen viele Deutsch, sogar in
Polen sprechen viele Deutsch, auch in der Tschechei ein wenig und in Frankreich an
der Grenze, in Dänemark im Norden, es gibt ungefähr 100 Millionen. Und dann ist
es besser, für so eine große Menschenmenge, dass man ein Call-Center meinetwegen
in Österreich macht oder selbst im Elsaß, wo sie auch gut deutsch sprechen, wenn
ihnen Deutschland zu teuer ist. Aber es muss ein professionelles Center sein. …
Die Geschäftsleitung war irritiert. Sie haben mir klar zu verstehen gegeben,
nach einer Weile, es ist nicht Pflicht der europäischen Direktion ihre
Entscheidungen zu diskutieren, das war für mich der erste Affront, weil die Kulturen,
die deutsch-französischen, zusammengekommen sind. In Deutschland müssen sie
diskutieren, wenn ich eine Initiative habe, müssen sie mit mir überlegen, ob es
vielleicht Sinn macht. Das ist in Deutschland üblich. In Frankreich nicht, ... also die
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französische Direktion entscheidet und wir werden informiert und Schluss. Das
haben sie klar gesagt. Und das hat meine Kollegen, meine deutschen Kollegen,
Französinnen, aber sie leben in Deutschland und sie wissen, wie in Deutschland das
soziale Leben ...sie standen alle da: Das kann ja nicht sein, wir wollen eine Antwort.
Das hat den französischen Gewerkschaften imponiert. Ganz vorsichtig haben sie uns
Unterstützung gegeben: Ja, wir können die deutschen Kollegen verstehen, wir hätten
auch gerne die Antwort, es ist vielleicht ganz sinnvoll. Es war wie ein kleiner
Kulturkampf, weil die Methoden so unterschiedlich waren und die Direktion konnte
nicht mal sagen, es ist nicht wichtig für sie, denn wir haben nicht über die sozialen
sondern über die ökonomischen Bereiche...Was dahinter kommt, hat natürlich einen
sozialen Effekt, wenn ökonomisch AF verliert in Deutschland, in Spanien, in Italien,
dann ist die Gefahr für die Arbeitsplätze da. Der BR begreift sich als Partner, der
auch immer die wirtschaftliche Situation mitanschaut, weil danach kommen ja
soziale Folgen und das waren sie nicht gewohnt. Die französische Direktion war das
nicht gewohnt. So haben sie eben gesagt: Wir gründen zwei Arbeitsgruppen, eine
economique, und eine espace social, …"
The idea of the former Swedish select committee member was to establish a kind of
code of conduct. When for this matter a working group was established, it appeared to be
a matter in which Mr. Spinetta was strongly interested. Consequently this working group
produced high level debates and an important practical result, being the "ethics and social
rights charter" signed on 25 June 2001. It enforced the role of the EWC, because it was
competent for the follow up of this charter.
Jetzt das Kuriose: Es wurde nicht auf europäischer Ebene unterzeichnet,
sondern auf der Ebene des Generaldirektors, für die ganze company. Der EBR hat
eine Initiative übernommen, und sie gilt jetzt weltweit für jeden AF-Angestellten in
der ganzen Welt. Und das ist etwas, wo ich sage, da hat sich AF sehr sozial gezeigt,
das ist die selbe Art von Unterstützung, die sie uns eigentlich auch im EBR gegeben
haben: Wenn wir etwas machen, dann machen wir es so weit, wie es geht.
Sie muss leben. Viele Dinge, die hier drin stehen, müssen jetzt erst mal Leben
bekommen. Sie müssen auch dann wirklich untersucht werden, ob das so ist, aber es
ist eine gute Hilfe.
Für mich ist das wichtigste gewesen, dass man erst mal die menschlichen
Aspekte im weitesten abbildet, die man auch kennt von Menschenrechtscharten, da
verpflichtet sich AF drauf, das ist zumindest ein klares Bekenntnis, das ist für mich
das Wichtigste, das steht bei mir ganz oben, denn, ich mache meine BR-Arbeit so
gerne, weil ich gerne Mensch bin und gerne Menschen um mich habe. Darum kann
man auch gut auf Menschen aufpassen oder ihnen gut helfen, das ist so der erste
Aspekt. Die zweite Geschichte ist schon wieder eine juristische. AF verpflichtet sich
jedes Arbeitsrecht, das national existiert, zu respektieren. Das ist der große Schritt.
Jeder kann jetzt sagen, wenn AF zB in Italien, ohne dass es die Zentraldirektion in
Paris weiß, aber wenn AF, die Direktion in Italien, das nicht macht nach
italienischem Recht, dann kann der representant sagen: Schaut mal die Charta von
unserem Präsidenten, er sagt, er garantiert, dass wir dieses Recht einhalten. Warum
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macht ihr das nicht? Das ist ganz gut, wenn man ein Papier in der Hand habt, mit
einer Unterschrift.
Finally there has been created another working group on the matter of "job creation"
within Air France. No special results were reported yet from this ongoing working group.
Select committee (“bureau”)
The Air France EWC has a select committee of six members. In the initial EWC
agreement the select committee was entitled to meet three times each year. With the
renegotiated agreement of 2001, this was doubled to six meetings a year. Furthermore,
the renegotiated agreement settled the replacement of select committee members in the
case that they would loose their national mandate.
« Ainsi sont réglé certains points qui n’avaient pas été prévus dans l’accord
précédent, par exemple en cas de démission d’un membre du Bureau, dans l’accord
précédent, on n’avait pas prévu son remplacement. Maintenant, on a prévu, dans un
article, qu’en cas de démission ou en cas de perte d’un mandat syndical,
automatiquement, la personne n’est plus membre du Comité, donc n’est plus membre
du Bureau, on a prévu une procédure : il y aura élection d’un nouveau membre du
Bureau lors de la plénière suivante »
The EWC agreement grants the EWC a permanent mission of contact for central
management. To realise this role it is given an additional budget of 4000 Euro, to cover
any other kind of expenses, autonomously. Furthermore free plane tickets are available
for the members of the select committee. As such they are empowered to make periodic
visits to Air France sites. These visits permit the local staff to meet their European
representatives, to get to know them and exchange ideas and information on the company
policy and on the objectives of the EWC. In the first two years of the existence of the
EWC, visits were done to Greece, Spain, Italy, the UK, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
Normally there are two select committee members going to such a local visit. In the
morning of such a mission the workforce at the airport is spoken to, and later on in the
city centre the people there. The EWC is presented and questions of the employees are
answered. For lunch the select committee members meet local management, and in the
afternoon before returning home, they get to speak to the employees of the afternoon shift
at the Airport.
On top of the six regular meetings the select committee can have extra-ordinary
meetings in conjunction with the Chair of the EWC. The management side chair and its
deputy are entitled by the EWC agreement to attend select committee meetings. In
reality the meetings start in the morning with an employee only preparation, while the
afternoon is then a joint meeting. The Chair of the EWC is Mr. Rachou and his deputy is
Mr Benlezar, who is European Human Resources Manager now.
Two of the six select committee members are French. The main person in the select
committee is the secretary of the EWC, François Cabrera from CFDT. The second French
member did not attend meetings often; in the eyes of some he did not do his work
properly as a worker representative. Then suddenly he got a director function. Since then
the role of Alain Benlazer, is sometimes mentioned as a factor explaining the
constructive attitude from the side of central management. No conflicts, tensions or any
other kind of comment on this change of side were reported in any of the interviews. The
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replacement of him as second French select committee member by Philippe Bonnefous
from the CGT, did certainly contribute to the dynamics of the select committee.
Lorsqu’on fait des missions dans les secteurs, ce sont les membres du Bureau
qui se déplacent et on va voir les salariés. D’ailleurs au début, par exemple quand je
pense à ma première mission à Londres, c’était une mission où la direction nous
avait organisé un bon repas et en fait, on n’avait pas vu les salariés. Donc j’ai piqué
une grande colère et j’ai dit que je ne ferais plus de mission comme ça et que
maintenant je veux voir les salariés et après, je rencontrerai la direction. Depuis, on
fait comme ça, et on a rencontré les salariés de la FSL, à Londres, de la filiale. On
n’a eu aucun problème pour communiquer avec eux. Et la direction accepte.
The working language of the select committee is French, sometimes also English is
spoken. From the six members only the Swedish member Mike Collins and the German,
Hartmut Beckmann, are not having French as mother tongue. The single female select
committee member representing the UK employees is personally born in France. French
is also the mother tongue for André Haillez, the Belgian select committee member.
When the Swedish select committee member Mike Collins, took up a position in a
Swedish Trade Union, his mandate went afterward to a Swedish worker representative.
From the six ordinary select committee meetings, two need to prepare the following
plenary meeting of the EWC.A few times there have been made phone and e-mail
questions some weeks before the meeting to ask what questions will be raised, so that the
meeting can even be prepared before and surprises avoided. Such preparation in advance
is however not done systematically.
The relation of the EWC with Central Management
Etienne Rachou, the Director for Europe within Air France, is the chair of the EWC.
Before, these positions were taken by Jean-Cyril Spinetta, the current CEO. For questions
on company strategies and economic results, it is the Director for Europe that is asked,
for social policy questions are posed to the European Human resources manager, Alain
Benlezar. And for more precise HR matters or practical questions there is a manager one
level lower then Mr Benlezar. Each person has his own personality but bureau members
never had any problem in getting answers from central direction.
-Dans la Direction, il y a quelqu’un qui a travaillé pour le Syndicat dans le
passé ?
-Oui, Alain Benlezar. Il a travaillé pour la CFDT.
Apparently, management has seen from the first day the potential added value of the
EWC to collect information informally from local level and also to promote corporate
identity for example through the adoption of the social charter. From the side of the EWC
members, the way the issue of the London call centre was dealt with, gave them the
feeling they could have some influence in being heard by management.
In France, Spain and the UK, social dialogue is functioning properly, in Belgium and
in the past also in Germany, relations with national management are not of the same
nature. In Belgium this is due to certain personalities. It is simply bad luck getting
directors who don’t want to dialogue with workers, or with their representatives. In
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Germany the representation atmosphere seems to have been as conflictual, although it
improved very much with the new direction.
The EWC created “system-immanent” conflicts between management and workers
representatives in Germany, when the EWC made it was possible to communicate about
problems with Central management. The HRM before didn’t speak German nor English.
Since he was not able to read the German law, he was not really able to function
properly, which made it very difficult for the works council. Thanks to the EWC, this
problem was recognised by the central management. Result from this is that now for the
first time there is a French HRM in Germany, who is speaking German, did study
German social laws, so to have a profile that is needed to work here.
Through the EWC this has been communicated to central management that wanted to
look for another solution. The German works councillors from their side could have gone
to court, but waited patiently until central management did send another HRM.
According to the German EWC member, it is important to have a good structures, that
makes clear what needs to be done by whom and when. It is not like some people think
that German works councils are very powerful. It’s just that it is very well regulated. If
the rules of the game are well known by both sides then it is easy working together, while
possibilities are limited. Unnecessary discussions are avoided as such. The German
worker representatives learned that in France things work differently, including much
more uncertainty, even if a spoken promise is given there it does not yet mean that there
is found a solution.
The EWC and National workers representation
structures
While Air France has operations and workers in almost all European countries, its
workforce is so much concentrated in the home-country that it is hardly internationalised
in terms of (European) spread of its workforce. This will make the EWC depend very
much upon the French workers representation structures. It will probably always be some
kind of French Group Works Council with additional foreign workers representatives that
are given more space in the EWC then their proportion of the overall workforce.
Le Comité de groupe européen est désigné par les syndicats sur la base d’une
représentation proportionnelle…Là, ce qui est un petit peu différent, c’est qu’il y a
d’un côté l’entreprise Air France, et de l’autre côté, le groupe Air France. C’est-àdire que le groupe Air France a aussi des filiales. Donc il une élection, qui est
l’élection des représentants au Conseil d’Administration, qui est la seule élection qui
peut donner une vraie représentativité par rapport à la proportionnalité. Donc, c’est
cette élection qui fait référence, ça, c’est dans l’accord du Comité de groupe
européen.
Beyond Europe, there are another 15% of the worldwide workers. This is the context
in which attempts to set up a World Works Council are to be placed. Contacts with
Mexico and Venezuela Worker representatives have been organised through the
International Transport Federation (ITF).
For the German EWC members, the EWC is seen as complementary to the national
representation work. It adds to this the access to central management. In Germany Air
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France is no AG, so it has no Aufsichtsrat. The GBR has a wirtschafts-auschuss through
which economical information is received from German Management. Central
management can not be questioned or heard directly with the wirtschafts-auschuss, for
this the EWC is there. However, some procedures that are evidently successful in
German works councils, can not be raised in Paris, which frustrates them and avoids that
foreign EWC colleagues benefit from the German strengths from the legal background of
German workers-interest-representation.
In Belgium there are 60 employees divided among the AF offices in Avenue Louise,
at the South (Railway) station, the Airport, the cargo part of the airport and in Antwerp.
The only representation structure is in the committee for health and safety in which there
are not included representatives from all these locations. From Antwerp for example
there is nobody represented. This is not a problem for the Belgian EWC member, since
he is able to inform the workers about the EWC through direct contacts and visits to the
different sites. The tensions between the Belgian EWC member and local management
have been settled through a formal agreement made with Central Management.
In Germany EWC reports are given on the meetings of the works councils.
Especially attention is given to those works councils who have a representative in the
GBR but not in the EWC. Apparently the GBR is not serving as intermediary to
communicate downwards and from the work-floor up. Direct contact between the
German select committee member and the local works councils is taken here as standard
of efficient communication.
The fact that Germany got a seat less in the EWC and UK one more, because the
number of workers rising there, resulted in the situation where now only 3 from the seven
German works councils have a member in the EWC.
Two hundred of the 470 German workers are located in Frankfurt. Then there are
some 50 workers in both München and Berlin, about 35 in Düsseldorf, Stuttgart and
Hahn (Cargo-central place). Other locations are Hannover, Hamburg and Nurnberg. At
Köln Air France used to have 6 workers for which had to be found another job when Air
France closed in Köln.
There are 7 works councils in Germany;
1. in Hamburg (also covering Hannover),
2. in Berlin,
3. in München (also covering Nürnberg)
4. Stuttgart
5. Frankfurt (which is the largest one)
6. Düsseldorf (also covering Köln)
7. Hahn
And a “Gesamtbetriebsrat” (GBR) a central works council in which all German
workers of Air France are represented. The meetings of the “Gesamtbetriebsrat” (GBR)
are not in Frankfurt but in Paris.
For 5 to 20 workers there is one representative, for 21 to 50 there are 3
representatives and for 51 to 100 workers 5 reps, 101 to 200 gives seven and 201 to 400
nine. Because of this Frankfurt gets nine works council members, for the moment there
are only seven since the new works council law enters into force July 2002. When a
works council has more then 5 members, which is the case for Frankfurt, Berlin and
München, then a woman and a man has to be send to the GBR. Consequently there are 10
GBR-members from 7 works councils.
The law gives certain competences to works councils, who can delegate some of
these to the GBR. This works only upwards. While the GBR can set up a working group
composing representatives from different works councils (even though they’re no GBR-
193
members) to prepare a certain topic or dossier for the GBR. An example for this is where
the GBR has trained two women to deal with mobbing. If there is a problem they go over
there to see what is going on and how it can be solved best. Mobbing is not regarded as
individual problem, since this is not among the competences; it is seen as an issue of
“betriebsfriedens or frieden in einer gruppe”
The German select committee member, Hartmut Beckman started to work in
Stuttgart, where he worked for about one year. At that time he was studying law, and for
the reason that he new legislation well, he was appointed to be chair of the works council
in 1994. A half a year later, the former chair of the GBR retired and Hartmut took his
place. From 1995 to 1998, Hartmut has been flying from Frankfurt to Stuttgart daily. He
had his mandate as workers representative from Stuttgart, where he lived, and he had a
juridical service function in Frankfurt where he was in the GBR. For the 1998 workerrepresentation elections he was elected in Frankfurt. The vice-president of the GBR was
working in Düsseldorf. Since there was more and more work, his role became more and
more important so that the office of the GBR was replaced from Frankfurt to Dusseldorf.
The meetings of the GBR however take always place in Paris. Since some GBR-members
need to fly anyhow, flying for them to Frankfurt or Dusseldorf would only be possible
with Lufthansa, while an Air France flight to Paris does not cost anything extra.
Normally there is one GBR-meeting of 2 days each month. Monday it is a workers only
meeting and Tuesday a meeting with management. When special events occur, there can
be a second or third meeting in the same month. Locally, Hartmut Beckmann has works
council meeting each week. Some things like training for woks council members are
evident, and Hartmut stressed on them. While for French managers this was costly and
not evident. The German works council can only represent workers in collective matters.
Mobbing is an issue because it concerns the ‘Frieden in einer gruppe”.
The German GBR is not only particular because of its meetings in Paris, but also
because some of its members are French persons working in Germany, speaking French
perfectly but not knowing the German way works-councils functions. As such this has
been an opportunity for language learning and intercultural learning. The 470 employees
of Air France in Germany are having 41 different nationalities, of which many speak 5 or
6 languages, what give a familiar intercultural atmosphere. The managers in Germany are
“of course” French. The current Director was 12 years in Abu Dhabi, and knows the Arab
world very well. Before him there was a German director. The French person before him
was also little French national oriented. In general, French managers in Air France in
Germany adapt themselves well to the foreign culture.
The relation of the EWC and trade unions
It is impressive to see how well arranged and rather conflict free is the distribution of
the 10 French EWC mandates, to worker representatives that need to represent more then
fifty-thousand workers, through 19 different trade unions. Seven of the ten mandates go
to the “ground staff” (PS) according to their results for the elections for employee
representatives in the administrative board. This gives three mandates for the CGT, and
two for both FO and CFDT. The mandate for the middle-management representative goes
to CFE-CGC, and the “personnel navigant commercial” (PNC) is represented by a EWC
member from SNPC, while for the “personnel navigant technique” (PNT) this is done by
someone from SNPL.
194
CGT
FO
CFDT
CFE-CGC
UNSA
CFTC
SNPC
SNPL
% votes 2001
26 %
18 %
15 %
6%
4%
3%
% votes 2003
23 %
16 %
16 %
14 %
6%
4%
4%
4%
Seats EWC
3
2
2
1
1
1
PS
PS
PS
cadres
PNC
PNT
An insight view on the role of the trade unions within Air France is given in the book
of Franck Bouaziz (1998). The importance of the French central works council (comité
central d’entreprise – CCE) can hardly be over-estimated. Generously sponsored by the
Air France management it has a budget of three percent of the overall labour cost of the
company, which is about 80 million euro each year. It has 150 staff members. And just to
give one example of its activities is the holidays organised every year for 14.000 children
of employees, for which are recruited 700 activity-organisers (Bouaziz 1998, p.206).
In the years before the creation of the EWC, FO had with about 30% of the votes
almost half of the French central works council seats. It was the time of Robert Génovès
leading FO within Air France. Certain financial scandals made an end to the hegemony of
Robert Génovès and of FO. Under his successor, Michel Duval, and even more when
another important FO leader, Gerald Meg left FO to join CFDT, it was CFDT that
became the second strangest trade union force within Air France. After CGT, that at the
time of the creation of the EWC was not yet affiliated to the European Trade Union
Confederation (ETUC). Because of the communist background of the CGT it was a kind
of left aside in the creation of the EWC. For this Reason François Cabrera from the
CFDT is the number one of the EWC. Little after the CGT had been integrated in the
ETUC and in the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF), a mandate was waiting
for Philippe Bonnefous from the CGT.
In the creation and further development the EWC received support from Brenda
O’Brian and François Ballestero, officers of the European Transport Workers’ Federation
(ETF) and from Giancarlo Crivellaro, the General Secretary of the European Cockpit
association (ECA).
The important role of the French and the European trade union organisations for the
EWC is reflected in the lists of EWC members, mentioning the union each member
‘belongs to’. The Belgian select committee member, André Haillez, became twenty years
ago a shop-steward (delegation syndicale) for CSC. Eight years ago he changed and
became member of Setca-FGTB. The situation of the German worker representatives
was, especially in the early days of the EWC, too much autonomous from the trade
unions, to be acceptable for the French EWC delegates. The German select committee
member Hartmut Beckmann, reports from that part of EWC history in the following way.
Das ist auch ne kuriose Geschichte.Llange Zeit, weil die Franzosen uns nicht
akzeptiert haben, zumindest nicht alle, weil wir sind keine syndicalisten. Wir sind
Ko-Direktionen, die BR in Deutschland, und so wird’s oft verstanden in
Deutschland, aber das ist für mich jetzt nur Makulatur. Aber wir sind gewählte
Vertreter, wir sind kein syndicat. Und die Franzosen sagen, nur ein syndicat kann
vertreten, darf in Frankreich vertreten. Wenn du nicht vom syndicat bist, dann sag
mir, welches syndicat hat gesagt, dass du zum EBR kommen darfst? Wer hat dir das
195
Mandat gegeben? Das ist in Italien richtig, die BR in Italien bekommen ihr Mandat
von der Gewerkschaft, das ist sehr kompliziert, da haben wir Probleme gehabt
schon, bedauerlicherweise. Aber in Deutschland ist die Gewerkschaft ein guter
Partner, und ein sehr zuverlässiger Partner für die BR, also ich empfinde das so.
Aber sie haben nicht die Rolle zu intervenieren in den kollektiven Dingen, das
müssen die BR selber machen. Das erwarten auch die Gewerkschaften von uns BR,
dass wir im großen und ganzen die Arbeit alleine machen, dass sie assistieren, wenn
es sehr schwierig wird,… Wir dürfen keine Rechtsberatung machen, die BR, sondern
wir können nur die Kollektivinteressen...und dann ist der Kontakt zur Gewerkschaft,
die die Individualinteressen der Mitarbeiter vertritt, wenn sie Mitglied sind, sonst
nicht...und dann das natürlich weiter bearbeiten.
Evaluation and perspectives
An added value is that workers representatives from foreign subsidiaries get a better
overview of the companies operations and strategies by sharing information with foreign
colleagues. Most valuable is the EWC in the resulting cooperation with French trade
unionists and the direct access to and information from central management.
Thanks to the EWC the workers and their representatives are no longer locked up in
their country. The select committee members play a very important role in this bridge
building as well as in the functioning of the EWC in-between the meetings. Helpful in
achieving this was the access gained by the select committee members to the facilities of
the Comité central d’entreprise at Roissy and to the workers from the different local
operations through the local visits. The EWC is also relatively well supported in terms of
resources, training provision, and support from French and European trade union
structures.
Easy internal communication flows are the basis for transnational cooperation of
worker representatives. If decisions are taken resulting in for example outsourcing of
certain activities in one country, the representatives there can be given important informal
support by other EWC members. While simultaneously, the question is raised how
similar unwished situations could be prevented in other countries. Nevertheless,
differences in representation culture have created difficulties in the cooperation,
especially between the German and French representatives.
Not all working group activities of the EWC did deliver the expected result. The
learning-process of searching appropriate working methods and solutions is however
important in itself. The working groups on the London call centre, included results along
with learning experiences. Most successful was the working group that prepared the
social charter.
Overall representatively of the workforce in the EWC is good. In the new 2001
agreement it is foreseen that once Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic enter the EU,
their workers will also be represented by an observer in the EWC. For the moment the
Air France operations in Poland fall under the Moscow management and Hungarian and
Czech ones under the Geneva management.
196
References
Autier, F., Corcos, G and Trépo, G (2001) Air France, dans tous les ciels, Editions
Vuibert, Paris.
Bouaziz, F. (1998) Air France, Dans les coulisses d’une entreprise pas comme les autres,
Plon
EirOnline, www.eiro.eurofound.ie
Minutes of the EWC meeting of 7 November 2002
The interviewees
André Haillez
André Haillez
Hartmut Beckmann
Jean Claude le Douaron
Jean Claude le Douaron
André Haillez
Hartmut Beckmann
Philippe Bonnefous
Brussels
Brussels
Frankfurt
Brussels
Brussels
Brussels
Frankfurt
Paris
1999
2001
2001
2002
2003
2003
2003
2003
197
Fortis EWC
Peter Kerckhofs
Fortis provides financial services in the fields of insurance, banking and investment.
The Benelux countries are the home market, where Fortis occupies a leading position. In
other countries Fortis concentrates on selected market segments. The divestment of nonprofitable activities and enhancement of transparency form an integral part of the
corporate strategy.
Fortis is listed on the Stock exchange of Amsterdam, Brussels and Luxembourg. Its
financial objectives aim at a return on equity of at least 15%. Financial participation for
employees already existed before the merger in both Fortis and Generale Bank. Not in the
first year after the merger, but in the following years there have been successive option
and share-plans for employees. Last plan the participation was 60% of the employees
from the countries that took part in it, which is perceived low by the interviewed. The
EWC has been consulted on the financtial participation plans. Based upon the EWCs
advise the plans have already been adapted slightly. Lately there were also special
consultation meetings on this issue between the select committee of the EWC and
EHRM.
Fortis was created in 1990 with the merger of the Dutch insurer EMEV and the
Dutch Bank VSB, to which the Belgian insurer AG joined that same year. In 1991, with
Interlloyd another Dutch insurer was acquired and in 1992 Fortis entered into a joint
venture with “la Caixa” a leading bank in Spain. Together with its privitasation, a gradual
take over of ASLK-CGER started in 1993, and was completed in 1999. In 1996 and
1997, Fortis sells insurance activities in Denmark, the USA and Ireland. Then again are
acquired in 1997 the Dutch Merchant bank MeesPierson, in 1998 Generale Bank, in 1999
the UK insurer Northern Star, in 2000 the Spanish bank Beta Capital, the Belgian bank
Belgolaise and the dutch insurance group ASR, and in 2001 Seguros Bilbao, the former
insurance portfolio of Bâloise. Year after year, certain activities are disposed while others
are acquired, after 1997 more and more also in the US and in Asia.
From all these changes the workers interest were most at stake in the search of
synergy effects after the merger of the Belgian banks Generale bank and ASLK-CGER
into Fortis Bank. Before this merger Generale Bank employed 23.000 persons;
Appreciatively 16.000 in Belgium, almost 3000 in the Netherlands and about 2000 in
France and Luxembourg. Since this merger, a large majority (75%) of the European
Fortis employees are working in Banking activities. Also in each country where Fortis is
present, the banking activities are predominant. The only two exceptions on this are to be
found in the UK with 1550 employees in the insurance sector (64%) and 1030 in Spain
(77%). In Belgium the insurance activities employ 4156 workers (16%) and in the
Netherlands 5880 (35%).
Fortis has two home countries, Belgium and the Netherlands. All together, half of the
European workforce is based in Belgium, and another 31% in the Netherlands. More or
less 2500 persons are employed by Fortis in Luxemburg, the UK and in France. Adding
the 1338 in Spain and 919 in Poland, there are only left countries with relatively small
proportions of the Fortis workforce in Europe.
199
Table 1; Fortis workforce in the European countries (June 2002)
50%
Belgium
26759
Netherlands
16419
31%
luxembourg
2708
5%
France
2285
4%
UK
2421
5%
Spain
1338
2%
Germany
199
Ireland
162
italy
78
Portugal
41
Greece
4
Turkey
4
Norway
7
Switzerland
261
Poland
919
2%
total Europe
53605
EWC History
Negotitations to set up an EWC for both Fortis and for Generale Bank started in the
course of 1995. From 8 to 10 March 1995 an international forum of Fortis employee
representatives decided to set up a special negotiation body, that met for the first time on
8 June 1995. An agreement to set up a Fortis EWC was signed on 20 September 1996.
The very same day also for Generale Bank an agreement was signed to set up an EWC.
After the take over of Generale Bank a new Fortis EWC agreement has been signed on
15 November 2000.
The take over of Generale Bank by Fortis, brought together two different worker
representation cultures. While Generale Bank was much more concentrated in Belgium,
Fortis was more bi-polarized. For the Fortis EWC, the take-over was part of an ongoing
process of enlargement of the company for which no exceptional meetings were
organised, while for Generale Bank about 10 exceptional meetings were held on the
issue.
Before the take over, the employee representation culture in Generale bank used to
be more trade union minded then in Fortis. Remarcable from the General Bank EWC
agreement is its Article 14 §3 providing for three months for a consultation procedure of
the trade unions affiliated to the European industry Federation UNI-Europa. At the end of
this three months, the signatory trade unions affiliated to UNI-Europa, may cancel the
agreement.
The role of UNI-Europa was recognised also in Article 6 of the Generale Bank
agreement, by granting the presence of a representative of this European industry
federation to the meetings of the EWC, as a permanent expert to the staff delegation,
advising on European matters. This provision out of the Generale bank EWC agreement
is one out of four that were taken over in the post merger Fortis EWC agreement. The
200
three other items concern; the select committee, the number of meetings and the “French
model” EWC.
The initial Fortis EWC agreement established a German model EWC, only existing
of employee representatives. The Chair of the former fortis EWC was an employee
representative, while for Generale bank, the EWC chair was the chair of the executive
board of the company. The Generale Bank EWC was also a joint body with both
management and workers representatives (the so called French model). The interviewed
EWC members find only a semantic difference in this, because the Generale Bank had an
employee only preparation meeting and a meeting with management the same way as the
fortis EWC.
The post merger EWC agreement
The new Fortis EWC agreement is negotiated with a group of about ten persons. In
reality, most of the work behind the screens is done by two of the Belgian select
committee members and someone from the legal department from managements side.
The new Fortis EWC agreement does combine the strengths of the Generale Bank
EWc agreement with those of the former Fortis one. An example of a strong formulation
in the 1996 Fortis EWC agreement that was taken over in the new one is to be found in
the additional protection of delegates, in Art 3 §2.
In the countries where they enjoy no special protection for a comparable
activity, the Executive Board shall see to it that the local companies shall confirm
individually and in writing to any (effective or substitute) member of the EWC that
he/she is protected against dismissal or detrimental treatment which would be linked
to his/her activity in the EWC
Training however was mentioned in the Generale Bank EWC agreement but not in
the 1996 Fortis one. In the 2000 fortis EWC agreement extensive training rights are
provided. Also the arrangement for a select committee for the Generale Bank EWC, and
for a second annual meeting, were taken over in the post-acquisition Fortis EWC
agreement. The 1996 Fortis agreement did only provide for one annual EWC meeting.
The EWC adopted internal rules of procedure on 8 may 2001. Here are determined,
procedures to bring points upon the agenda, to elect the select committee members, to
vote on decisions, to set up working groups, and to tape meetings and archive these tapes.
The EWC agreement is perceived as a starting point, that is not on the table during
meetings. It is refered to when written demand is made to management for a training for
example, as foreseen in the Agreement. The rights foreseen in the Agreement are realised
in practice. Except for the possibility to set up technical working groups. On the other
hand, there are two ways in which the EWC practice goes further then the rights foreseen
in the Agreement. The possibility of having a post employee-only debriefing meeting is
the first example. The second, is the intervention in a problem of one French insurance
subsidiary where a quarter of the employees were dismissed. Even though it was a purely
local problem there was argued that the events were a consequence of decisions taken by
central management and therefore transnational of nature. The select committee of the
EWC has been to this subsidiary in Paris to supervise the negotiations there. As a result
of this the idea is launched in February 2003 to establish an intervention team for local
201
problems. In princeple the EWC agreement does not allow this. Through arguments and
pressure, this is however developing in practice.
The EWC composition
The Generale Bank EWC consisted of eleven Belgian members; five Dutch, four
French and 4 Luxembourg members. The Generale Bank workers from Spain, Italy,
Germany and the UK were represented indirectly. This resulted from the double
threshold of 150 workers per country and one company with at least 100 workers
necessary to have the right of sending representative to the EWC. Countries with smaller
workforces were represented indirectly by the select committee. Even though, such a
threshold was not included in the initial Fortis Agreement, it was introduced in the new
Fortis agreement. As a consequence the 199 Fortis employees in Germany are not
directly represented because there was no German Fortis company with at least 100
workers. They are represented indirectly by the select committee members.
Allocation of EWC seats in
1996 Fortis agreement
Each country one EWC member
Additional seats
employees
+1
+1000
+2
+3000
+3
+6000
+9
+7500
1996 Generale bank agreement
seats employees
1
150 to 500
2
+500
3
+1000
4
+1500
5
+2000
6
+3000
7
+4000
8
+6000
9
+8000
10
+10000
11
+13000 to 16000
+1
For each 3000 beyond 16000
2000 Fortis agreement
seats
employees
1
100 to 1000
2
+1000
3
+2500
5
+5000
7
+10000
9
+15000
11
+20000
13
+25000
In the table above are presented the ways in which were allocated the seats of the
EWC of Fortis and Generale Bank on the basis of their agreement of 1996. If the
Generale Bank distribution key written down in the agreement would result in more then
the maximum of 36 members, then this key would be renegotiated. For the old Fortis
EWC agreement this maximum was 30 members, while for the new agreement it is put at
40. Based upon the seat allocation key from the 2000 Fortis agreement 38 mandates were
assigned. For both 1996 agreements as well as for the 2000 Fortis EWC agreement there
is provided a substitute for each effective EWC member.
202
Country
Belgium
France
Germany
Ireland
Luxembourg
Poland
Spain
Switzerland
Netherlands
UK
Bank
Employees
22898
1778
199
136
2528
812
237
257
11125
765
40735
Bank
Mandates
11
2
0
1
3
1
1
1
7
1
28
Insurance
Employees
3783
688
0
0
62
0
773
0
3327
1216
9849
Insurance
Mandates
3
1
0
0
0
0
1
0
3
2
10
Total
workforce
26681
2488
199
136
2590
812
1010
257
14452
1981
50584
Total
Mandates
14
3
0
1
3
1
2
1
10
3
38
Total
Remarkable result after the acquisition of Generale Bank was that from the Dutch
members of the Generale Bank EWC did not get a mandate in the Fortis EWC. Only in
2002, one of the former Dutch members of the Generale Bank EWC did re-enter the
Fortis EWC, through his election into the Fortis Dutch Central Works Council. The
Belgian Generale Bank EWC members, on the contrary, were immediately well
integrated in the Fortis EWC without much problems. The employee side chair from the
Generale Bank EWC became the vice chair of the Fortis EWC.
There are still traces left of the merger of the two existing EWCs in the functioning
of the current Fortis EWC. From the side of the Dutch Generale Bank EWC members
they apparently didn’t wanted to be in the Fortis EWC. From the viewpoint of the
Belgian Generale Bank EWC members the established good cooperation and trust was
swept away because of the absence of the Dutch Generale bank EWC members in the
new Fortis EWC. The EWC culture in Generale Bank was more critical, more active and
more oriented towards the formulation of advise. While the former Fortis EWC culture is
perceived as more passive and as damping the initiatives of former Generale Bank EWC
delegates.
According to the annex of the 2000 Fortis agreement, a room is made available for
each select committee member of the EWC in an area where his/her confidentiality is not
infringed. To enable them to fulfil their tasks, these offices shall have a telephone, a fax
machine, and a PC so that they may contact employees' representatives and/or members
of staff from any Fortis company. Furthermore, the EWC agreements states that for
select committee members shall be granted the time required to perform their duties.
There is no fixed budget for the EWC. In the former Fortis agreement this was
foreseen, but never formalised in a fixed amount. In the renegotiation of the agreement
this has been an issue. To avoid that a fixed amount would limit them they have opted to
leave this open and to obtain the necessary means through their relative powerfull
position and with some patience, this works satisfactory. If the secretary needs to get
translated any document he goes to the translation service and the invoice is send to
203
management. It is helpful that in Belgium, all works council documents are already
available in French and Dutch.
In principle all EWC members can have e-mail, but some may not yet have requested
an e-mail address. Another EWC member interviewed says it is not as easy for those
people as such, since they have bad luck to work in an office where there is no e-mail
available.
Participation of a UNI-Europa trade union expert is also foreseen. Unfortunately
there have been problems in filling up this position. According to the EWC members, the
role of a European Industry Federation (EIF) representative is to mediate in conflicts or
in cases where some countries are trade unions are not represented. Perhaps the problem
with the Spanish representation in the EWC could be a matter for EIF intervention?
Access to foreign subsidiaries is no problem. Beforehand permission has to be asked
to the management contact person. But this is more a matter of playing it correct and
formally, and not doing things in secret. This is to avoid that later on there could be
concluded that the EWC member was not in the office, not at work.
There is no formal arrangement giving the Belgian select committee members
completely time-off for their representation tasks. There is only written in the agreement
that they should have the necessary time available. In practice this means full-time off.
The reason why this has not been formalised yet is that after the take over of Generale
Bank, the total number of legally foreseen delegates at national level would have
diminished. Since belgian social elections came so short after the take over, those
elections have been skipped, on the request of all parties. Early 2004 there will be new
elections, resulting in pressure to get the number of delegates closer to what is legally
foreseen. At that moment “time-off” arrangement could eventually be traded of.
The EWC has obtained in the 2000 agreement extensive training rights. Three days
of training are provided for during the first and during the second year of the 4 year
mandates. For both the third and fourth year this is one day for each EWC member and
substitute. The three days training was a practice of the Generale Bank EWC in 1998. A
similar three day training planned for 1999 was cancelled because of the merger. As such
this practice has turned into a right that is formalised in detail in the 2000 Fortis EWC
agreement.
In the Netherlands there is a legal basis for the central works council. Not all central
works council members are trade unionists. In Belgium meetings at group level are
organised by the trade unions. Since there are two large unions involved in the Belgian
operations this happens separated. The fact that formar ASLK-CGER were public owned
before 1993, implies the involvement of public service unions (CCOD and ACOD) as
well as private service unions (LBC and BBTK). Coordination among them is foreseen
between the christian unions CCOD and LBC, as well as between the socialist unions
ACOD and BBTK, but not with all four of these toghether with the liberals.
The EWC meetings
Meetings take 3 days. In the morning of the first day EWC members arrive. The
Venue is determined in the agreement to be in Belgium or Netherlands, or otherwise
especially agreed with management. Up to now, meetings have only taken place in
Belgium or Netherlands.
204
The two annual EWC meetings normally take place in the months of May and
October. In the afternoon of the first day there is employee only preparation meeting. The
second day is the meeting with management, and the morning of the third day is for
debriefing.
Since the 2000 Fortis agreement, there have taken place two exceptional meetings.
Exceptional meetings are more limited in time. They consist of a half a day preparation
meeting, a half a day meeting with management and an hour or two post-meeting.
When the EWC meeting was held in Gent (Belgium) a boat-trip was organised as
evening activity. Another time a dinner in a resterant had been scheduled. This however
is not found necessary by the members of the select committee, who prefer simply sitting
together to talk and have a drink. For the EWC members, most important is to take the
opportunity to sit together and exchange experiences with workers representatives from
other countries.
Select committee members already met before the preparation meeting. Eventually
they would arrive the evening before, so that the pre-meeting is well prepared by them.
The pre-meeting
In the preparation meeting first new members are welcomed before the minutes of
the previous meeting are adopted and a report is given on the activities of the select
committee. If there are no special topics or documents to be discussed, then the meeting
with managmenet is prepared, taken one by one, each point on the agenda for the next
day.
The core element of the pre-meeting is the preparation of the meeting with
management the next day. In the past, the preparation meeting was also used to exchange
on local and national situations. Because certain persons could not arrive early enough
and had to leave not to late the next day, both the preparation and the meeting with
management, were held under time-pressure. As a consequence a post meeting was
introduced. Now, topicalities from the various subsidiaries and countries are exchanged
in the employee only post meeting.
The meeting with management
Officially the agenda of the joint meeting is drafted by the employee chair and by
ecntral management, and finalised by the secretary. In reality the agenda is set by the
secretary in conjunction with the central management representative, because most of the
agenda-items do come from management side. Even though workers know that they can
raise to the select committee points to be put on the agenda, this does rarely happen. The
ideas is to create some kind of agenda commission that would meet on a montly basis, to
identify issues that need to be raised in the EWC. The select committee plays this role
now.
Officially there is some kind of co-chairmanship of the joint meeting. In reality it is
management that chairs the meeting and the secretary of the EWC watched over the time
taken for each point.
205
Information is received on cross-border restructuring. There has also been raised a
strategically view of certain operations, like for example the leasing activities. Another
time a presentation was given on the USA operations of fortis.
The quality of the information varies. In some cases it was complete and well
structured; while in other cases it was vague and rather useless. Sometimes it is translated
in all languages, sometimes at the time of the meeting only available in English.
Mostly the information arrives to late (or not translated) so that a thorough analysis
and trade union preparation can not be deployed before the meeting. The consequence of
this is that little additional questions or discussions can take place. Sometimes
information is not accurate at all, when products and objectives are presented, without
mentioning the number of workers involved and the consequences the plans have on
them.
In Belgium and Netherlands information is rather fast available through national
channels, so that the information received in the EWC can not surprise them like the
EWC members from other countries.
On the plans for financial participation the EWC has been consulted. There are
however, two other issues, that the EWC would have liked to be more consulted in ; the
Fortis code of conduct and the transnational restructuring. Nevertheless unasked advices
are formulated systematically after each EWC meeting. Alone because there is discussion
on the term « advice » it is called declaration. It is not clear whether these declarations
are taken into consideration. By the fact that one select committee member was called to
account on the last declaration, they prove to be read by central management.
Post Meeting
The employee only post-meeting takes a half a day and contains two parts. First of
which is to react on what is said in the meeting with management. It can be that extensive
discussions are necessary, or that a decleration is made, or that things need to be cleared
out further for example another meeting between the select committee and central
management. The other part of the post meeting is the round-up of the social situation in
all the fortis companies, to stay up to date of what is going on, and to recognise trends.
Among the five select committee members there is appointed. a chair, a deputy chair
and a secretary. The select committee meets normally every 2 or 3 months. It are
employee only meetings. Only exceptionally a representative of central management is
invited to the select committee meeting. Normally meetings take place in Belgium or the
Netherlands, the next meeting however is planned to take place in Luxembourg.
In the EWC of Generale Bank there was a select committee of 4 members, from 4
diferent countries; France, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Belgium. The new fortis select
committee has five members that need to come out of 3 different countries and both the
banking as the insurance pillar need to be represented. In November 2002 the elections
for the select committee appointed three Belgian, one dutch and a French member. The
Luxembourg candidate that was not elected has in the meanwhile obtained support of
206
central management for a sixth seat in the select committee. The question raised with this
is that if Luxembourg would get a guaranteed seat in the select committee, then why not
France or the UK. All this has to be placed in the context where the Dutch employee side
chair of the EWC has resigned. His Belgian deputy would like to stay in function, while
the other Belgian select committee member is candidate for the free position of employee
side chair. An unwritten rule however says that this position and the deputy should be
from two different countries, and that there would always be just as much Belgian as
Dutch select committee members. In 2004 the mandates have to be re-allocated again and
this could be to make package deal-solutions for all this.
Internal communication inbetween meetings
Language training is requested recently, but not yet provided for. The language skills
of most EWC members permit them to disucss in french or english. The spanish members
however only speak spanish. Only three of the non-spanish EWC members can
communicate with them in spanish. Last 3 or 4 members they were not present, for one or
the other reason. Apperently there are some tensions between the different trade union
organisations in the spanish subsidiaries of Fortis. This has also occured at the alocation
of the two spanish mandates. After that one select committee member got the impression
they hid away. For this person it is perceived to be almost impossible to get the spenish
members on the phone.
During the renegotiation of the Fortis EWC agreement the use of language was also
discussed. Internal management meetings are in English and even if two dutch persons
send an e-mail they happen to do this in English. For the EWC this is considered absurd.
Each EWC member should keep the option to use its own mother tongue during the
meeting. If not one would go and select members for the EWC on a wrong basis, is the
conclusion of one of the select committee members.
The Dutch EWC members have informal contacts in the UK and with French EWC
members that speak English. Cultural differences ad up to the language barrier. The
Dutch EWC members are more cool where the French will get excited easily. Also
between the open dutch way of talking about private issues and Belgian more modest
way, differences have to be over-bridged. Furthermore folosophical differences play a
crucial role. Some persons take a ferm trade union position, while other believe this is not
done, that more empathy for the economical situation of the company is needed instead.
These differences are however over-bridged successfully each time they come out with
one common view, an unanimously adopted text.
Conflicts have already risen. They are not really perceived as a part of a process of
getting to know each other better. On the other hand they do not bring additional barriers
to communication. After conflicts people will not stop talking to each other, outside the
meeting things are different. The personality of individuals plays an important role here
as well. Not all workers representatives from one country neceserely have the same
approach and style as the person from the same country representing them in the EWC.
The highly motivated deputy Chair and secretary are both Belgian. This is the personal
factor. It is not because they are Belgian that they slightly dominate the EWC, more
because they are in the more active and more motivated camp.
207
Relation EWC-management
The chief executive (Mr Verwilst) as well as the European human resource director
(Mr Vervink) and his assisten (Bas Brugman) take part in the EWC activities. The chief
executive gives more general strategic information, while the HER-Director more
practical questions answers. The organisational aspects of the EWC work are arranged
with his assistant. Also the secretary of the board attends the EWC. Recently there has
been added at top level a human resource director (Mr Deboeck) also attending EWCmeetings now. Occasionaly there are also other directors giving presentations on their
specific field.
At the time of the take over, the EWC members from Generale Bank had been
impressed by the openness and information received from the management of Generale
bank and from the two potential acquiring companies, Fortis and ABN Amro. Each of
them had explained their plans in detail to a special EWC meeting. The EWC got the
time to go through the mass of documents and to formulate an advise that was integrated
in the prospectus of the public offer.
For management the EWC is an instrument to get information on what is going on in
the subsidiaries. Central management wished that if it consulted the EWC, that national
consultation procedures would no longer be needed. There is for example tried to agree
upon a European arrangement for dismissals. The fear is that this would be a minimum
common denominator, instead of an improvement. Therefore, the EWC members do not
want to consider such European negotiations, for them the autonomy of the countries and
other opinions need to be respected. This issue has been raised as a question, which level
should be informed and consulted first the national or European level. Within fortis it is
tried to inform both level simultaneously. There will be started with the establishment of
technical commissions within the EWC to get information first at European level and
directly after at national and local level.
The Fortis EWC is not an instrument directly used to promote the corporate identity.
It does however contribute to the social image the company likes to have. The resources
invested in the EWC support this idea that Fortis likes to show it has a good relation with
its employees. Perhaps this image has a function in its strategy oriented towards other
take overs or mergers.
The strategy of Fortis is made clear to the EWC members in several presentations. Its
aim is to grow to become a European player and if possible even a worldplayer. This
does not mean that there would not be anymore surprises for the EWC members.
Surprises lie in the timing and the place where effects from the implemantion of the
strategy occur.
Relation EWC trade unions
The problem with the distribution of the 2 Spanish mendates and the fact that the
appointed EWC members have been absent many times, is to be placed in a context of
trade union competition. Also in Belgium this plays, although here it is more
constructive. In Belgium there are public service unions (ACOD and CCOD) and private
service unions (BBTK and LBC) involved. ACOD and BBTK are part of the socialist
Union ABVV, while CCOD and LBC are member of ACV, the Christian trade union.
208
These two are the largest unions, covering both abouth 40 to 45% of the members and
mandates. The rest is for the ACLVB, the liberal trade union.
After Fortis took over Generale Bank, all worker representatives stayed in position.
Elections have not been orginsed within fortis since 1996. The reason that the social
elections of 2000 were sikpped, is that otherwise plenty of representatives would have
lost their mandate. After the take-over the Belgian workers of fortis were legaly entitled
to have less representatives then the sum of the delegates of both companies sepereted.
Therefor, the social elections in Belgium in 2004, will be the first after the take over of
Generale bank.
Both Wilfried Cools and Bruno Demaitre combine plenty of representation functions
within the company and in the trade union. They also coordinate within their union, the
activities for the whole Fortis group. That this happens between LBC and CCOD, and
also between BBTK and ACOD, but not for all at once, is seen as a healthy form of
competition. The distribution of news form the EWC to the workforce is also done via an
ACV trade-union news letter called “argus”. The socialist unions have their proper
channels.
In the Netherlands the role of the trade unions is much weaker. Since there are
organised as well as non-organised members in the dutch works council some distance is
taken towards union-structures. A training officer of FNV formaat, has organised some
training and support. The seat for UNI-Europa has been taken by three or four different
staff members from UNI, without any kind of continuity or real support. Also ETUCO
has already provided for training courses for the Fortis EWC.
Relation EWC national representation structures
In principle the EWC is not having the competence to intervene in strictly national
matters. A collective dismissal in the French insurar in paris however, was followed up
by members of the select committee. Also for the transfer a Köln operation to Düsseldorf
several interventions were made by select committee members. Finaly there were not yet
elected worker representatives in Ireland, before this was organised for the EWC. Also in
the UK the employee representatives in London and in the south and in the west of the
country were brought in contact with each other through the EWC. These are clear signs
of added value. What the added value is of the EWC is for the Belgian and dutch
employees is not made clear in the interviews.
Evaluation & perspectives
For the moment the evaluation is positive. The fact that the 2 day meetings have
become three day meetings and this for the two annual meetings. For the near future
further increase in the number of annual meetings is expected. Also the possibility to set
up working groups is now taken up. These working groups will follow up business lines
of the companie.
In parrelel, it is expected that there will arise a conflict in the coming months over
the replacement of the Dutch employee side chair of the EWC. If his deputy will get this
position then both the chair as the secretary will be from Belgium wich might not be easy
209
acceptable for the other EWC delegations. If this difficulty is overwon further progress is
expected from the technical working groups and from the installation of some kind of
emergency intervention team within the EWC.
The EWC members did in the beginning not really nknow what to expect from it. In
the beginning it was basicly exploring what is possible within the EWC. It was frustrating
to see that barriers were raised also within the EWC, because of different opinions. The
new start after the take-over of Generale bank did increase this. For the future there
should come even more understanding and respect for these differnet opinions, so that
steps are taken into the direction of a negotiating body. Steps to be taken in that direction
is to continue with giving advise and declerations even unasked. The trust and
cooperativeness needs to be build so that these European expressions of the workers
views are taken more and more into account by management.
The interviewees
04-09-2002 meeting with Jean Claude le Douaron (Etuco), Wilfried cools and Bruno
Demaitre
04 to 06-12-2003 Fortis EWC training seminar Blanmont
06-12-2003 Raymond Jager (NL) chair, stepped down in january 2003
02-04-2003 Wilfried Cools (B)
10-04-2003 Bruno Demaitre (B) deputay char and now candidate chair
14-04-2003 Sjef Stoop, training officer FNV Formaat
210
The Etex EWC
Peter Kerckhofs
Introduction
Even though the size and structure of Etex did change significantly over the last five
years, its influence on the composition of the EWC did not really harm its continuity. A
key role is reserved for the Belgian secretary of the EWC, together with the Belgian trade
union coordinator appointed by the EFBWW. This special trade union attention and
support is an important advantage. From the text of the agreement and also from the
practical functioning the training provisions are the strongest achievement. Over the
years the time available for the annual meeting has increased from one day and a half to
three days. Nevertheless, does this EWC not perform better then the average symbolic
type of EWC. Hopes for the future are put upon a newly installed e-mail system, the
development of a kind of select committee composed of the secretary and his three
deputies. The possibility of having a second annual meeting is not envisaged yet.
The company history
Formally called Eternit, this family company’s history started hundred years ago. At
that time, a new technology in which cement is reinforced with fibres was developed in
Austria. In 1905, Alphonse Emsens acquired the licence to exploit this new technique in
Belgium. This meant the start of Eternit. Between the wars Alphonse Emsens sons,
worked to expand the company internationally, in Europe and Latin America. The need
for new buildings in Europe after the Second World War brought a revival for the
construction sector. Profiting from this favourable environment, Eternit expanded in
Africa and Asia. The growing economic opportunities brought also an increasing product
diversification both through organic growth and through takeovers. As such the company
became active in: vinyl floor coverings, plasterboard, systems for passive fire protection,
roofing materials, ceramic tiles, natural stone quarry, clay tiles and plastics.
In the beginning of the 1990s Eternit acquired the French company Etex. To reflect
better the group’s identity and the constantly changing size and composition, the Eternit
group was renamed as Etex Group in 1995. In 1999, the UK multinational building
materials manufacturer Marley was acquired. The selling of certain parts of Marley
created additional financial means leading to another large take-over of the Pipe Systems
Division of Glynwed in 2001. After this the economical environment turned down. This
made the Glynwed Pipe Systems take over less successful then the take over of Marley,
resulting in the desinvestment of for example the Gyproc production in Belgium and
Germany, which was sold to Lafarge.
The huge changes in the size and composition of the ETEX group demanded a new
structure. On 28 May 2003, the company decided to split the group in two parts, one with
the plastic production and the other with fibre-cement and roofing. This will imply for the
near future, the creation of two separated EWCs for each of these two divisions.
211
The EWC history
On 2 November 1996, exactly two months after the entry into force of the EWC
Directive, talks were held on the possibility of setting up an EWC within the ETEX
group. On another meeting on 12-14 December 1996, all the affiliates of the EFBWW
(European Federation of Building and Woodworkers) mandated General Secretary Jan
Cremers to open negotiations for the creation of an EWC for ETEX. Both sides expressed
the wish to hold the negotiations at a small scale, by limiting the number of negotiators
and languages used. On 20 January this demand to open negotiations was send to the
management of ETEX. The EWC negotiations were debated in an EFBWW meeting on
18 November 1997. The following weeks after this meeting written comments on the
draft agreement were send to the EFBWW. All thee comments were transmitted to the
ETEX management, which permitted a concluding negotiation meeting on 4 march 1998.
In May 1998 a special negotiation body was composed to meet for the first time on 20
May 1998. After this meeting another small-group negotiation meeting was held on 29
may, after which management produced a new draft in August, and proposed the special
negotiation body to sign this on 6 October 1998. On the basis of the agreement signed
that day the EWC was established. Since then 5 ordinary and one extraordinary EWC
meetings were held.
In June it was proposed that the annual EWC plenary meeting of 10 June would be
prolonged with one day. This extra day is used to get additional information on the
splitting of the Etex Group in two separated divisions. The employee representatives took
this opportunity to take decisions for the future of the EWC-work within Etex.
Ireland
3%
Italy
3%
Netherlands
2%
UK
31%
Belgium
16%
France
19%
Germany
26%
The composition of the European workforce of the ETEX group has undergone some
changes along with the take-over's and disinvestments. Since the existence of the EWC,
the number of persons working for ETEX in France and recently also in Belgium has
212
decreased, while it increased most of all in the UK. As such, the largest proportions of
workers are now based in the UK and Germany. The Belgian employees represented in
2001 still 16% of the European Workforce.
1997
49
1892
3431
3269
351
352
14
284
196
403
Austria
Belgium
France
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Luxemburg
Netherlands
Portugal
Spain
Poland
UK
Total
903
11 144
2001
37
2046
2510
3401
364
463
10
270
630
25
3895
13 615
In the Etex EWC there are 23 mandates, of which 19 were taken up in the annual
meetings of 2000 and in 2002. For each member, there is appointed a deputy.
Furthermore, two delegates of the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers
are entitled to participate in the EWC.
In the period of two years between 2000 and 2002, the composition of the EWC has
been rather stable. The two new Belgian EWC members in 2002 were deputy member in
2000. The French and German delegation has undergone more drastic changes.
Nevertheless, there was for all of the 8 countries represented one EWC member that was
there both in 2000 and in 2002.
The EWC installation agreement, limits the national delegations in the EWC to 4
members. This provision is perceived as strength, avoiding any domination of a certain
country in the EWC. In reality this matter prevents just as much the home country
representatives to be put in a weaker minority position in the EWC. In functional terms,
the secretary of the EWC, Jos Maerevoet, together with EFBWW coordinator Jan Voets,
have such an important key-role in the EWC, which is however not perceived as
dominance by the other EWC members.
Belgium
France
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Spain
Netherlands
UK
Total
Mandates
4
4
4
1
2
2
1
4
22 (+1 CH) = 23
Participants 2000
3
4
4
1
1
1
1
4
19
Participants 2002
4
2
4
1
2
2
1
3
19
213
Continuity
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
10
New members
2 deputy members
1 new
3 new
1 new
1 new
1 new
The EWC agreement
The agreement of 6 October 1998 created a jointly composed EWC, including both
management and employee representatives. The single annual meeting of the EWC was
preceded by an employee only preparation meeting and followed by an employee only
evaluation.
The text of the agreement has only in one occasion been used explicitly to determine
the functioning of the EWC. It consisted of the provision of training for EWC members.
There are 2 days foreseen in the beginning of the mandate for which the company pays
the training and one additional day each year paid by the organiser of the training. The
company saw the EFBWW as organiser, while the EWC considered itself as initiator of
the training. Since the EWC has no budget of its own, it expected the company to cover
the costs of the training. In the 2003-revised agreement, this matter has been settled.
Where the agreement prescribes the consultation of the secretary of the EWC and his
deputy on the agenda of the EWC, this has not always happened like this in practice.
While the time taken for the annual meetings is not precisely determined in the
agreement. In the beginning it was a half a day preparation meeting, a half a day EWC,
and a half a day evaluation. While this has become a day and a half preparation, a half a
day EWC, and a day evaluation.
Following the lack of information on certain disinvestments, that were considered as
non-transnatnional, stock market sensible and confidential, the information function of
the EWC has been more clearly determined in the 2003 revised agreement.
The EWC resources
There is no budget or additional time-off arrangement for EWC work in-between
meetings. The Belgian, Dutch, German, Spanish and Italian colleagues this is not a
problem since they have time-off arrangements based upon their local representation
mandate. Only for the UK-representatives this is a problem.
The most important for the EWC beyond its annual meeting, are the training
provisions in its agreement. Initially this embraced two training days at the beginning of
the four-year mandates plus one day each year, for all EWC members and their
substitutes. In the 2003 revised version of the EWC agreement this becomes two days at
the beginning of the four year mandate plus five days that can be pooled and used by the
EWC members as they like. For about 20 members and 20 substitutes these five days off
for training form a pool of 200 days that could be used also for purposes of national
worker representation meetings where this is currently inexisting, like for example in the
UK. As such these training provisions form indirectly a kind of arrangement for time-off.
For the Belgian secretary (the employee side chair) of the EWC there is a rather
flexible time off arrangement for his worker representation tasks. It is considered that
half of his working time is available for this. This is however taken up in a flexible way
since his regular work and his employee representation work are easily combined. At
certain moments, like at the time of the interview, 80% of his time for employee
representation goes to EWC-activities. This was in the spring of 2003 because of the
renegotiation of the EWC agreement, and later on because of the splitting of the group
into two branches.
214
Officially there is no secretarial support foreseen for the EWC. The Belgian secretary
of the EWC can however count on some help from a secretary at the Headquarters of the
group in Tervuren (near Brussels - Belgium) and a secretary at the Human resources
department in Kapelle op de Bos, where the Etex production site is (near Mechelen Belgium). One of them is good in English, and the other in German. The fact that it are
persons working for management, is not perceived as a problem, because there is only
one good policy, and that is an open policy, according to Jos Maerevoet, the Belgian
EWC secretary.
Jos Maerevoet can visit other plants of the company and meet worker representatives
there, as he likes. He has already done so in Spain and the UK, and will go to France in
the near future. In the UK he helped the Unions to organise the workers according to the
rights available. The visit to Spain was to find out why their representative was absent at
the EWC meeting. At the moment of this visit Spain obtained a second mandate, and the
language skills of the second Spanish EWC member, plus the visit of the EWC secretary,
helped the reintegration of the Spanish delegation in the EWC.
Wij zijn naar Spanje geweest, naar Engeland geweest. Wij moeten nu naar
Frankrijk, dringend, dat hebben we nog niet gedaan. Maar het is ook zo, je moet
daar niet heen gaan voor een uitstap, je moet er heen als er een probleem is……….
Dus de eerste keer zijn we naar Engeland gestapt bijvoorbeeld dat was toen
Glynwed erbij is gekomen. En Glynwed die waren klaar om een Europese
ondernemingsraad te starten. Dus die waren, die vakbonden waren georganiseerd,
die hadden hun kandidaten, de hele battaklang. Natuurlijk, die anderen van onze
groep, die zitten in de Europese, maar dat is belange vanuit de vakbonden van
Engeland zo geen respons, het is, en die alleen al, je moet die zelf aanporren. Tegen
die waren goed gestructureerd. En dan zijn we een keer naar ginder geweest, met
die mannen een keer, we hadden die allemaal samengeroepen, en dan hebben wij
gaan uitleggen van, ok, op wat ze recht hadden, en hoe wij werkten en allez, heel ons
werking.
In Spanje was het probleem dat die delegees niet afkwamen. Die kwamen naar
de Europese niet meer. En dat was, onze vroegere voorzitter was Corbeaux (?) en
Corbeaux (?) was éne van Chili. En die sprak perfect Spaans. En die mensen
hadden een klankbord. Maar die konden niet anders dan Spaans, dus een keer
daarachter kwamen die, ja, ze deden ook geen moeite, dus, die zat daar maar op
zijne alleen, en ik zeg ja, en toen met de fusie hadden ze recht op 2 mandaten, en ik
zeg ja, als die énen al niet gaat komen, wij gaan naar ginder en we gaan dat
probleem ginder uitklappen. We gaan een keer met de ondernemingsraad van al die
bedrijven een keer bijeen zitten en een keer zien dat we niemand niet vinden dat dat
voor ons kan doen (?) En dan hebben we dat zelf gezien dat die tweede iemand was
die dat engels kon, zodanig dat, als ze dan in de groep zijn, dat ze zich aanpassen,
dat ze kunnen praten met andere mensen.
Phone or e-mail communication between EWC members was not always problem
free in the past. The introduction of the "first-class" e-mail system from ETUCO to the
EWC of Etex with the support of central management, is supposed to solve all this.
215
Since 2002 the annual meeting of the EWC takes place in June instead of September.
This made it possible to give the EWC more up-to-date information with less of a gap
following the official publication of the previous results.
The 1998 and 1999 EWC meetings took one day an a half, of which a half a day
employee only preparation meeting a half a day EWC meeting with management and
some hours for an employee only evaluation. Since 2000 a full day has been foreseen for
the employee-side preparation meeting. In 2001 the half-day foreseen for the EWC
meeting with management was found to short as well, and subsequently enlarged to a full
day. The employee evaluation meeting was from then on held in the morning of the third
meeting day. Management has never found any difficulties in the prolongation of the
meetings. The advantage in this is that there are now 3 evenings during which the EWC
members have dinner and can talk informally, which is very good for the cohesion among
them-selves.
According to the initial EWC agreement, the plenary meetings are supposed to take
place in Brussels. The first two plenary meetings were held at the EFBWW. The
disadvantage then was that during the evening the Hotel did not form a good setting for
socialising. The 2000 meeting was then held at the Floreal Club in Blankenberge, and
since 2001 the location is "the kinkhoorn" near Ostend, which is the cheapest and
appreciated most. This centre is owned by ACV, which is the same trade union as the
EWC secretary is affiliated to, while Algemene Centrale (ABVV) owns Floreal club.
Since its creation five annual meetings have been held, plus one extraordinary at the
occasion of the Glynwed take-over.
Because the meetings are now held in June instead of September, the information is
received almost at the same time as it is given to the general assembly of shareholders,
and before it is published officially.
The EWC has not really been consulted yet. Neither did the EWC give an opinion
without being asked for this. About practical matters the EWC secretary is in regular
dialogue with management. Positions are always taken in communication with four other
persons; the three deputy secretaries and Jan Voet, the trade union coordinator appointed
by EFBWW.
Plenty of questions are asked, and management representatives answer these rather
openly. The overall strategy of the company is made clear as well. This involves the
reduction of its debt after the Glynwed take-over. With this aim, Etex sold a number of
companies in 2001; Soparco, Marley Moulding, Cemplank, Eureka in Mexico and
Everest in India. Some other disinvestments were supposed to follow. Central
management answered questions on this rather openly during the 2002 EWC meeting.
Also some economic problems with the operations in Germany and Argentina were
mentioned. On the question to discuss employee-related problems from outside Europe,
management did not find this suitable. Such problems should best be discussed directly
and frank between the trade union organisations and the Etex Group management.
The EWC receives data on the age structure, working hours, absenteeism, working
systems and working accidents in each of the subsidiaries in the different European
216
countries. One of the conclusions that can be drawn from that data is that in Spain and in
the Netherlands, Etex employs a larger proportion of temporary and agency workers then
in the other European countries.
Country
UK
Germany
France
Belgium
Spain
Italy
Ireland
Netherlands
Other
Total
Workforce
(March 2001)
3895
3401
2510
2046
630
463
364
270
72
13651
% Female workers
22%
20%
16%
12%
34%
23%
11%
11%
% Blue Collar
workers
57%
61%
66%
73%
77%
69%
67%
55%
% Temporary &
agency workers
2%
5%
5%
6%
21%
5%
9%
22%
No select committee
The ETEX EWC agreement does not foresee a select committee. Initially there was a
Belgian secretary and a German deputy. In the 2003 revised agreement this will be one
secretary plus three deputies coming from different countries. These four will form some
kind of secretariat, which is not yet called a select committee.
The Belgian secretary plans to retire from his job and his employee representation
functions in two years, while his German deputy does not seem to realise that it is time to
start thinking about taking over his function.
Omdat dat niet te doen is dat, gelijk dat het nu ging. Als de secretaris alleen dat,
allez, je moet al goed sterk zijn en ik zeg altijd, achter mij zal er een andere komen,
nu 2 jaar, na de sociale verkiezingen. En die man mag dat niet alleen doen, dat kan
niet. Want normaal mijne opvolger is een Duits. Dat is mij gezegd. Dat is het, ik
hem een reserve, en ik heb een hulpsecretaris. Maar die man, die hoopt altijd dat ik
dat eeuwig durend zal blijven doen, zodanig dat hij nooit eens moet inspringen.
Omdat hij schrik heeft van, allez, hij begint het nu toch stillekesaan te kennen, hoe
dat normaal alles verloopt. Maar ik vind, dat is nog te weinig, 4, die regelmatig
overleggen met de directie, en …
Internal Cooperation
The internal communication goes rather smoothly tanks to the singing evening
activities, during which the Irish EWC member sings songs, just like the others do.
Nevertheless there have already been some conflicts, for example with the German
delegates. This is explained because of a separated structure for the German operations
within Etex, plus the differences in representation practices. For German works
councillors it is difficult to understand that an EWC based upon Belgian works council
tradition is chaired by management.
217
Having limited the national delegations to a maximum of four, there is not
dominance in numbers. In practice however there is some kind of home-country
dominance, since most of the EWC communication is centralised through the Secretary
and the EFBWW coordinator, who are both Belgian.
In zekere zin wel omdat we een Belgische holding zijn. En dat dus alles
gebaseerd is op de Belgische wetgeving. En dat voor al die anderen vreemd is, is er
een zekere dominantie. Omdat, ze kijken allemaal naar u en daarom hebben ze mij
ook voorgesteld om secretaris te zijn. De Duitsen en de Engelsen, toen. Normaal
gezien waren het de Duitsen geweest, want wij zaten maar met 2 in toen, in het
begin, als Belgen. En zij zaten direct met 4 mensen, want zij waren in die periode,
dat was bij de oprichting, de grootste groep. Maar het is op hun aandringen, zij
zeggen, jullie zitten bij de bron, jullie kennen de directie het beste, omdat, tenslotte
enz. enz. van hier kwamen. Wij zouden graag hebben dat jij dat doet. Omdat ik ook
met die mensen aan tafel had gezeten voor de voorbereiding van dat protocol
akkoord. En dan moest de directie uitleggen dat er in België een
ondernemingsraadstructuur was en hoe dat die functioneerde. Begin maar aan een
Duits uit te leggen dat de voorzitter van een ondernemingsraad een directielid is. En
dan krijgen die het al. Bij hun bestaat dat niet he. Bij hun is dat anders
gestructureerd. Dus je moest dat allemaal gaan uitleggen hoe dat juist in mekaar zit.
Dat kan toch niet dat een directeur voorzitter is van de ondernemingsraad, in België
is dat doodnormaal he. Doodnormaal dat je samen in een lokaal binnengaat voor de
centrale ondernemingsraad en dat je buiten komt met een oplossing. Dat ze dat ter
plaatse, bij hun functioneert dat anders. De Engelsen werken ook nog ietske anders,
de Ieren is zo gelijk als wij.
Project work
Thanks to the interest of the trade union in the Etex EWC, it was subject of a
television-documentary. Some other companies had already refused this, and Jos
Mearevoet, the secretary of the Etex EWC could convince Central management to accept
this, on the condition that they could see the programme before it was broadcasted. The
video of this programme is annexed to this report. It includes interviews at the plenary
EWC meeting as well as interviews with delegates in the French operations of Etex.
Die hebben mij een keer gecontacteerd om te vragen, ze wilden een uitzending
doen van hoe zit een Europese ondernemingsraad in mekaar. Hoe werkt dat , hoe zit
dat, en zij hadden ook reeds andere holdings gecontacteerd en die wilden niet. En
dan heb ik toen gezegd, awel, ik zal een keer naar Brussel trekken. En ik heb de
directie gezegd, voilà, die vraag is er. Ik vind dat we daaraan moeten aan meedoen.
En die hebben gezegd, ok. Maar ja, we zouden toch graag de opnames zien voor dat
ze uitgezonden worden. Want ze hebben toch ook directies gaan interviewen als..
En, nu niet, het is niet omdat we daarin meedoen, maar ik vind dat dat een, die film
geeft een serieus beeld van wat is nu een Europese ondernemingsraad. Hoe
functioneert dat, hoe zit dat in mekaar. Ik vind dat een perfecte illustratie, want die
wordt nu veel gebruikt overal als voorlichtingsfilm. Ja, ze hebben ook in Frankrijk
218
opnamen gedaan, en delegees ook gecontacteerd. Ja, in Frankrijk. En ze hebben
dan de delegees van de ondernemingsraad hebben ze geïnterviewd bij Toe… Ze
hebben daar dus de vergadering opgenomen.
A second project initiative was a questionnaire send around. There is no information
on the results of this.
More important however is the social charter that was developed and signed on 20
June 2002, by the (employee side) secretary and the (management side) president of the
EWC. The initiative for this social charter came from the employee representatives. It has
caused some frictions between the socialist and the Christian trade union fractions in
Belgium. These relations have improved very much since then. The intention to widen
this social charter beyond Europe to a worldwide level is not accepted. It stays a
European Social Charter, for which the EWC is given the right to ensure that it is
implemented in the European Economic Area.
The relationship between the EWC and central management is in control of the
secretary of the EWC, who has 32 years of representation experience within the
company. He has built a steady relation with plenty of managers as well as with the
family owners of the company. The work related asbestos-disease gives him even more
respect within the company. Another factor enforcing his position lies in his mandate in
local politics, in a small town as Kapelle op de Bos, where Etex is by far the largest
employer.
Er is altijd een verschil tussen iets dat gebeurt, en iets dat bezig is te gebeuren.
En ik durf zeggen, wij zijn zo ver, dat ik het weet wanneer het begint te gebeuren.
Maar eer het dan gebeurt, kan het dikwijls 3 maanden verder zijn. Maar dat komt
ook omdat je elkaar zoveel jaren kent, en dat je, je moet eigenlijk een relatie hebben.
Ik zeg altijd, met de directie moet je eerst, je moet een relatie opbouwen. Een
gewoon menselijke relatie, je moet weten, is die getrouwd, heeft die kinderen, heeft
die dit, heeft die dat. Omdat je nooit van iemand iets kunt bekomen, als je niet weet
wie er tegenover u zit. Je moet weten, en dan kun je werken. Dan kun je binnen
komen, en vragen stellen, he, op het school, heeft hij het goed gedaan, en dit en dat.
En je bent vertrokken, en dan apropos, en je bent vertrokken. En op die manier werk
je veel meer bij de directie, dan wanneer je je er lijnrecht tegenover gaat staan en
dat je gaat lijmen. Ik vind dat, allez ja, dat is mijn ervaring in die 32 jaar, en een
paar jaar geleden ……………
structures
The added value of the EWC is definitely at the side of the worker representatives
from the foreign subsidiaries. They get a clearer view on the overall size and shape of the
219
group, just like an impression of how social dialogue between local management and
trade unions should be like.
It is possible to raise local problems and questions in the EWC. The EWC secretary
has already intervened with a visit in local problems in the UK and Spain. In the UK
there is tried now to install some kind of central works council to liase between the EWC
and the local representation bodies. In Belgium such a liaison committee has been created
already in an informal way. It includes one member from each of the unions present in
the company.
Contacts are made with worker representatives in Chilli. The secretary of the EWC
plans a visit over there, with the aim to prepare the creation of a world works council for
Etex. In the line of this idea, there is thought about inviting some worker representatives
from Asia and South Africa as guests so that they can experience how the EWC works,
and to create communication links getting them out of their isolation.
The creation of the EWC is a result of efforts initialised by the former EFBWW
general secretary, Jan Cremers. The current EFBWW general secretary, Harry Bijen,
attends the Etex EWC plenary meetings.
Nevertheless, the most important link between the Etex EWC and the trade unions is
taken up by the Belgian trade unionist Jan Voets, who is appointed as coordinator by the
European Federation of Building and woodworkers (EFBWW). Through his involvement
in the coordination of EWC activities within the EFBWW, he can bring some special
European trade union attention to this EWC. The role of trade union coordinator for the
EWC lies in the preparation of training seminars and the organisation of application of
European funding for these trainings through EU commission budget-line B3-4003.
Furthermore some initiatives can be stimulated or launched by the trade union
coordinator. Examples here are the questionnaire on working conditions; the social
charter or the ides to set op a world works council.
The secretary of the EWC, Jos Maerevoet has regular contact with Jan Voets, the
trade union coordinator. Both are of the same Belgium trade union. Nevertheless the
secretary is regarded as not needing the union coordinator, because of his personal strong
position. This is due to his 32 years of experience. The 88% of the workers that are
affiliated to a trade union are probably more a result of his strong position then a basis for
it.
All EWC members are clearly affiliated to a trade union, except for one Italian
delegate, who doubtfully mentions all four of the Italian trade unions.
Except for the Belgian EFBWW coordinator, there is not much involvement or
support from the other national unions towards their members in the Etex EWC. Perhaps
this is in line with the very limited interest trade unions show in general for their
members in EWCs. The secretary of the EWC says this is OK as such. For him, the EWC
members should represent all workers, and not only those that are affiliated to their
respective trade unions. Any involvement of national unions as such is only stimulating
this, and hindering the development of a European identity within the EWC.
220
The EWC is judged as an important instrument for cooperation between worker
representatives throughout Europe. As such it comes twenty years to late for some of the
EWC members. The most important achievement for now is that there is established
some kind of structure that works in a certain way. A lot of progress needs to be made in
the future. And linking the EWC to grassroots trade unionism is perceived as very
important in this. It is important for EWC members to communicate further the given
information, and towards the other EWC members they should be able to prove whom
they are representing. For this national networks or coordination structures need to be
established.
There are two female members in the EWC, and within the Belgian delegation a
younger EWC member is included in the delegation now. The younger EWC members
are better in languages, which is helpful in the EWC work.
221
The Eni Group
Summary
The experience of the ENI EWC is strongly influenced by the Italian situation. The
Italian union that is represented with full members both in the EWC and in the select
committee to a certain extent has a leading role inside the EWC. The ENI EWC
represents an experience of continuity with the cooperative model of industrial relations
for which the group is known in Italy. The experience of the ENI EWC is nevertheless in
some way contradictory. On the one hand, the EWC has managed to go beyond a merely
informative and consultative function by signing an agreement with the central
management in training at European level. On the other hand, the procedures for
information and consultation are criticised by the EWC members above all as regards
the speed of the information and the lack of consultations in regard to the management’s
strategic decisions. The members of the EWC perceive the need to extend the EWC’s
The group
ENI was founded in 1953 under the leadership of Enrico Mattei whose job it was to
concentrate all the national energy activities into a single group. The group’s competitive
advantage finds its utmost expression in the entrepreneurial figure of its founder who was
capable of proposing to the petrol-producing countries forms of contract guaranteeing a
greater involvement in the management of the licences and launching the reconversion of
the national industrial system to the use of the gas that Italy found itself to be a producer
of. In 1992 ENI became a joint stock company and in 1995 the privatisation process
started by which the Treasury Ministry, with four offers, floated on the market about 70%
of company stock obtaining an aggregate earning never before achieved by a
Government on Continental Europe for the sale of a single company. Until today the
Italian state still holds the relative majority of the shares (30.33%) while the rest of the
existing capital was floated on the national and international markets. At the moment the
existing capital is distributed to the extent of 43.31% held by Italian shareholders,
11.54% owned by European shareholders and 6.75% on the North American market.
With the Stock Market capitalisation (the group is listed both on the New York and the
Italian stock market) at 30th April 2002 of about 68 million Euro, ENI is one of the most
important integrated energy companies in the world; ENI operates through
Companies/Divisions in the activities of petrol (through Agip Petroli) and natural gas
(through the companies Italgas and Snam), the generation of electric power (through
Enipower), petro-chemicals (through Polimeri Europa) and engineering and services
(through Saipem and Snamprogetti).
The Group aims to reconfirm its position as a market leader also in the years to
come, aiming at the valorising and rationalising of its own portfolio through a marked
exploitation of competitive advantages at international level, set up from the outstanding
223
wealth of competencies, infrastructures and long term contractual relations. At the same
time there will be a rational reduction in the weight of the non-strategic business
investment and the pursuit of the functional integration of the core business, Petrol and
Gas, and the progressive abandonment of the Chemical sector. Furthermore, the financial
resources addressed to research and development will be increased by 86%, especially in
the sectors Exploration and Production, and Gas and Power.
In Rome, Italy the executive management of the ENI is concentrated, a group that
operates in 69 countries spread out across the five continents (Table 1) with about 70,000
workers, of whom 44,256 (Table 2).
Table 1: World distribution of the sites belonging to the ENI Group
Europe
Austria Croatia,
Denmark Fed. Russia
Italia France Greece
Germany Ireland
Norway
The Netherlands
Poland Portugal
United Kingdom
Czech Rep.
Slovakia Rep. Romania
Turkey Slovenia Spain
Switzerland Hungary
Asia-Oceania
Australia Azerbaijan
India Indonesia
Kazakhstan Malaysia
Pakistan
People’s Republic of
China
Singapore Thailand
Taiwan
Turkmenistan
Vietnam
Africa
Algeria Angola
Egypt Gabon
Guinea Bissau
Libya Mauritania
Nigeria
Rep. Congo
Senegal
Somalia
Tunisia
Middle East
Saudi Arabia United
Arab Emirates
Iran Kuwait Oman
Qatar Yemen
The Americas
Argentina Brazil
Canada Colombia
Ecuador Guyana
Peru USA
Trinidad Tobago
Venezuela
The activities of the ENI group are articulated in 4 different sectors:
• Exploration and Production: exploration and reproduction of hydrocarbons in Italy
and in the main producer countries;
• Gas & Power: storage, transport, distribution and selling of natural gas;
• Refining and Marketing: refining and marketing of the oil products mainly in Italy,
Europe and Latin America;
• Engineering and Services: offshore construction activities (underwater pipes and
installation of floating systems for the production of hydrocarbons) and the role of
global contractor for the petrol and petrochemicals industry.
The structure of ENI’s business portfolio hinges upon a significant vertical
integration (Figure 1) that guarantees a greater stability of the short-term results allowing
for efficient long-term planning. A structure like the above allows the company to
mitigate the sensitivity of the results to price instability.
As concerns the petrol business there is a substantial verticalisation of the functional
process from the extraction to the selling. A minimum percentage of the petrol extracted
actually comes from the Italian territory while a significant share of the total availability,
both own extraction and that of third party countries, is submitted to the refining process
in Italy. The sale of petrol is mainly concentrated on Italian territory (40 million tonnes)
and the incidence on the foreign market is reduced by about half (18 million tonnes).
In regard to the Natural Gas business the weight of the foreign supply is evident in
terms of availability, implying the limited autonomy of the Italian output. In 2001 the
sales of ENI natural gas satisfied 84.5% of national consumption. The gas sold by ENI
was supplied by foreign countries, 74%, while the remaining 26% was covered by
national output. Sales are predominantly focused on the Italian market (58.9 million m3)
while at the same time there is very little involvement in the European market (0.1
224
million m3). The national gas system, together with electric power, also as a result of the
latest legislative developments, is placed within the structural transformation ongoing in
Europe aimed at the creation of a single energy market.
Figure 1: Structure of the ENI Group business portfolio
Source: ENI Fact Book 2001
225
Recently a restructuring phase has been started up concerning the organisational
architecture addressed to transforming the ENI group conceived of as a Holding and a
sector company within a multidivisional company. The activity of Refining and
Marketing comes within this strategic perspective. The other sectors still remain
companies with stakeholdings but the future trend will that of incorporating the various
activities of the sector.
6
Total
20
Others
Corporate
10
ENI International
Holding
Engineering
5
Constructions and
drilling
Petrochemicals
Refining and
Marketing
Italgas
Sectors
Exploration and
Production
Table 2: Distribution of the employees in relation to the sector
European Union
Austria
99
Belgium
France
Germany
Great Britain
67
277
1
273
28
1
368
163
241
Greece
Italy
4.495
7.016
8.638
9.951
Spain
4.780
Hungary
Norway
Rest of Europe
Rest of the World
302
376
1
7.016
2.057
18
3
741
34
9.873 10.712
52
1.149
1
3.055
2.279
1
332
3
25
37
72
351
7
705
2
44
Portugal
Total EU
6
1
Luxembourg
The Netherlands
114
46
8.110 44.256
2
7
421
49
775
3.235
3.020
34
712
136
8.110 47.492
2.245
70
544
614
18
17
330
42
33
3.414
2
3.856
2.665
321
4.917
131
204
8.182
3
196 16.619
Total
12.313 18.484 25.045 21.733
st
Source: ENI, 31 December 2001
6.707 18.180
68
1.429 16.416 70.826
In 2000 the ENI Group launched a programme for the Recovery of Efficiency and
Development (RED) for the personnel and the organisation with the aim to:
Promote professional and managerial development and the replacement of critical
resources
Contribute to the programme of cost reductions with the rationalising of staff
functions, the setting up of service centres on a functional and/or territorial basis, and the
identification of increasingly flexible personnel management instruments
Focusing ENI Corporate on functions addressed to coordination and control and
decentralising the responsibilities inherent to personnel management and development to
the operative lines.
226
The organisational response to such challenges has been to accelerate the process of
decentralising ENI corporate to the business areas, from the personnel functions to the
operative lines, shortening the hierarchical and decision-making chain, in order to slim
down the whole system and thus improve the capacity to develop integrated initiatives
along the whole business filière, to optimise the generated value. In particular, so as to
react to the growing international size a choice has been made in favour for the
international management of the Human Resources that is united in the strategic facility
and homogeneous in its operative methods. ENI’s new operative model answers these
objectives and seeks to identify some coordination and integration units for all the
processes of human resource management and development, in line with the business
strategies:
Units with a role mainly based on policy and strategic control – Management with
Corporate functions – which support the Managing Director of ENI in defining the
guidelines of the Group and the strategic objectives to be pursued, in the allocation of the
critical human and financial resources, and in the selective control action to be
implemented in the Divisions and the operative Companies;
Units supporting the activities of the Divisions and the Operative Companies –
Management with prevalently service functions.
The ENI distribution network in Italy at 31st December 2001 was made up of 8,351
service stations (59% with the brand Agip and 41% with the brand IP). At the present
time, the ENI group is engaged in a process of redeveloping the Italian network by means
of sell-offs, closing down marginal service stations and developing the principal network.
The aim is to achievement European standards in terms of deliveries and services to the
clientele.
Lastly, the issue of the Territorial Poles is worth mentioning, perhaps because it is
one of the elements that more than any other will make the difference as regards the
personnel management activities, from the time of the selection and the actual
employment, up until the end of the working relationship. This is a model that will
mainly be applied to the ‘core’ activities of the Group in Italy and on the basis of which
the Poles will preside over the complete operative processes referring to the
organisational units situated in the territory: the responsibilities to the clientele will be
clearly identified (Divisions/Companies) and those of service delivery, which will be
scrupulously planned and expressed.
In 1996 the company called Sieco was set up following a decision by SNAM to
concentrate its own activities in the gas core business and thus to outsource all the nonstrategic activities to third-parties. By means of the centralisation of services Sieco
manages to save about 23 million Euros per yeas and takes off the ENI Group a large
number of tasks: from catering to press centres, from internal mail to the vehicle fleet,
from security to the configuration of equipped work stations.
The most significant variation in company terms is found in the acquisition of the
control of Lasmo Plc, which has involved the inclusion of 78 companies in the area of
consolidation, one of which with the proportional method and the exclusion of the
Immobiliare Metanopoli following the sell-off. Recently the ENI Group has purchased
50% of the Spanish Union Fenosa Gas (5th December 2002) and 100% of the Norwegian
Fortum Petroleum AS, affiliated to the homonymous Finnish oil company. ENI and
EnBW have entered the gas market in Germany through the acquisition of the German
GVS, a company ranked fourth in the gas market in German. In 2002 Saipem reached an
agreement with Bouygues Construction S.A. for the acquisition of a majority share (51%)
of the Bouygues Offshore, thereby creating a company that is world leader in carrying
out whole projects for the petroleum industry.
227
Historically the industrial relations climate inside the ENI Group ha always been
termed as positive both by the Italian worker’ representatives and by the British workers’
representatives. The nature of the Group’s industrial relations has always been
cooperative and participative. With the passing of time the Group’s participative
approach has been demonstrated in different ways. In the early 1990s ENI has shown a
certain long-sightedness in managing to get the union organisations involved in the
participative processes. In the light of this consideration it does not appear to be a
coincidence that inside the ENI Group the first agreement was signed for the setting up of
an EWC in the Italian chemical and energy industry.
In the last few years the pioneering efforts in the field of the ENI Group’s industrial
relations has been clearly manifested through the underwriting on 29th November 2002,
with the Italian national trade unions (Filcea-Cgil, Femca-Cisl and Uilcem-Uil) and the
International Federation of the chemical, energy and mining unions (Icem) of an
“agreement on the industrial relations at transnational level on the company’s social
responsibilities”. The agreement was the completion of a framework of innovative
relations between ENI and the union organisations which started with the signing of the
industrial relations protocol in June 2001 and with the renewal, again in 2001, of the
founding agreement of the European Work Council.
In Italy the industrial relations appear to be characterised by a certain centralisation.
The Italian member of the EWC actually complains of a progressive shifting of the
decision-making power from the shop-floor union representation to the higher ranks of
the union organisations.
As regards the presence of the union in Italy, there is a unionisation rate equal to
52.5%, quite high as compared with the national average.
Recently, following the decision to progressively abandon the chemical sector, there
has been increasing friction in all the European countries.
The setting up of the European Committee of the ENI
workers
THE SETTING UP PHASE
The Works Committee of the ENI Group was set up on 30th November 1995
following the agreement on 19 April of the same year between the ENI Group, the Fulc
(Joint Federation of Chemical Workers) which combines the three Italian trades unions
and the Fescid (European Federation of the Chemical and Energy Industry Unions, today
known as Emcef). The agreement was extended in 1998 and most recently renewed on
22nd June 2001 in Rome. The date of the founding agreement places the ENI case in the
strand of the voluntary agreements according to art. 13 of the European Directive.
The idea of setting up a European Works Committee was taken by the FULC
(Federazione unitaria dei lavoratori chimici/Unitary Federation of Chemical Workers’
Unions) that was interested in achieving its first significant experience in Italy as well.
The important industrials presence of the group at national level and the cooperative
nature of the industrial relations necessarily made the choice fall upon the ENI group.
228
Until the early 1990s the ENI group was a member of the Entrepreneur’s Association
Asap which, unlike the Employers’ Confederation Confindustria, had always sought to
try out new cooperative forms of industrial relations by means of the involvement of the
unions. By virtue of this cooperative climate, ENI took up the proposal of the FULC to
set up the EWC. The union representatives of the FULC took part at the negotiations
together with the representatives of the central management. On the side of the workers’
representatives there was right from the beginning a representative of the EMCEF while
no company level representation bodies were involved. So in the negotiating phase the
most important role was played by the three Italian trade unions of the chemical sector
(Filcea, Femca, Uilcem) and by the central management representatives.
The topics that should come within the range of competences of the EWC are of
various kinds:
1. economic and financial situation
2. business activity and investment programmes
3. state of employment
4. significant transformations in the structure of the Group such a mergers, acquisitions
and selling off of activities and businesses
5. reduction in the size or closure of companies or productive units that have
international repercussions
6. transfer of production into and outside the EU
7. introduction of new working methods or new productive processes
8. programmes of transnational mobility of the Group’s workers
9. environmental policies
10. professional training
11. positive action programmes
12. health and job safety.
OBJECTIVES OF THE EWC
Initially, in other words since the founding agreement in 1995, the EWC was made
up of 27 members all of whom workers’ representative. To these were added
experimentally, three representatives of the Italian union of the FULC and one
representative of the European Federation EMCEF. Today, following the renewal, the
union representations that were first of all added by way of experimentation are full
members of the EWC. This has meant an increase in the number of EWC members from
27 to 31. In 2002 the representative of the Femca-Cisl, besides filling the position of
union representative of the FULC also received the power of representation from the
European Federation. Apart from the official members of the EWC, a we shall see later, a
Hungarian member also takes part, while the other representatives of the candidate
countries are allowed to take part as observers.
The European committee is made up altogether of 31 people:
• 1 representative of the EMCEF, prior to the agreement he presented himself as an
invited guest but now his presence has been formalised;
• 3 representatives for the trade union FILCEA, FEMCA and UILCEM, initially
introduced experimentally whereas now their presence at the EWC meeting is
officially recognised;
229
• 27 mandates for the workers’ representatives whose distribution of seats is shared out
on the basis of the employment size and the importance of the productive and
economic importance of the various manufacturing plants. The representative either
elected or appointed must have a working experience for the Group companiess of no
less than three years.
In general, all the European countries that have more than 150 workers are
represented. In the last few meetings, some problems have emerged concerning the
availability of workers’ representatives available to take part in the EWC meetings.
Indeed, as the general group rule i that the appointment of the EWC delegate should be
entrusted to the union organisation affiliated to the Emcef or to the law or to the company
level representative bodies, there are vacant pot for the Spanish and Dutch delegation.
Spain should have the right to two seats in the EWC but there is still only one Spanish
delegate in that the Madrid operative unit there is a strong autonomous union that seem to
hamper the election of a second delegate. A similar case is the Dutch one. As a matter of
fact, out of 600 employee the major Dutch union only present one person enrolled; for
this reason there is no Dutch representative at the EWC meeting.
Although the strategy of the ENI group is addressed to a concentration of the
resources towards the activities of the core business, i.e. petrol and gas, and towards a
progressive abandonment of the chemical sector, the make-up of the EWC still presents a
substantial chemical presence, not reflecting, as underlined by the “insider”
management, the employment transformation that has occurred in the last few years. At
the moment there is a strong numeric domination of the Italian workers’ representatives
due to the strong concentration of employment in Italy. Nineteen of the 31 members of
EWC are Italian, 16 of whom are company delegates and 3 are representatives of the
union organisation (Table 3). The workers’ representatives of the Group from the
countries that are candidates for joining the European Union can be admitted as
observers. The division by gender shows a clear-cut male concentration among the EWC
participants in that the female presence numbers just 2. Following the annexing of the
Polimeri Europa, inside which there had already been an EWC, it was decided that a preexisting EWC representation should participate with a full member of the ENI group’s
EWC.
The female component of the EWC is minimal in that there are only two women as
full members of the EWC and two supply members. The gender make-up of the EWC
reflects, even if in a more accentuated way, the gender composition inside the workforce
of the ENI group.
Table 3: Distribution of the EWC seats
Country
Austria
Belgium France
Germany
Italy
Holland
Norway
Spain
United
Kingdom
TOT
Seats
1
1
1
16
1
1
2
3
27
1
The agreement for founding the EWC and subsequently the renewal of the agreement
concerns the employees of the ENI Spa group and the companies and the divisions (Agip,
Agip Petroli, Saipem, Snam, Snamprogetti, Enichem) a well a the employee of all the
companie that operate in the Italian territory and in the other States that belong to the
European Economic Space of which the above-aid companies and divisions control more
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than 50% of the stock or in any case exert a dominant influence pursuant to art. 2359 of
the Italian Civil Code.
From what emerge from the agreement it is understood that the EWC is an
instrument through which “…a closer cooperation at transnational level is pursued
between the companies of the group and the workers’ union representation.” The
founding of the EWC thus aims to make an important contribution to the productive and
economic policy and to contribute through a greater worker participation to the
competitiveness and the employment growth of the group.
The formal objective that the EWC aims to achieve should be underlined: “By that
ENI aims to confirm at European level its own Italian tradition of union relations,
broadening the discussion table to the union representations of the workers employed by
the companies operating in the Community area”. This formulation is inserted both in the
founding agreement and is reiterated in the renewal in 2001 and could give rise to various
interpretations seeing that the objective should consist in the setting up of an exclusively
European participative body. The expressed desire to confirm at European level the
Italian tradition of industrial relations could be understood both as the intention to export
to the other European countries, in which the ENI group is present, the Italian industrial
relations model, and the intention to simply extend abroad the spirit of the Italian
industrial relations. In the former case there would be an evident contradiction with the
European spirit of the Directive on the EWC, in that the European Works Council would
not be representing an authentically European body but would be modelled on a national
industrial relations system, that is to say the Italian one.
With the renewal of the founding agreement of the EWC, a Select Committee was
also set up with the function of coordinating and interfacing with the Management. The
EWC members appoint the people that will constitute the Select Committee: an Italian
Coordinator, and 4 components of whom 2 Italian and 2 from other European countries,
at present a British person and an Austrian, who will stay in power, unless they stand
down, until the next renewal of the agreement. The Select Committee also has the right
to take part as observers at the yearly meeting of the Industrial Relations Committee as
laid down in the industrial relations protocol in 2001.
The main function of the Select committee, in relation to the activities of the EWC,
is the definition of the agenda which, according to the agreement, should be
communicated to the EWC members at least 30 days before the date set for the meeting.
Furthermore, the agreement allow the member of the EWC to put forward to the Select
Committee the topics for the agenda of yearly EWC meeting. In actual fact, the Italian
workers’ representative who doe not take part in the activities of the Select Committee
come into possession of the agenda only at the time of the yearly meeting and does not
exert any influence on the drafting of the agenda. The British representative of the Select
Committee is available to act a recipient of the British workers’ claims and then to report
them at the pre-meeting.
The Select Committee also has the chance to agree, together with the ENI
Management, on the training activities on the issues functional to the EWC activities. In
particular, attention is placed on the language training course to foster communication
between the EWC delegate at the time when an interpreting service is not available. The
Select Committee also takes part in the work group on training, contemplated within the
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Industrial Relations Protocol. The Select Committee also performs the task of approving,
together with the Management, the joint communiqué and the report drafted by the
technical secretariat.
The renewal of the agreement in 2001 does not explicitly define the meaning of the
information and the consultations. The group practice does, however, help to understand
the how much importance the ENI group actually attaches to the information and
consultation procedures. Following the agreements recently underwritten, the renewal of
the EWC at the same time as the Protocol on the Industrial Relations and the Agreement
on industrial relations at transnational level, and on corporate social responsibility, is
configured within an innovative framework of industrial relations between ENI and the
union organisations, based on fundamental principles such as the recognition of the role,
the optimisation of the early information phases and the development of participation.
The ENI group’s EWC coordinator puts the accent on the early nature that the
procedures of information and consultation of the group have. At the same time he
underlines how the workers’ representatives poor preparation at times makes some of the
news difficult to understand and assimilate, even if it has a high information content. The
lack of a more critical role of the union members inside the EWC is thought to be
disadvantageous, again according to the EWC coordinator, in terms of information
circulation and in terms of the efficacy of the talks with the company.
THE RENEWAL OF THE CONTRACT
The founding agreement of the EWC was renewed on 22nd June 2001, at the same
time as the Protocol on Industrial Relations. The synchronism of the two agreements, one
at European level and the other at national level, is to be interpreted as the desire of the
two parties to create an integration between the European structure and the national
structure. The objectives of achieving a greater involvement of the workers’
representatives that abide by the Protocol on Industrial Relations is thus believed to be
extended to the EWC body through the Select Committee.
The renewal of the founding agreement of the EWC was underwritten by the ENI
group management, the General Secretary of the EMCEF (European Mine, Chemical and
Energy Workers’ Federation) and by the national secretariats of the Italian unions FilceaCgil, Femca-Cisl and Uilcem-Uil. The contractual renewal, besides confirming the points
in the 1995 agreement, introduces some substantial novelties. First of all, art. 4 officially
establishes the founding of a Select Committee. Furthermore, it lays down the procedures
the ENI group and the Select Committee must abide by in order to agree on the possible
inclusion of affiliated companies in the area of the agreement’s enforcement: “as regards
the companies either directly or indirectly connected to ENI SpA, and in particular for the
companies owned through joint-ventures, the ENI management and the Select Committee
will proceed to examine the individual cases…”.
The renewal of the founding agreement also establishes that the “…countries
candidate to the European Union can enter the area of application as soon as they are
admitted to the EU. In the meantime, the admission can be agreed, as observers, of the
workers’ representatives employed in the companies of the Group in those countries.” In
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actual fact, in the last 3-4 years, as already mentioned, a Hungarian representative has
always taken part in the EWC meetings, as a guest, because the ENI group has developed
a significant experience in the gas sector in Hungary. Through the renewal of the
agreement, the contracting parties have officially recognised the three members of the
FULC, one for each trade union, and the representative of the European Federation
(EMCEF), introduced experimentally in 1995, as full members of the EWC, thus
bringing the number of formal members up to 31 from 27. Another change introduced
with the renewal of the contract is the creation of supply members having the function of
substituting “the regular member in the event of temporary impediment, resignation,
waiver, or termination.”.
Processes
EWC RESOURCES
The founding agreement, as well as the renewal in 2001, provides for the start-up of
a technical secretariat at the ENI head office that will deal with “…the updating of the
companies to which the agreement is applied with the relevant employment data, the
calling and organisation of ordinary and extraordinary meetings and the drafting of the
necessary documentation.” Besides these functions the secretariat is formally required to
send the final communication and the report of the meetings to all the EWC members,
and in the same way to all the local worker representation bodies of the group’s
manufacturing units that operate in countries with fewer than 150 workers. Apart from
the report and the communiqué a copy of the documentation presented at the yearly
meeting is also sent. While the former are translated into all the languages, the
documentation presented, mainly reporting graphs and numeric tables, is just translated
into English.
From the interview with the workers’ representatives inside the EWC in Italy and in
the United Kingdom, as well as from the Italian representative of the insider management
insider, it is observed that on most occasions the EWC members, in the event of technical
or information needs, turn to the company secretariat facilities or contact the Select
Committee directly, a body that is continually brought up to date. In the last meeting the
company made available a complete list of all the names of the people summoned
together with addresses and telephone numbers so as to be able to contact everyone
without the prior intervention of the company or the Select Committee.
The members of the EWC thus have available the telephone and the fax of the
above-mentioned facilities as means of communication. Not all the EWC members have
access to company email and the request for more widespread availability of electronic
means of communication will be restated in the upcoming EWC meetings. As a matter of
fact, although the company is willing policy-wise to grant the use of email for the EWC
members and although the EWC had expressed in previous meetings with the
management the need for a better communication inside the Group, at a time when the
project phase seemed to be close to being implemented in operative terms, some
problems of an organisational nature arose.
At the EWC meeting in Munich in 2002, the chance to create a portal dedicated to
the ENI group workers was discussed, by means of which, with different levels of access,
the information exchange among the workers and between the workers and the
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Management could be increased. The International Office manager of the FEMCA,
currently coordinator of the EWC, believes it is necessary to intervene as EWC in the
design phase of the portal in that the opportunity could be taken up to extend and spread
the awareness of the EWC institution among all the ENI group workers.
The agreement does not explicitly lay down the use of external experts during the
EWC meetings. The presence of unionists as full members of the EWC already provides
a competent and expert support on union matters that in some way also makes up for the
technical aid that the use of external experts would provide. The EWC members request
the help of external experts during the training seminars in which issues are dealt with
that often go beyond a union knowledge strictly speaking. The agreement lays down that
“…the ENI group will cover the costs of the meetings, within reasonable limits…as well
as anything deemed reasonably necessary to the working of the EWC”. The formulation
of the clause in question leaves room to various interpretations in that it is not clear
whether the costs for the experts who take part in the training must be paid for by funding
external to the company, as they are training courses and not official meetings, or
whether their use must be “…deemed reasonably necessary for the working of the EWC”
with the costs thus incurred by the company.
During the EWC meetings the ENI group provides interpreting services on each
occasions in which the EWC meets in plenary session and in which the Select Committee
meets independently of with the company management. The EWC body cannot manage
its own autonomous budget. The EWC members and the Select Committee have paid
permits for the time required to take part in the meetings but they do not have a further
hourly total for activities linked to the EWC.
TRAINING
Formally the ENI Group has taken on the commitment of fostering “the
participation in English or Italian language courses organised in the companies of the
Group where they are working. Between the ENI management and the Select Committee
there may also be agreements on training activities deemed to be of interest, and finalised
to the performance of the Committee’s role.” The EWC coordinator complains about the
failure to fulfil the company pledges in terms of language training. Indeed, until now no
English or Italian language courses have yet been organised even though the EWC
members have already applied for them.
Again according to the EWC coordinator, the fact that the EWC is a body
prevalently made of workers’ representatives and not of union representatives necessarily
involves a risk for the quality of the information and consultation procedures and for the
coverage of the distribution of information. As a matter of fact, it is thought that the
workers’ representatives are not sufficiently prepared or competent enough to fully
understand that information provided by the management; also, that the union structures
lend themselves more than the company structures to the circulation of information on a
national scale.
During the activity of the EWC several training seminars were directly organised by
the external union by way of the EWC coordinator. The cost relating to the training
courses were covered through funding lines made available by the European
Commission, or to be more precise, the Social Affairs General Directorate and
Employment Policies. These training encounters often last from 3 to 5 days and experts
are also invited. Some of the above-said training seminars were not expressly referred to
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the EWC members of the ENI group but aimed to provide a meeting place for the EWC
members from different groups and different nationalities. The subjects dealt with at
these meetings concerned, amongst other things, European Society and they also
attempted to offer a European benchmark on the information and consultation
procedures. In some moments of the seminar other issues were dealt with that were not
formally the planned, such as the different European industrial relations cultures.
Within the scope of a seminar dedicated to ENI’s EWC members, which took place
in September 2002 in Athens, during the didactic session dedicated to European Society,
the participants were given the opportunity to describe their own industrial relations
system. According to the EWC coordinator, from the various descriptions there appeared
to be a significant discrepancy between the different European union situations and it was
thus believed to be worthwhile to insist on this training strand.
In line with the joint document underwritten on 28th February 2002 between ETUC,
Unice, Ceep, Ueapme on the subject of life-long learning, during the EWC meeting held
on Munich in 2002 an agreement was signed on the training activities in which ENI
committed itself to perform continuous skills training and to start up experimental
programmes that valorise social dialogue at company level. The document specifically
provides for the participation of one EMCEF representative and 3 representatives
designated by the European Works Council in the joint work group meetings,
contemplated in the Industrial Relations Protocol, in order to:
• Draft an experimental European training programme, and in particular to identify the
objectives, the addressees, the contents and the methods of the initial training to be
oriented to the ENI workers operating in Europe.
• Draft joint training actions for the management and the workers’ representatives at
transnational level.
Moreover, it is decided that the extended work group will periodically refer to the
EWC and to the Select Committee on any developments concerning the experimental
programme. At the end of the experimental programme the extended work group has the
task of drafting a document concerning an overall evaluation of the experience performed
and to make proposals on the form and the means for the continuation of training actions
at European level that actively involve the social partners.
The meetings
THE MEETING OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE
The renewal of the agreement, underwritten together with the Industrial Relations
Protocol on 22nd June 2001 in Rome, with a view to making more effective and
continuous the information and the consultations on the company dynamics, lays down
that the Select Committee should participate as observer in the three yearly meetings of
the Industrial Relations Committee as required by the Industrial Relations Protocol. In the
event of extraordinary events that may have some effects on the corporate structure or in
any case on the group’s employment situation, the Select Committee, together with the
EWC members of the of the countries or companies involved in such circumstances, have
the right to meet with the Group management in order to be informed and consulted
about any changes. On this occasion too the Select Committee, extended to the EWC
members directly interested in the event, have the opportunity to meet before the
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extraordinary meeting with the management. Until now, the need to summon an
extraordinary meeting has not been felt.
The meeting of the Industrial Relations Committee presents the same organisational
structure as the yearly meeting of the EWC. Indeed, the representatives of the National
Secretariats of the union organisations signing the Protocol, together with the 5 members
of the Select Committee, meet on the first day to decide the topics to be discussed, and on
the following day they meet the representatives of the Personnel Managements of ENI
and the group’s companies. By taking into account all the meetings, the Select
Committee meets 4 times a year.
THE YEARLY ASSEMBLY OF THE EWC
The European Works Council ordinarily meets once a year, normally in June, for two
whole days. During these meetings the management figures who represent the ENI Group
are top manager from the general management and the area of the Human Resources
management of the companies and the Divisions plus a small representation with
organisational duties. Altogether the management representation is made up of about ten
people and they are mainly representatives of the Italian central management. The yearly
meeting consists of two phases: on the first day the workers’ representatives meet with
the Select Committee to integrate and ratify the agenda and on second day there is the
management presentation followed by the debate. As mentioned previously, formally the
agenda should be handed over to the EWC members at least 30 days before the official
meeting in order to allow them to examine the issues that will be the focus of talks with
the management. In actual fact in the period before the meeting, a member of the Select
Committee collects all the discussion proposals coming from the EWC members, he or
she selects the ones having a transnational relevance and makes them available to the
other EWC members only at the pre-meeting at which each EWC member may then
make additions to the agenda. In this regard the Italian member of the EWC mentions the
fact that he had suggested discussing a certain issue that was then added to the agenda.
The pre-meeting is considered to be an important moment not only because the
points in the agenda are clarified, but also because it is a moment to make comparisons
and exchange experiences of industrial relations between the representatives from the
different countries. The British member of the EWC argues that the informal
appointments offer more scope and opportunities than the official EWC meeting does,
with a view to analysing more deeply the issues pertaining to the various national union
bodies.
At times, such as at the last meeting of the EWC, before the exclusive meeting of the
workers’ representatives and the unionists, the European Observatory on Health and
Safety also met, as the delegates participating in it are the same members as per the
EWC.
In order to optimise the time of the meeting and the discussions with the
management, the members of the EWC decided to identify a limited and pre-set number
of discussion points. According to the British member of the EWC, the choice of
discussion points at times creates some friction between the workers’ representatives. On
the second day the meeting with the management lasts about 4-5 hours, of which 1 hour
for the presentation and the rest left for the debate. According to the Italian member and
the British member of the ENI group EWC, the time available for the discussion with the
management is not enough.
236
During the debate phase the EWC members are given full freedom to intervene. In
actual fact, the second day is organised according to the pre-set succession of speakers.
Usually it starts with the talk presented by the three management figures who illustrate
the company situation. After that the secretaries of Italian unions and the European
Federation have their chance to give a talk, and lastly some time is left for the EWC
members to speak. At the end of each meeting the the secretariat drafts a joint
communication and a report of the meeting to be submitted for approval to the
Management and the Select Committee before its dissemination.
Each year the meetings are held in different cities according to the principle of
geographical rotation. The EWC members have free access to the plants but so far there
has never been any need.
Contents of the information and its evaluations
The presentation provided by the management aims to provide an analysis of the
trends and macroeconomic developments of the group. The information is substantially
of a strategic nature. The coordinator of the EWC combines the information received at
the EWC with the presentations that are usually made in the financial spheres. Given the
complexity and the amount of information, there is a risk that many of the contents are
not correctly interpreted and assimilated by the workers’ representatives. Again from the
point of view of the EWC coordinator, the group tends to provide information with much
circumspection and at times diffidence above all in regard to the still incomplete
company strategies. In this regard the case of the failed negotiations with the Saudi
company Sabig for a possible joint venture is reported. On this occasion the group, even
though the news was by then of public domain, showed a certain reticence in providing
additional information to the EWC. On the whole, it is nevertheless believed that the
EWC has fostered a qualitative and quantitative improvement in the information as
compared with the preceding situation.
According to the Italian member of the ENI group EWC, the EWC provides an
added value in information terms in relation to the information obtained at national level.
Indeed, at the EWC meetings it has access to a wealth of information that it would
otherwise not have in any other national location: strategies and developments at
corporate level and union issues and situations in the other European countries.
On the other hand, the British member of the EWC does not feel satisfied with the
information received at the EWC. The information is deemed to be inadequate and
insufficient. The group tends not to provide a complete information but only the amount
strictly necessary as though it was under obligation and not something dictated by the
interest in making the workers participants in the company strategy.
The information, from the point of view of the British and Italian members, are not
quick to arrive. The company decisions are announced only after they have been taken,
thus undermining the aims of the information and consultations procedures. The Italian
member of the EWC, for example, recalls that the closure of a plant in Austria was
announced after the closure had already taken place, although the workers’ representative
of that plant was indeed an EWC member. The British EWC members reports that 90%
of the times the company decisions are communicated after they have been taken.
Both the Italian member of the EWC and the British one do feel, on the other hand, that
the chance to meet at European level can provide an important chance to compare the
237
different industrial relations cultures and to exchange the experiences among the
delegates.
The various levels of interaction
THE INTERACTIONS INSIDE THE MANAGEMENT
The Italian “outsider” manager believes that in terms of information the EWC does
not provide any real added value in that the information flows between the national level
managers offer a complete overview of the company situation as well as the future
prospects. The Italian management, except for those who participate in the EWC
meetings, does not receive copies of the minutes and the releases, and the information is
provided exclusively informally during the internal meetings. The Italian “outsider”
manager has never been asked to supply any input relevant to EWC discussions, and he
also states that he is informed about the issues dealt with by the EWC more by the local
union than by the management representatives.
The British management is not asked to provide data to the management
representation that takes part in the EWC meetings. The British management is not
informed by the central management about the results of the EWC and has never
inspected any minutes of the meetings. The only information channel through which he
keeps up to date in the EWC issues is via the British EWC member, who in actual fact is
also a member of the Coordination Committee.
THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE SELECT COMMITTEE AND THE
MANAGEMENT
The Select Committee meets the company management four times a year, three time
within the Industrial Relations Committee and once at the EWC meeting. By having an
active role also in the drafting of the training programmes for the EWC, the Select
Committee is in close contact with the management of the ENI group. Some management
figures, amongst whom the group’s Industrial Relations Manager, have been invited to
the training seminars organised by the Select Committee on the basis of the funding lines
laid down by the European Commission.
As the coordinator of the EWC is the representative of the Italian union Femca-Cisl,
the relations with the management are not limited to the meetings of the EWC or the
Industrial Relations Committee but are also extended to the normal practices within the
scope of the national industrial relations.
THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE WORKERS’ REPRESENTATIVES
INSIDE THE EWC
During the training seminars and during the meetings of the EWC itself, some
difference emerged due to the different industrial relations cultures. However, this did not
compromise or hamper the normal running of the meetings. The greatest tension was
238
recorded during the phase when the agenda was being defined. As a matter of fact, as it
had been decided to reduce the number of discussion points, each national representation
tended to back its own national issues with even greater determination.
The EWC coordinator reports that he had noticed some friction when the issue of
variable wages and participation wages had been dealt with inside the EWC. On that
occasions different positions had appeared on the matter: the French delegates showed
some resistance while the British delegates were in favour. Both the Italian representative
and the British representative agree in describing the EWC as being still contaminated by
national issues and claims and not being focused on transversal issues.
The numeric predominance of the Italians, albeit rather large as they are 16 out of 27,
does not appear to have had any negative repercussions as there are no complaints from
any party. Owing to the language difficulties the Italian EWC member finds it easier to
hold a dialogues and communicate with the French and Spanish delegates, whereas he
declares he has some difficulty with the Germans and the British. In order to get round
these language difficulties an attempt was made to turn to the use of computer
programmes for simultaneous translation but the results were poor.
The Select Committee coordinator organised some training seminars in which the
EWC members could meet the workers’ representatives of the other EWCs.
THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE EWC AND THE
REPRESENTATION BODIES AT NATIONAL LEVEL
From the interviews it appears that in Italy the information outside the EWC is
scarce. The “outsider” workers’ representative does not receive a copy of the minutes nor
is he informed on the EWC issues during the works assemblies and for this very reason
he asks for greater commitment in the part of the EWC members in spreading the EWC
results. The inadequacy of the information contributes to the little interest the workers
have for the EWC issue.
The results of the EWC have never had after-effects or repercussion on the activity
of interest representation in the national context. This consideration, together with the
lack of negotiating power on the part of the EWC, contributes to creating in the eyes of
the workers’ representatives the image of an accessory, unnecessary body. The British
EWC member highlights the fact that most of the EWC delegates “…sit at the table and
await the next meeting.” The workers’ “outsider” representative complains of the lack of
incisiveness of the EWC and considers the chance to extend the competencies of the
EWC into the bargaining sphere rather premature. e He suggest conferring to the EWC a
greater proactive power so as to define the guidelines that everyone should comply with.
THE INTERACTION BETWEEN THE EWC AND THE WORKERS
In Italy the issues inherent to the EWC are limited exclusively to the EWC members.
As a matter of fact, the workers’ “outsider” representative does not receive the minutes of
the meeting and is not made aware of the EWC results, not even during the union
meetings inside the plants. Most of the workers know nothing about the EWC.
The British member of the Select Committee, after inspecting and making any
necessary corrections to the minutes and the report, writes a communication one copy of
which he gives, together with a copy of the minutes, to the members of the plant works
239
committee, while one copy is displayed on the notice-board. Although there is more
information, even the British workers show little interest in the EWC issues.
The results
IMPACT ON CORPORATE DECISION-MAKING
The activity of the ENI group EWC must be considered within a broader industrial
relations system in which the three national unions (Filcea, Femca, Uilcem) have a
strongly centralised role. The pre-eminence of the national union as compared with the
peripheral representation can be observed both at the moment of national level bargaining
and at the moment of international initiatives, such as the EWC in which the
representatives of the three Italian unions are full members. The centralised structure of
the industrial relations is also reflected in the different standpoints of the interviewees
concerning the role of the EWC. The coordinator of the EWC, as representative of the
union Femca, reckons the EWC is the product of a continuously evolving process in the
positive and participatory relations between company and union. Thus, in spite of the
period of profound strategic and structural transformations in the group, the participatory
climate between the ENI group and the three national unions has avoided the creation of
critical issues that had to be discussed at the EWC. This consideration is also shared by
the representatives of the Italian management.
The Italian EWC member, in his role as peripheral representative, believes that the
EWC still has no impact in the decision-making powers in the group. The EWC, as a
European-level representative body, was not informed of the closure of a plant in Austria
even though one of the people involved in the closure was actually an EWC member.
Furthermore, the issue of the sell-off of the chemical sector has been dealt with reticently
by the company both at national and international level, although it was the source of
concern for many workers in Europe. For example, during the meeting in Munich in
2002, the British delegate expressed his concerns about the possible employment impact
following the abandonment of the chemical sector by the company. In answer to the
British delegate’s view the company replied that it would guarantee the utmost attention
to the workers’ conditions and that it would have avoided any traumatic repercussions in
regard to the employment levels and the group’s industrial prospects and capacities.
The group’s attitude during the negotiations phase with the Saudi group Sabig also
comes in for criticism. Indeed, on this occasion the company information on the
developments in the negotiations did not go beyond what had already been reported in
the national newspapers.
The British member of the EWC perceives the EWC as a formal obligation of the
group. He reckons the EWC has no impact on the company’s decision-making powers
and that the objectives for which the EWC was founded in the first place have not been
achieved. He also says he is very disappointed because he has the feeling that he does not
get anything out of the EWC meetings in that the company underestimates the proactive
capacities of the individual workers. From his interview there emerge the repeated
requests of the EWC coordinator for a more active and purposeful attitude on the part of
the participants. One of the positive results emerging from the EWC, according to the
British member, is the chance to acquire new knowledge and skills.
240
Thanks to a consolidated and participatory industrial relations system, according the
Italian “outsider” manager, the contribution to the information made by the EWC is of
little use both for the management side and for the unions side in that issues and
problems are repeated that have already been dealt with in the information and
consultation procedures at national level. The only information value that is highlighted
concerns the chance to get to know the company’s strategic orientations in the other
countries.
EUROPEAN OBSERVATORY ON HEALTH AND SAFETY
The European Observatory for Health and Safety, set up through an agreement
between ENI, FULC and EMCEF on 21st June 1996, was born from the need to collect,
study and disseminate European data and experiences on this subject. It is a joint body in
which both management representatives, the majority, and some EWC members take
part. The Observatory is not formally born inside the EWC but is closely correlated to it.
On the temporal axis the meeting of the European Observatory precedes the EWC
meeting. Moreover, the EWC meeting always opens with a report on the results achieved
in the meeting of the European Observatory. The aim that the ENI group, together with
the union, has set itself is to set up a thematic and organic link-up between the two
moments of European meeting.
PROTOCOL ON INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
As already mentioned before, the renewal of the founding agreement of the EWC
was signed on 22nd June 2001, the same day on which the Industrial Relations Protocol
was signed at national level. The agreements were thus drafted concomitantly, trying to
create a integration between the national and the European industrial relations structure
both oriented to a growth in the participation of the workers in the life of the company
and a raising of the levels of transparency in regard to company communication.
The Protocol configures several levels of comparison. At national level, an Industrial
Relations Committee was set up made up of management and union representatives. In
addition, more negotiating levels were defined, at the level of division or region, on
specific issues (employment, training, shareholdings, health and safety, environment,
insurance and health care…) by means of the setting up of peer-member committees. The
interconnections between the EWC and the Protocol are expressed through the
participation of the Select Committee in the three yearly meetings of the Industrial
Relations Committee, bringing the total number of appointments with the central
management to four.
Within the framework of the Industrial Relations Protocol some enclosures have
been drafted that specifically regard vocational training, the environment and health and
safety on the job, and the international industrial relations. The latter enclosure
establishes the company’s commitment to valorising the role of the European Works
Committee and more generally committing itself in some way to bringing the industrial
relations up to world standard, with particular reference to the respect for the
fundamental principles of human rights and the ILO conventions. From here we have the
idea of an Agreement on the Transnational Industrial Relations and on the Corporate
Social Responsibility, signed in 2002 by Filcea, Femca, Uilcem and Icem (International
241
Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions). The three
agreements (EWC, Protocol, Transnational Agreement) are the expression of a single
company project addressed to extending the procedures of information and consultation
and spreading an Italian-style participative industrial relations system. The meetings
provided for by the transnational agreement come about between the international
federation and the Italian unions. The direct involvement of the EWC or the Select
Committee is not planned for, but the bond is nevertheless guaranteed through the figure
of the EWC coordinator.
WORK GROUP ON TRAINING
At the end of the EWC meeting in 4th July 2002 in Munich an agreement was signed
within the scope of vocational training between the EWC, the Italian unions (Uilcem,
Filcea, Femca) and the European Federation (EMCEF), on the one hand, and the central
management, on the other. On the grounds of this agreement, the EWC has the right to
have three representatives in the joint work group for the definition of a training
programme for the ENI group workers, set up by the Industrial Relations Committee. The
extended work group should “…define training actions at transnational level, jointly
addressed to the company managers and the workers’ representatives, which in particular
concern issues having a European bearing.”
After the ratification of the agreement, the EWC actually took on a negotiating role
thus going beyond the powers given to it by the European directive, that is, a body having
informative and consultative powers only. There was thus the development of the role of
the EWC in a negotiating and proactive direction.
CORPORATE IDENTITY
Through the EWC, the ENI group also intends to export its own Italian tradition of
union relations. This objective is effectively expressed in the foreword to the renewal of
the founding agreement. The intention is to broaden the relationship of trust with the
union bodies also to other European Union countries or in the candidate countries.
The Italian EWC member, like the Italian “outsider” manager, believe that the
company uses the EWC also as a matter of public image, above all as concerns the
environmental issues and those regarding health and safety.
The attention to these issues has probably increased following the environmental
problems caused by the oil refinery plants at Gela (Italy) and the claims addressed to the
ENI group for the exploitation of workers in Ecuador within the scope of the building of
an oil pipeline in which ENI participated through AGIP Oil.
Being a group having a world scale necessarily means having a greater visibility that
one cannot escape from. The transnational agreement, which establishes the respect for
the fundamental ethical principles, meets the need to build up the image of a group
committed and sensitive to social issues.
242
The Italian workers’ representatives, both insiders and outsiders, highlight the fact
that the existence and the activities of the Health and Safety Observatory has in some
way standardised the national policies by subjecting them to common standards and
parameters. The standardisation has come about, according to the Italian workers’
representative “outsider”, by shifting the parameters upwards and thus qualitatively
improving the Health and Safety conditions within the plants.
Conclusions
The experience of the ENI EWC is characterised by the strong influence of the
Italian members which is also explained by the strong concentration of employment in
Italy. The distribution of the employment of the ENI group that is concentrated, on the
one hand in Italy, and on the other on the extra-EU areas, implies a limit for the EWC in
that the strategic orientations of the group above all concern the non-EU areas not
represented in the EWC. From this point of view, it is definitely a positive thing that the
agreement on transnational industrial relations and on the corporate social responsibility
was signed. It should also be borne in mind that with the widening of the European Union
the unbalanced distribution of the employment will probably be mitigated.
Generally speaking, the EWC is seen as an important appointment in that it offers the
chance to compare different cultures and experiences of industrial relations. The cultural
differences at national level thus do not seem to compromise the working and the
efficacy of the EWC. Actually, they offer a stimulus to enhance one’s own competencies
in union matters and have a more complete vision of the company dynamics. The
members of the EWC believe that the development of new competencies is, at the
moment, the true added value of the EWC.
It seems that the role of the EWC is affected to a certain extent by the ENI group’s
industrial relations system in Italy, where according to the Italian delegate the national
unions tend to concentrate the union functions progressively excluding the peripheral
representations. As a result of this clear-cut distinction of roles we find ourselves facing
two points of view in relation to the EWC. The EWC coordinator, who is a representative
of the Italian union, considers the EWC as an integral part of the participatory industrial
relations system and thus a positive experience. The other EWC members, who in the
participatory system just cover a marginal role, perceive the EWC as a body that has little
influence in relation to the company decisions. It should nonetheless be underlined that
both agree on the slowness of the information and, as a consequence, the lack of an
effective consultation of the EWC in regard to the strategic decision of central
management. Given the failure of the EWC to be effectively involved, the problem of an
overlap of competencies between the EWC on the one hand, and the national unions, on
the other, never occurred.
The important role that the Italian union members fill inside the EWC is typical of
the Italian single-channel representation model that guarantees the union organisation a
strong influence also at company level. If, on the one hand, this strong presence of the
union at company level can have advantages in terms of competencies, experience and
recognition, on the other hand, it can foster, as also appears from the interviews, a trend
towards actually marginalising the company delegates.
243
It is the impression of the delegate of the subsidiary that the motivational drive of the
EWC members has declined and that the members await the encounter with resignation,
awaiting the following meeting. The setting up of a Select Committee and the role of
responsibility given to it seem to have significantly regenerated the motivation of the
participants but the push towards renewal should nevertheless go further. The change that
the interviewed EWC members hope for is that the EWC will be attributed powers that
go beyond the procedures of information and consultation and that also include
negotiating powers. In this way the participatory spirit could be reinvigorated, a spirit that
seems to be gradually dying out. There is thus the request to make the EWC more
influential.
In this regard the Italian “outsider” manager feels that extending the powers of the
EWC will be hard to do owing to the specificities of the national legislations that make
European level negotiations impracticable. However, it is thought that the evolution of
the EWCs role is bound to a further evolution of the concept of European social space, in
other words, if the European Union will be capable of harmonising its labour legislation
and developing a common social dimension so that the EWC could also take on a
negotiating function.
The introduction of the Select Committee with the renewal of the agreement in 2001
is experienced by the EWC members themselves as a chance to reappraise the EWC
functions. In the last two years, some improvements have been observed both at the level
of information and that of participation. Having increased the frequency of the meetings
between the Select Committee and the management representation, the information flow
has improved and has offered more opportunities for analysis and control by the EWC.
Furthermore, it is worthwhile underlining that on the subject of training the EWC has
also taken on a negotiating role transcending the contents of the European Directive, and
that the Select Committee, by taking part in the meetings of the Industrial Relations
committee, acts as a linking point between the national system and the European system.
Outlook
The growing internationalisation of the group strategies, together with the need to
measure up to the new challenges launched by globalisation, arouses some concerns
among the workforce. As a matter of fact, the possible competition internal to the group
that could be triggered off by these phenomena could alter, for the worse, the industrial
relations system currently existing at national level. In this light the most concerned
countries are those where the workers enjoy the most rights. The risk of social dumping
seems to be a problem that is more than ever relevant also in the ENI group, above all in
this period that it is subject to profound structural transformations. Thus, the Italian EWC
representative hopes that at European level the action will be along the lines of a defence
of the industrial relations models.
The widening of the European Union and thus the entry of the countries of Eastern
Europe into the European Union is seen favourably by both parties but some concerns are
aired concerning the risk of social dumping. According to the Italian member of the EWC
and the Italian Management “outsider” the EWC should play a central role in trying to
unionise the candidate countries in such a way that a mechanism is not triggered
according to which the workers’ rights represent an impediment for company strategies
244
only in certain countries. The concern that is perceived is that of losing the advantages of
the national industrial relations system.
A different degree is perceived between the EWC members, on the one hand the
unionists and on the other the workers’ representatives at company level. The latter have
not always had adequate skills and knowledge to understand and absorb the information
made available by the company. To resolve this situation it is suggested that there should
be the development of training programmes for the union representatives in such a way
as to make the encounters with the management more fruitful.
The Italian “outsider” delegate suggests disseminating the information more
effectively along with the results that derive from the EWC. In order to allow for an
easier distribution of the information the suggestion is to invest greater commitment in
the realisation of a portal for the ENI group inside which all the agreements and the
documentation relating to the EWC and its activities could be published. Furthermore, it
is suggested that the EWC members should deal with the issues that emerged at the EWC
also during the local level union assemblies. Thus there could be more uniform
information and the peripheral representations could also be allowed to interact with the
EWC body.
According to the British EWC member, the frequency of the meetings is planned too
rigidly. Indeed, the constraint of always setting the date of the meeting in June and the
company’s unwillingness to grant extraordinary meetings very often makes it impossible
to discuss topical events. The delay in the meeting with the management on issues that
will have immediate repercussions and the fact that, as a consequence, real consultations
do not come about very often make the EWC activity of little use.
References
Renewal of the Founding Agreement, 2001
Industrial Relations Protocol, 2001
ENI Corporate, Fact Book 2001
Agreement on transnational industrial relations and corporate social responsibility, 2002
Report of EWC meeting, 4th July 2002, Munich
powers in order to make it an effective instrument above all in regard to the
processes of internationalisation that will have to be faced in the future.
The interviewees
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Italian delegate, Insider:
Italian delegate, Insider:
Italian delegate, Outsider
Italian Manager, Insider:
Italian Manager, outsider:
British Delegate, Insider:
British Manager, outsider
245
Degussa EWC
Peter Kerckhofs
Introduction
Just like the company has been in reshaping its size and structures, it has left the
means for the EWC to develop a dynamic. The good financial situation of the company
and the voluntaristic approach from the management side has certainly helped the
improved functioning of the Degussa EWC.
The Mergers have stimulated the select committee to enlarge and later on to
internationalise. As such, the German overweight and approaches have been diminished
in favour of common European interests. A trade union seminar organised for a part of
the EWC members, improved this Europeanization through communication and team
building exercises.
For the near future there are prospects of a second annual meeting and of further
training provisions. At the same time, expectations are also rising. For now, most of all
there is disappointment in the missing consultation. The EWC is limited to information.
And also the moment at which certain information’s are given, leaves room for
improvements.
The company
Degussa is the abbreviated name of Deutsche Gold- und Silber-Scheideanstalt. After
more then 100 year of company history, Degussa merged with Hüls in 1999. When two
years later, in 2001, Degussa-Hüls merged with SKW Trostberg, its name reverted to
Degussa AG. The preparatory work for this merger was done with the merger of the two
holding companies Vebe and Viag into E.on. In The Viag part, the company Golschmidt
was integrated in 1999 into the SKW group.
Degussa ist traditionell vor der Fusion Metall, Chemie und Pharma. Den
gesamten Metallbereich haben wir zwischenzeitlich verkauft. Die Bank ist letztes
Jahr im Juli verkauft worden. D.h. also seit der letzten Fusion vor 2-2,5 Jahren hat
sich die Degussa fokussiert auf Spezialchemie, d.h. alles was nicht Chemie ist und
nicht Spezialchemie ist verkauft, so dass wir jetzt ein reines Chemieunternehmen
sind.
Being a worldwide chemical multinational, Degussa produces a wide range of
chemical products, from Building materials, to Food Ingredients and additives, Coatings,
Polymers, Plexi-glass and Carbon Black. Degussa products can be found in toothpaste,
shower gel, shampoo, or yoghurt. But also in tires, paper that is bleached and in
Pharmaceutical products based on Degussa's special molecules.
247
Industrial relations
To a large extent the future of Degussa (within the E.on Group) will be determined
by the integration of employees at all Group companies under the umbrella of a common
culture. This integration process is rooted in the commitment, skills, flexibility and
responsibility of our workforce. Their identification and unwavering support for our
company and our goals will be one of the key factors in the success of the new Degussa.
The Blue Spirit program is to promote the shared Degussa culture. In this emphasis is
placed upon the qualities of openness and fairness and upon flat hierarchies, together
with team- and project-oriented working practices.
Figure 1: the logo of the Blue spirit programme promoting Degussa’s corporate culture
The results of the company in the last years have been much better then the overall
economy.
Entgegen des Trends der chemischen Industrie, haben wir unsere Ergebnisse in
dem letzten Geschäftsjahr gehalten. Es ist ganz minimal nach unten gegangen. Das
ist im Grunde genommen nicht dramatisch, d.h. also wir machen einen guten Gewinn
schon immer
Adding to the profitable status of the company a strong trade union presence9 in
Germany, industrial relations are mostly harmonious there.
Es gibt Werke natürlich, wo es mehr Konflikte gibt. Gerade durch die Fusion,
die wir jetzt hinter uns haben. Es werden Betriebsteile geschlossen, verlagert wo
anders hingesetzt. Da gibt es natürlich das Probleme was machen wir mit dem
Personal, was hier jetzt noch da ist. Das kannst Du ja nicht über 500 km versetzten.
Das ist das Problem. Da gibt es auch stärkere Probleme. Die werden auch sehr offen
und auch tatkräftig ausgetragen, aber immer mit dem Ziel eine gemeinsame Lösung
zu finden.
Perhaps the profit-sharing schemes do also contribute to this.
Ja, wir haben eine Erfolgsbeteiligung, d.h. die MA werden am
Unternehmenserfolg beteilig und je höher der Gewinn ist um so mehr
Ergebnisbeteiligung bekommen wir. Deshalb sind wir daran interessiert, dass ein
relativ hohes Ergebnis erzielt wird. Wir hängen das auch immer ein bisschen an die
Basis der Dividende. Wenn die Dividende gleich bleibt und nicht abgesengt wird,
dann wollen wir auch ein gleich hohes Ergebnis bei der Erfolgsbeteiligung haben.
Die beträgt für letztes Jahr 0,8 Monatseinkommen.
With a profitability that has gone down in a minimum way, there are still
considerable gains. This plays a role in the works council work in Germany. Because,
9
In Germany, Trade unions are strongly present within Degussa. Especialy among blue collar workers,
that are between 90 and 100% affiliated to trade unions. For the white collar employees this is between 10
and 20%.
248
with a steady dividend for the shareholders, also the participation in the profit, is
expected to be as the last year. For last year this was 80% of a monthly salary. In
Belgium there are individual workers who have shares, but there is no collective financial
participation scheme. At the previous collective bargaining round, four years ago, this
issue had been on the table. Since some workers did lose some part of their savings in
shares, the question is no longer relevant. The German colleagues in the EWC have
raised the issue several times. The irritation of other EWC members did lay in the
difficulty these German EWC members had in understanding that such schemes for profit
sharing are not wanted in some other countries.
PK: Hay trabajadores que tienen acciones?
JP: La genrencia. Por lo que jo sepa, nuestro gerente tiene acciones de
Goldsmidt o tenia...
PK: Pero las acciones de Degussa van bien, no?
JP: Imagino que ahora estaran muy contentos! (rires)
Industrial relations are very much solution oriented, easy and harmonious in
Germany, while this can be completely different in foreign subsidiaries.
Also ein deutscher Manager ist Blue Spirit, wenn er in Deutschland ist, aber
wenn er nach Spanien geht ...ist er nicht Blue Spirit, dann ist er Spanier. Dann sagt
er: in Spanien ist das Gesetzt so, dass ich ihn nicht informieren muss. Also
informiere ich ihn nicht.
This leads to situations where the central management is rather open towards the
European Works Council, while it demands most of all good financial results from the
national managers.
Das oberste Management ist sicherlich sehr offen gegenüber dem Europa-BR
und dem BR hier in Deutschland. Die sagen inzwischen aber auch wir müssen Geld
verdienen, dass das Unternehmen weiter kommt. Wo wir sicherlich Schwierigkeiten
haben, ist das Mittelmanagement, die den Blue Spirit nicht so sehen, sondern die
einfach sagen: ich muss Geld verdienen und eine ganz andere Stimmung da rein
bringen. Das ist schon war, die da oben reden schon anders als die, die auf dieser
Ebene sind. Die müssen das Geld verdienen. Die haben auch leicht reden da oben.
Deshalb gibt es da schon eine Diskrepanz in der Auslegung.
One degussa EWC agreement for all and for ever?
The history of the Degussa EWC starts with its agreement of 1995. After which
Degussa merged with Hüls in 1999 and in 2001 with SKW Trostberg and TH Goldsmidt.
Both for SKW Trostberg and TH Goldschmidt had been established EWCs before they
joined Degussa.
Complexity increases by looking at the most important shareholders of Degussa.
This used to be Henkel, until its shares in Degussa were sold to Veba, a former state
249
owned company that merged with Viag, to create E.on. Both for Henkel, Veba and Viag
EWCs had been created. For E.ON SNB-negotiations are ongoing.
The chair of the Degussa EWC is also involved in the negotiations aiming to set up a
EWC for E.on. His Degussa EWC experiences are a valuable resource in this.
Nevertheless, a difference in approach is possible, since different persons and European
Industry Federations are involved. Trade union activities are co-ordinated at European
level by EPSU, while EMCEF does this for Degussa.
Ich bin auch im EON Euro-BR drin und da tätig. Die haben das Problem, dass EON total umgebaut
wird und klassisch früher nur in Deutschland aktiv war, d.h. die EON hat relativ wenig Aktivitäten im
EU-Ausland. Insofern diskutieren wir momentan in EON wie könne wir die EON
Europabetriebsstruktur so aufbauen, dass sie gehen kann. Die werden sich wie es heute aussieht an
der Struktur, die wir in der D gefunden haben, anlehnen. D.h. also unsere Struktur ist so etwas
Vorbild für die EON.
While the Spanish select committee member was previously 2 years involved in the
EWC of Goldsmidt, and before 3 years in the EWC of Witco10, when his plant was
owned by that company. His previous EWC experiences were completely different, and
then the Degussa EWC, which is according to him much more active.
La mecanica es muy diferent, en Degussa, hay un plan de trabajo, que no existia
antes. Antes solo te limitabas a asistir a unas reuniones donde te convocaban, y nada
mas. Ahora, hay un plan de trabajo para las reuniones pero tambien hay trabajo
entre las reuniones, hay mucha mas comunicacion...
La diferencia era... No se si es porque eran los inicios de los comites europeos
en europa, pero aquello era un par de reuniones al ano, y cada uno a su casa. Aqui,
la cosa ahora ha cambiado, ahora hay trabajo. Entre reunion y reunion, se trabaja
mucho mas, hay mas contactos, se intenta llevartemas adelante, hay objectivos... La
cosa funciona muy bien...Pues, los delegados trabajan mucho mas, contactan mucho
mas, y antes, los veias en la reunion, hablabas con ellos, y hasta el ano que viene...
es la gran diferencia
Table 1: Agreements establishing EWCs before the merger in the separated companies
Company part of Degussa
AG
Degussa
SKW Trostberg
TH. Goldschmidt
Henkel
Vebe
Viag
E.ON
EWC agreement
20-04-1995
01-11-1995
05-09-1996
15-09-1994
01-07-1996
20-07-1995
SNB negotiations
After the 1999 and 2001 mergers, the Degussa EWC agreement was not
renegotiated. The workers of Golschmidt and SKW Trostberg were covered by the
existing Degussa EWC agreement. In the beginning of 2003 negotiations started for the
setting up of a EWC at holding level within E.ON. The Degussa EWC members want to
10
The American Multinational Witco desinvested in such a way that it is no longer sure that it is still
covered by the EWC Directive. About its EWC there is not further news available.
250
keep their EWC independent from the creation of an E.on EWC. For this reason they
have not wanted to renegotiate their EWC agreement.
Das Problem ist folgendes: Die Richtlinie geht davon aus, dass immer auf der
höchsten Ebene des Konzerns ein Europaforum zu gründen ist. D.h. mit dem
Übergang zu EON hätte unser Europaforum wegfallen müssen, d.h. wir wären
aufgegangen im Europaforum der EON. Wir haben alles dran gesetzt nicht neu zu
verhandeln, sondern unser Europaform, weil wir chemiespezifisch diskutieren
wollen, rüberzuretten und haben nur formale Anpassungen gemacht. Neu verhandelt
haben wir nie. Wir haben eine Vereinbarung, die soll einfach weiter laufen.
As a consequence the written text of the EWC agreement has not much meaning
anymore. In Germany and in the EWC there is a common understanding of the EWC-role
and this is most important. There is almost never referred to the text of the agreement. It
is not at European level that there are problems or weaknesses in the representation
structure, like it is the case in some countries at national or even at local level.
In der Degussa ist das Abkommen nicht so wichtig für das EBR-Funktionieren, weil
es ein Verständnis dafür gibt, dass man auch auf europäischer Ebene vernünftig mit den
BRs und den AN-Vertretern umgeht.
The EWC agreement
The first step toward the creation of the Degussa EWC were made in 1994, with a
meeting in Brussels, organised by IGBCE and Emcef and financed by the Budget-line
B3-4004. In the beginning, it were difficult discussions on weather the EWC had to be
limited to information or extend to consultation and eventually also negotiation. German
workers representatives wanted to transpose the directive in voluntarism terms, before the
EWC Directive would be in force. A pragmatic approach consisted of negotiating the text
of the agreement with two or three German representatives, supported by IGBCE (Doris
Meissner). This approach was successful, in three months time an agreement was
reached. Later on this was criticised by the Italian and Belgian EWC members, that they
were not involved in the setting up. The German representatives however did not want to
exclude the others, but simply get the EWC going, without loosing time. The Belgian
EWC member now recognises that having negotiated with a real SNB would have taken
much more time, effort, and problems. The criticism on this way of handling EWC
matters was understood, after that the German EWC members have conducted
procedures in a more European wide way.
Wir haben mit zwei oder drei Leuten verhandelt. Das ist hier in Deutschland
gemacht worden. Da waren keine ausländischen Kollegen dabei. Das war auch ein
Kritikpunkt, nach dem Motto: ihr in Deutschland ihr macht alles für euch und die
Europäer, ihr beteiligt uns nicht. Aber wir haben auch mit Hilfe der Doris Meisner
darüber diskutiert. Unser Petitum war einfach dieses Gremium ins Laufen zu bringen
und jetzt nicht auf den Formalismus zu achten, dass wir jetzt auch einen Belgier
dabei haben sollten, einen Italiener dabei haben sollten. Wir haben es gemacht und
im Nachhinein hat es sich als gut erwiesen.
The EWC practice goes further then the text of the agreement for example there were
branch level work working groups gather in-between EWC plenary meetings.
251
Ja. Ich denke, wir gehen da ein Stück weiter, weil wir sehr intensiv in die
Gespräche mit dem Vorstand und mit den Bereichsvorständen gehen. Und zwischen
diesen großen Treffen, die wir haben setzten wir uns mit den Bereichsvorständen
zusammensetzten und diskutieren auch anderen Dinge, Verlagerung, Versetzung und
solche Themen
There are rules of procedure providing for one annual meeting plus possible
additional meetings in agreement with the Personnel Director. Furthermore there is set
how the meetings are chaired, when invitations are made, who is making minutes and
how voting procedures have to take place. In the rules of procedure there is also
determined how the EWC and the select committee are composed, that it meets twice a
year and for which reasons additional meetings are possible, the role of the chair and how
he or she gets elected.
Ja, es gibt eine Geschäftsordnung. Haben wir auch noch geregelt. Also das sind
Regeln wie: wann ist die Einladung zu schreiben, wer führt das Protokoll, wie setzt
sich das Forum zusammen. Wir haben einen geschäftsführenden Ausschuss von
sechs Personen. Wie oft treffen die sich.
As such the Rules of Procedure are much more relevant then the original EWC
establishment-agreement of 20 April 1995. The second version of the rules of procedure
dates from 8 may 2001 and entered into force after its adoption in the EWC meeting of
18 October 2001.
Worldwide about 48000 persons are working for Degussa, 39604 (83%) of them are
employed in Europe. And from all European employees, 77% are based in Germany.
Table 2: Country Breakdown of the Degussa Workforce in Europe (January 2002)
Country
Germany
France
Belgium
United Kingdom
Austria
Spain
Italy
Netherlands
Portugal
Sweden
Denmark
Greece
Finland
Total Europe
CH
Total worldwide
Workforce begin 2002
30584
2953
1533
1410
800
765
661
385
262
103
62
50
36
39604
47623
252
EWC mandates
13
4
3
2
2
1
3
1
1
1
31
There used to be about 40 employee representative member of the EWC. Because the
Pharma and Metal pillars were sold or closed, just like some operations in east-Germany,
the EWC lost six or seven members.
Das kann schwanken. Das ist nicht festgelegt. Angenommen die D würde in
Italien ein großes Werk kaufen, dann konnte das hoch gehen auf 33. Würden wir in
Italien alles verkaufen könnte das auf 28 runtergehen. Das ist eine
Schwankungsbreite.
Hat es viel Veränderungen in den letzten Jahren gegeben?
Ja gut schon. Der gesamte Pharmabereich ist ausgeschieden. Im Osten
Deutschlands sind Kollegen ausgeschieden. Der Metallbereich ist ausgeschieden.
Also im Pharmabereich waren es drei, im Metallbereich waren es drei, d.h. wir
waren mal an die 40 Leute.
Now, the Degussa EWC is composed of 31 employee representatives and about half
as much employer delegates. One employer delegate from each country plus at least 3
representatives of Degussa’s central management.
Besides the home country workforce, the largest numbers of workers are located in
France, Belgium and the UK. The 765 Spanish workers are spread over several plants all
over Spain. The plant where the current Spanish select committee member works used to
be part of the American Multinational Witco; later on it was acquired by Goldsmith,
before it entered into Degussa.
In Belgium there are 1300 workers in Antwerp, 1100 on the left side of the river
Schelde, 200 in a plant at the right side. There used to be a pharma-division in Brussels
that is sold of to become Viatis. In parallel, a similar number of workers have joined
Degussa from the company Master Builders. The Belgian involvement in the EWC is a
task given to Eric Dirkx because he was spokesperson from the largest trade union
fraction in Belgium, and because he had been living long time in Germany, he knew well
already German language and culture.
Problematic parts of the company are in Belgium the hydrogen-peroxide plant and in
Germany the Dresden plant. After the merger, the research and development units of all
the separate companies still have to be brought together. This will also lead to some
relocations and reductions. A new investment in a new Amino-acid plant is not yet
allocated. Several plants are still in competition for this, even though Antwerp has high
chances. When local collective bargaining rounds are taking place, then this matter is
brought up, to limit workers demands in advance.
With 77% of the European workforce, the German delegates hold 42% of the EWC
mandates. They are by far the largest group. The fact that each member only has one
vote, without any reference to the number of employees represented, limits the weight of
the home country-dominance. Even so, a certain German dominance by the homecountry workforce is recognised by all the interviewed EWC members.
„Es gibt eine deutsche Dominanz insofern als wir auf der einen Seite deutsche Vertreter
haben. Das liegt daran, dass wir einfach die größte AN-Gruppe sind. Auf der anderen
Seite haben wir die verschieden Länder: Italien nur zwei, Frankreich drei, Spanein zwei
u.s.w.. Aber das ist paritätisch, d.h. Deutschland und das gesamte restliche Ausland sind
paritätisch besetzt obwohl sie nur ein drittel der MA vertreten. Aber wir haben bewusst
gesagt, wir wollen nicht diese Dominanz von Deutschland haben, sondern wir wollen
gleichberechtigt diskutieren.“
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The fact that the German chair is aware of this dominance has taken away the
problems the others had with this. There is aimed at a “gleichberechtigte” discussion, on
the basis that each EWC member has one vote. Voting however, has only taken place at
the appointment of the chair, subsidiary chair and other select committee members. From
the Spanish point of view the German dominance has been used to solve a local problem.
Is er een dominantie vanuit Duitsland in de Europese ondernemingsraad?
Niet meer. Dat was wel zenne, en natuurlijk zijn er veel delegees. In het
verleden was dat wel zo, en ik heb dat ook gezegd op het seminarie dat wij gehad
hebben, dat liftcom project. Dus wij zitten eigenlijk met een Duitse
ondernemingsraad, een Duitse Betriebsrat met buitenlandse gasten. Dat is al
jarenlang mijn kritiek. En ik heb de indruk dat Krai…. (?), dat is de voorzitter, dat
die dat wel begint te begrijpen. En dat die daar meer en meer rekening mee begint te
houden. En het laatste, allez, er zijn een aantal zaken aan het veranderen dat men er
probeert een Europese ondernemingsraad van te maken. En dus, we hebben dus dat
seminarie gehad, en een maand erna hadden we dan een Europese
ondernemingsraad in Wenen. En je merkte dat dat helemaal anders was. Dat die
andere delegees veel meer aan bod komen dan vroeger. Ik vind dat daar echt een
serieuze stap vooruit is gezet.
Even though, the Chair, Bernd Kreiling, and his deputy, Eric Dirckx was there from
the beginning, the continuity in the composition of the EWC is not completely problemfree. There seems to be some continuity but only among a part of the EWC. Besides this
stable core of the EWC the other mandates have such a high turn-over that good
cooperation and trust building is perceived as problematic.
“Wat ik een probleem vind, maar ik weet niet hoe we dat zouden kunnen
oplossen, dat die samenstelling elk jaar wijzigt. Ik vind dat dus, nu zitten we weer,
vanuit Engeland gaan ze weer compleet nieuw mensen komen die we niet kennen. In
Spanje, dat is daar, we hebben nu 1, die andere, dat verandert ook constant, die
weten 2 maanden voor de Europese ondernemingsraad nog niet wie ze gaan sturen.
Allez, als ge een werking wilt opbouwen, dan moet ge eerst en vooral mekaar kennen
en vertrouwen. Als dat elk jaar ander mensen zitten die daar zijn, is dat niet goed.
Probleem is dat ge op den duur zo een groepje insiders krijgt, diegenen die al 10
jaar meewerken, waar dat ik me dan bijreken. En dan diegenen die er altijd maar
nieuw bijkomen, die missen die dynamiek. Dat vind ik spijtig, maar dat weet ik niet
hoe we dat moeten oplossen.”
The EWC resources
In Frankfurt there are three local works council representatives completely free of
their professional duties to do their representation work. Furthermore they have a
secretariat where Ms Fischer, supports both the local works council as the EWC work.
For the EWC work both the German chair (B. Kreiling) as the German secretary (Mrs
Fischer), take about 30% of their working time. The rest is spread equally for the local
works council and the German central works council. The chair of the EWC has access to
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all Degussa operations in an outside Germany. For the delegates from the foreign
subsidiaries this is perceived as much more difficult, so that they did not take such an
initiative.
Ich habe Zugang zu allen Werken in Deutschland und in Europa. Ich stimme das vorher
ab. In Werken wo ich noch nicht war brauche ich einen Ansprechpartner und den
bekomme ich hier über Frankfurt über Düsseldorf über unsere Zentrale heraus. Dann
melde ich mich an und fahre dahin.
The EWC chair is rather free in his employee representation work. Furthermore he
has good personal contacts with German managers at the headquarters as well as in some
foreign subsidiaries. This has already served as a useful resource for the EWC.
Ich bin in meiner Arbeit sehr frei. Also, wenn ich sage, ich fahre demnächst nach
Osteuropa, dann informiere ich den Arbeitsdirektor, aber dann fliegen wir da hin.
Für mich ist das Problem nie so drastisch gewesen. Ich kenne sehr viele aus dem
Management. Viele die, die Degussa ins Ausland als deutsche Manager schickt,
waren hier in Deutschland auch aktiv an führenden Positionen. Ich habe diese
Herren kennengelernt, so dass ich sehr offen aufgenommen werde. Ich kenne viele
auch Persönlich.
Another welcome resource on top of this, are the language skills of the deputy chair.
Ik heb dat van thuis uit meegekregen. En ik wel atheneum gedaan, en ik heb
daar de richting moderne talen gevolgd. Ik heb in Duitsland gewoond. Ik ben daar
geboren, en ik heb daar tot mijn 9 jaar daar gewoond. Dat was een Belgische
school, een school van het leger. En dan, achteraf ben ik beroepsmilitair geweest en
daar nog eens een jaar gewoond. Ook via mijn vakbondswerk kom ik veel in contact
met Franstalige mensen. Allez, Waalse collega’s. En ik onderhoud dat blijkbaar
gemakkelijk.
Just like the German Chair of the EWC, his Belgian deputy is 100% free for his
employee representation tasks. However, only 10% are spent on EWC matters. This
varies from time to time, there are moments when he is only doing EWC work, but this is
not so often. For the Spanish select committee member, 75% of his working time is free
for employee representation work. He says that half of this available time is spend on
EWC matters.
There is no fixed budget for the EWC. This is done on purpose. Costs linked to
European or local representation work is however separated.
Nein, wir haben kein Budget. Wir haben bewusst kein Budget, weil in dieser Zeit,
wo dieses Unternehmen so umgekrempelt wird ist ein Budget eine Limitierung. Wenn
dein Limit aufgebraucht wird bekommst Du nichts mehr. Wir haben traditionell in
der D kein Budget. Wir brauch in dem einen Jahr mal mehr in den anderen mal
weniger.
The 1995 EWC Agreement states that the operations where the delegates are
employed borne their EWC expenses.
The costs for the meetings of the European Forum are borne by Degussa AG. Travel
expenses for the delegates and other costs are borne by the companies, in which the
delegates are employed or where these costs originate.
Normally there is no problem with costs; they are covered by central management.
For select committee members, the local company reimburses their expenses, and
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recovers this internally from the Headquarters. For the Spanish select committee member
this has already led to some discussions.
Dat hangt ervan af, maar dat is ook voorzien in onze overeenkomst, als het
Europese ondernemingsraad zelf is, dan wordt dat gefinancierd vanuit, allez,
centraal. Dat wordt centraal gefinancierd. Omdat men bijvoorbeeld een kleine
vestiging niet wil belasten als die een vertegenwoordiger naar de Europese
ondernemingsraad gaat, en de kleine vestiging moet altijd die kosten dragen, dat zou
eigenlijk niet correct zijn. Dus dat wordt centraal gedragen. Voor de mensen van
het beperkte comité is het zo dat het eigenlijk door de plaatselijke firma wordt
gedragen. Nu hebben we daar ook een discussie over gehad dat we zeggen, dat is
eigenlijk ook niet correct, want bijvoorbeeld mijn Spaanse collega, Barcelona, die
vestiging is eigenlijk niet zo groot. Die mens moet 5-6 keer per jaar naar ergens
anders in Europa gaan, op de duur begint dat voor die vestiging wel duur te worden.
Dus men is nu aan discussie, allez, we zijn daar eigenlijk rond, ook met
werkgeverszijde, dat men dat eigenlijk ook een beetje centraal moet organiseren.
Maar in de praktijk gaat dat bij mij zo, ik moet ergens naartoe, ik moet bijvoorbeeld
naar Rotterdam. Dan bestel ik hier een auto, dat wordt geleasd, en Degussa rekent
dat af met Duitsland, en ze zullen, allez, dat ze er hunne plan maar mee trekken. Dat
is hun probleem.
Communication equipment like international telephone lines, fax and e-mail are
provided for all EWC members. The Belgian select committee member got a fax
especially for his EWC work. Afterwards central management arranged e-mail access for
all EWC members.
Si, correo electronico, acceso a internet, intranet, accesso a la intranet de
Degussa en alemana, a la Goldsmidt, fax, impresora de color, fotocopiadora, todo lo
que me haga falta. Traduccion tambien, lo que haga falta. En este aspecto, no hay
ningun problema, el problema viene cuando hay que pagar un billete de avion o
alquilar un coche, hoteles en este pais...
Special training has been provided for the German and Spanish EWC members by
their trade union, two or three years ago. Furthermore, there has been a Leonardo project
called “lift.com” that is initiated by EMCEF and IGBCE that provides for 4 training
seminars for EWCs. One of these four seminars was organised in May 2002, for a
selection of 12 Degussa EWC members.
Trade union support is provided by, Doris Meissner, an officer of the international
department of IGBCE. In this, she is not only representing the interests of the German
employees. When there are cultural differences, then she mediates out of respect and
understanding for all points of view. Also in the attempts to integrate representatives
from EU applicant countries she played a constructive role.
Euh, ik denk tussen, allez, ik ja, ik denk dat dat normaal is, tussen de zittingen zodanig
dat die vooral Duitse leden ondersteunt, maar dat dat ook, omdat dat de thuisbasis is.
Maar ik vind op de zittingen dat die eigenlijk een redelijk correcte houding aanneemt en
probeert toch, allez, respect te hebben en iedereen toch een beetje te begrijpen. Als
bijvoorbeeld, als ik tussenkom, die snapt dat wel, ja, de Belgen die hebben een andere
traditie, of een andere visie op een aantal punten dan de Duitsen. En die probeert daar
wel een beetje in te bemiddelen zo. Ik denk dat die dat altijd redelijk correct doet.
Bijvoorbeeld, we zitten nu met die uitbreiding naar Oost-Europa dat op ons afkomt. Dus
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de laatste zitting van het beperkte comité was hier in Antwerpen, dan was Doris er ook
bij. En heeft ze ons ook proberen uit te leggen, van, allez, wat zijn de verschillende
systemen in Europa, en nu komt er nog eens een Oost Europa erbij, dan is dat nog eens
anders. En zaken van, waar moet je rekening mee houden, waar moet je op letten.
Vertrek niet van het u-visie, en u-ervaring naar ginder, want je loopt daar met uwe kop
tegen de muur. Dus ik denk dat dat wel goed is.
There is no local trade union support provided for by any officer of the trade unions
to which the Belgian or the Spanish select committee member are affiliated to.
Both the EWC agreement and the rules of procedure provide for one single annual
plenary meeting. As such there have been held eight meetings of the EWC, since its
creation in 1995. Even though the agreement provides for additional meetings for extraordinary circumstances, this has not yet been necessary.
“Besondere Probleme oder so. Nein, haben wir noch nicht gehabt”.
Plenary meetings take two full days. Since there are three hotel-nights provided,
there is no problem of people arriving later or leaving earlier.
As such, participants to the EWC meeting arrive in the evening and have a joint
dinner. Some of the German members arrive the next morning. That is when is started
with the preparation meeting. The afternoon of the same day there are presentations from
management foreseen, just as for the morning of the second day. In the afternoon of the
second day sub groups for each of the business units are held together with management
representatives from the respective operations. At the end of the second day there is one
hour for debriefing. The morning of the third day, the members of the EWC are
observing the shareholders meeting. After lunch they return home.
Abends kommen die vorher an. Die Deutschen kommen am Morgen an. Ich gebe Dir
mal die Ausschreibung, dann können wir uns das mal ansehen. Das ist unsere
Originalausschreibung für das diesjährige Treffen, die kannst Du mitnehmen. Anreise ist
der Abend vorher bis 17 Uhr im Hotel, dann gibt es ein gemeinsames Abendessen. Das
ist ein Begrüßungsabendessen. Am nächsten Morgen, Vorbesprechung der AN. Das ist
die Tagesordnung, das ist meine Berichterstattung, EU ab 2004 und die zukünftige
Struktur des Europaforums. Das sind wir nur unter uns. Dann geht es hier weiter in
diesen Bereichsforen, die sind nach Businessunits aufgestellt. An diesem Nachmittag
kommt der Vorstand. Das wäre dieses offizielle Treffen. Das ist den ganzen Nachmittag.
Der Vorstandsvorsitzende und der Finanzchef. Am nächsten Morgen geht es weiter mit
der offiziellen Tagung. Das ist das Vorstandsmitglied, Investitionen, Desinvestitionen,
das ist der Arbeitsdirektor, der Dr. Schöneberg, den hast Du mal ganz kurz gesehen.
Nachmittags gehen wir in diese Bereichsforen mit den Bereichsvorständen, d.h. was die
Kollegen hier ausgearbeitet haben an Fragen an den jeweiligen Bereichsvorstand wird
hier dann diskutiert. Und dann haben wir noch ein Thema: Global Social Policy. Das
wäre von Kofi Annan die Initiative und Vertretungsstrukturen im europäischen Ausland.
D.h. wir wollen sicher stellen, dass auch die Kollegen ihre Kollegen in ihrem jeweiligen
Land informieren können. Herr Borrmann, der das macht, arbeitet im Vorstandsressort
von Herrn Dr. Schöneberg. Er ist mein direkter Ansprechpartner für das Tagesgeschäft.
Dann haben wir hier eine Abschlussbesprechung. Du sieht es ist zeitlich alles stark
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limitiert. Da bleibt für Diskussionen relativ wenig Platz. Abschlussbesprechung eine
Stunde. Da wollen wir einfach mal einen Abriss haben. Das ist uns aber zu kurz. Am
nächsten Tag ist die Hauptversammlung der Degussa, d.h. wir fahren mit allen
Teilnehmern zur Hauptversammlung der Degussa, um den Kollegen aus dem Ausland zu
zeigen, was ist die Hauptversammlung. Was spielt sich da ab, wie wird diskutiert.
A particularity of the Degussa Euro-Forum is the meeting session of the separated
braches. The morning of the employee only preparation meeting, is therefore split into.
The first part is common and the last hour and a half are for branch-level discussions and
preparation of questions. Also for the joint branch-level meetings is reserved one hour
and a half in the afternoon of the second day. Some of the branch-groups have also met
independently of the EWC plenary meeting.
Nein, Arbeitsgruppen haben wir keine. Wir haben dafür Bereichsforen. Die sind nach
den Businessunits des Unternehmens aufgestellt, d.h. wir bilden die Struktur des
Unternehmens ab, weil in den Businessunits die Arbeitsgebiete gepolt sind. Also,
Plexiglas ist eine Businessunit für sich, special chemistry ist eine Businessunit für sich.
Da sind wir dran, dass sie sich auch noch unter dem Jahr treffen. Das kriegen wir mit
dem einen oder anderen schon hin. Wir haben es zwar nicht bei allen, aber dann wäre das
noch mal zusätzlich noch mal ein Treffen für die Leute. Das ist dann nur ein Tag.
As usual plenary meetings take place in the month of May. The last EWC meeting
took place from 6 to 9 may in Düsseldorf. Recently, it has been decided that from 2004
on, there will be two annual meetings, one in May and a second in October.
Employee only preparation meeting
Both the employee only preparation meeting as the meeting with management, are
judged important and useful.
Yo creo que las dos son importantes porque en todas ellas puedes... primero, con
los trabajadores tienes contactos con ellos que muchas veces solo es 2 veces al ano,
y con las direcciones, tienes la oportunidad de decirles muchas cosas que si no
estuvieras con ellos no se las podrias decir. Tuve una experiencia con mi gerente y
con su director de la unidad de negocio, pude convercerle de cosas que le habian
llegado de manera erronea, esa oportunidad es muy buena, y creo que todos los
delegados que la tengan… Es una buena manera de que las relaciones laborales
mejoren dentro el comite de empresa europeo.
The Chair of the EWC clearly takes care of the interest for non-German
representatives in the meeting with management.
Ich würde da nicht unterschieden zwischen wichtig und unwichtig. Für mich
persönlich ist der Kontakt zu meinen Kollegen wichtig, weil wir da Strukturen in Europa
aufbauen können, um eine vernünftige Kommunikation mit der Belegschaft
hinzukriegen. Für mich ist aber genauso wichtig der Kontakt mit dem Management, weil
das für viele in Europa noch die einzige Möglichkeit ist von der D überhaupt noch was
mitzubekommen. I.d.R. kennen Frankreich, Spanien, Italien nur ihre Betriebsstätte. Alles
was darüber hinaus geht über die lokale Betriebstätte ist ihnen weniger bekannt. Und
deshalb denke ich, ist es auch wichtig, wenn man den Kontakt mit dem Management hat,
und wir haben dann auch immer den Vorstand bei uns, die member of the board, dass
man ganz einfach auch sieht, D ist mehr als meine Betriebsstätte in Frankreich oder so.
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At the last plenary meeting, the employee only preparation meeting served to discuss
the EU enlargement and the future structure of the Degussa Europe-Forum. This
happened after a report given by the Chair of the EWC. For this common part of the
preparation meeting, there was time from nine in the morning until half past ten. After a
coffee break there was then another hour and a half for the employee only meetings per
branch.
Information
Information is seen as the most important added value of the EWC. And this
additional information is not only coming from central management. Thanks to the good
cooperation, and the branch level approach, a lot of local information is exchanged
bilaterally between EWC-members, which give them all together a better overall view.
As such it has become more difficult for the company to “divide and rule” the employees
of the different countries against each other.
Information, Information, Information, das ist der Mehrwert. Du darfst nicht
vergessen, da nehme ich das Bsp. Frankreich. Aus Alt-Degussanern, Alt-Hülsern,
Alt-SKWern, Alt-Goldschmid, diese vier Firmen wurden in die Degussa
verschmolzen, verteilt vom Mittelmeer bis an den Ärmelkanal. Mit x Betriebstätten,
und die Kollegen kennen sich nicht untereinander. Also einer der SKW gearbeitet
hat, der kennt nur seine SKW-Standorte in Frankreich, wenn es mehrere gibt. Der
Goldschmid-Mann weiß nur, daß wir einen Sitz in Paris haben für Goldschmid. Jetzt
ist es uns gelungen über die zentralen Veranstaltungen, was ist Degussa eigentlich.
D.h. unsere Kollegen bekommen Informationen über ihre individuelle Betriebstätte
hinaus. Dazu kommt, dass sie sich untereinander austauschen. Dort wo wir gleiche
Produktionen haben, informieren sie sich auch mal bilateral. Da ruft der Kollege aus
Österreich in Belgien an, und der Begier ruft in Spanien an. Insofern ist das
Ausspielen von Betriebstätten schwieriger geworden für den AG. Das persönliche
Kennenlernen hat eine sehr wichtige Funktion.
Certain information items are given every year. For example financial results,
investments, Workforce data. Besides this, each meeting special items and branches are
given special attention.
Finanzen, Investitionen, Personal, u.U. auch Schwerpunktthemen: EU-Weißbuch,
Umweltschutz, u.U. Sondervorträge von Bereichsleitern, z.B. dem Werksarzt über den
Standart der medizinischen Untersuchungen.
Given this, the received information is not completely of the same quality of the
information the German workers representatives are used to. Especially not the German
EWC chair who is a member of the Degussa supervisory board.
Im Grunde genommen bekommen wir die rechtzeitig, obwohl wir manchmal
kritisieren müssen, dass dieses Europaforum immer noch nicht diesen Stellenwert
hat wie in Deutschland ein Gesamt-BR. Jetzt bin ich in all den Gremien drin. D.h.
ich bekomme die Informationen. Ich möchte sie aber gerne als Europa-BR haben.
D.h. so vom Selbstverständnis her. Da tun wir uns auch von Seiten des Vorstandes
noch schwer.
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Die Qualität der Informationen entspricht der, die wir hier in Deutschland
bekommen. Übersetzung, das veranlasse ich. Ich bekomme sie in Deutsch oder in
Englisch. Je nach dem wie wichtig das ist lasse ich die auch hier übersetzten.
The Belgian deputy chair indicates that the information received is not really based
upon a right. Voluntarism is the basis. Nevertheless, if a question is raised, it is always
answered, in the extend management is able or willing to do so.
Nu de rechten, dat is relatief. Wat is een recht he? Ons recht is recht op
informatie en consultatie. Ja, dat krijgen wij, als je een vraag stelt, antwoorden ze.
Allez, voor in zoverre ze willen of kunnen antwoorden. En men doet er ook niet
moeilijk over, allez ik bedoel, ik denk niet dat er op dat vlak problemen zijn.
For some of the foreign delegates the information is however, to little and mostly
coming too late. The given information is the basic things on how the company is doing,
financial results for example. Matters like a restructuring however, are heard first through
the press.
De que nos informa? De lo basico, como va la empresa, resultados financieros,
economico, el balance anterior, los proyectos de recursos humanos... nos deberia
informar de miuchas mas cosas, porque, por ejemplo la restructuracion de degussa a
nivel mundial que se inicio hace dos anos, nos interamos a traves de la pressa, y
creo que el foro mas adecuado para informar era el comite europeo. Pero bueno,
como esta restructuracion fue acompanada de un acuerdo para paliar en la medida
con prejubilaciones y recolocaciones, pues bueno, no tuvo mas revuelo. Otra cosa
habria sido un proyecto como el de General Motors que han cerrado plantas, no han
cerrado ninguna planta... hacia falta informacion, y a tiempo. De compras de
empressas, de venda de empresas y eso lo vemos en el intranet, lo tendriamos que
saber antes, cual es el motivo de compra o de venda...
Most of the given information neither is news. Often it was already available on the
company intranet.
La informacion que da en la reunion plenaria se peude enontrar en el intranet; han
publicado los resultados de 2002, y lo que van ha hacer es esplicarlo otra vez, (rires) con
mas detalles y profundidad, pero lo mas importante que es “hemos comprado tal empresa,
hemos vendido tal empresa, hemos tenido que restructurar esta planta”, esto nos lo
tendrian que decir antes, porque seguramentealli sera la [proxima negociacion], va a
haber despidos, aunque a lo mejor solo afecten alemana, posiblemente en esto se
escudan, como seguramente solo afecta alemana y en el comite solamente se trata lo que
afecta a al menos dos paises, pues claro, no puedes intervenir, ya intervendran los
comites de empresa alemanes...
Surprisingly, the Chair of the EWC sees the problem lying in the fast information
through intranet, and not in the late communication via the EWC.
Also Internet ist da sicherlich ein Problem, denn das Corporatecenter stellt das sehr
schnell ins Internet, so dass ich manchmal mit meiner schriftlichen Information
hinterherlaufe. Die kritischen Informationen, was Investitionen oder Schließungen
vielleicht anginge, die gehen dann nicht über das Internet. Die gehen über mich. Die
werden nicht vom Unternehmer veröffentlicht.
A special kind of information consists of the attendance as guests at the annual shareholders meeting.
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Die Hauptversammlung der Aktionäre. Und wir können daran teilnehmen. Wir
sind Gäste. Wir können daran teilnehmen und uns das ansehen. Das sind jetzt diese
Bereichsforen, die sechs Businessunits der Degussa, Gesundheit und Ernährung,
Bauchemie, Feinchemie, Performance Chemical und Prüfstoffe. Die Kollegen, die in
einem Werk arbeiten, dass z.B. hier angesiedelt ist, die diskutieren mit dem Dr. Wils.
Oder wenn einer jetzt sagen wir mal hier arbeitet in Mixture Systems in Europe in
Frankreich, der diskutiert dann mit den Dr. Br.
Despite that, it is not possible for the EWC members to get the strategy of the
company clear through the information received.
Nein, das Management legt die generelle Strategie fest und ansonsten sind diese
Einheiten zuständig. Der Obervorstand legt die Richtung fest, die Strategie und die
haben die Strategie hier umzusetzen. Und die definieren für sich ganz bestimmte
Ziele, die dann hier in den einzelnen Geschäftsbereichen umzusetzen. Und die Ziele
werden dem Euro-BR nicht mitgeteilt. Nein. Sehr oft sind das finanzielle Ziele.
As such the EWC-members are not prevented from sudden surprises.
Da kann es schon zu Überraschungen kommen. Wir werden z.B. über ein
Sparprogramm informiert. Aber wie der das umsetzt, .... da kann es schon zu
Überraschungen kommen. Also der sagt, ich muss jetzt 90 Leute abbauen, oder ich
muss die Anlage schließen, ich produziere nicht in Deutschland sondern in Asien.
Die tatsächliche Umsetzung wird vorab gemacht.
Consultation
The Degussa EWC is most of all there for information. If there is some kind of
consultation then it is on rather trivial issues.
Consultado? En temas banales, como una encuesta que se hizo a nivel
corporativo, claro en temas superfluos... (rires) Lo importante seria que consulten
“oiga mire, hemos pensado reducir la plantilla...” Esto aun no lo han echo y les
costara hacerlo. (rires)
Also the German EWC Chair is aware of this, that there is no real consultation taking
place yet.
Gibt es Anhörung?
“Man kann das so formal nicht sagen. Z.Zt. ist es so, dass im Umbau der D, der
sich auch im Ausland auswirkt, dass z.Zt. erst in Deutschland aktiv ist. D.h. zuerst
bildet sich die D. hier in Deutschland um nun beginnen wir den nächsten Schritt und
wollen diese Reorganisation dann auch im Ausland machen. Das wird in Begleitung
mit den Kollegen vor Ort im Ausland gemacht. Wenn im Werk ein Problem ansteht,
z.B. ein IT ausgegliedert wird, dann wird das mit den Kollegen vor Ort gemacht.”
Eigentlich gibt es nur Informationen für Euro-BR, keine Anhörung?
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“Nein”
Real consultation is defined as;
“Rechzeitig vorher die Information bekommen, mit dem Unternehmer darüber
diskutieren. Rechtzeitig heißt auch, dass wir uns vorher Gedanken machen können
und unsere eigenen Ideen einbringen können. Und zwar so rechtzeitig, dass die
Entscheidung noch nicht endgültig getroffen worden ist, sondern, dass unsere
Überlegung noch mit einfließen kann in die Entscheidung.”
Unasked advice has not been given either by the EWC
Nein, haben wir noch nicht gemacht. Alles nur mündlich. Das was du meinst ist
dieses Europaforum als Gremium, ob dieses irgendwann mal eine Stellungnahme
oder einen Grundsatz gemacht hat. Nein ich glaube nicht.
The EWC-members don’t feel able to do this, because they simply don’t know about
certain events in advance.
Pero para hablar de algo se tiene que conocer este algo! Si el comite europeo no
conoce el tema, dificilmente se puede manifestar. A no ser que tenga mecanismos de
alerta que le puedean indicar como actua la compania... Esto de momento no esta
establecido...
Select committee
The select committee is only mentioned in the Rules of Procedure, not in the 1995
EWC establishment agreement. This is because the select committee only exists since
1998.
Wir haben das erst installiert. Den gibt es seit vier Jahren. Am Anfang war ich es
alleine. Da war ich Vorsitzender und habe alleine entschieden. Das war allerdings
auch dann eine wesentlich kleinere Gruppe. Alle waren im Europaforum von Anfang
an dabei. D.h., da es überwiegend Deutsche waren, haben wir uns von Anfang an
gekannt. Jetzt sind wir etwas breiter aufgestellt, und deshalb haben wir gesagt wir
brauchen eine Struktur, die auch arbeitsfähig ist, wenn ich mal nicht da bin.
The Rules of Procedure provide for 2 annual select committee meetings, where in
practice four meetings are usual now. Such meetings normally take two days.
Mit dem geschäftsführenden Ausschuss trefft ihr Euch vier Mal im Jahr. Ist das immer so gewesen?
Nein, das haben wir hochgefahren. Wir haben uns vorher nicht vier Mal
getroffen, sondern mehr sporadisch. Aber wir haben festgestellt, wenn man die
Arbeit gut machen will, intensiv machen will, dann muss man sich öfters treffen.
Dann nehmen wir die Gelegenheit war uns an unterschiedlichen Standorten zu
treffen.
The select committee does not have a fixed agenda
Im geschäftsführenden Ausschuss haben wir tagesaktuelle Themen und die sind
jetzt schon für lange Zeit EU-Osterweiterung, die Reorganisation unseres
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Europaforums, Sprachkurse. Sprachkurse sicherlich nur für den geschäftsführenden
Ausschuss im nächsten Jahr und dann in der Zukunft auch ein Sprachkurs für den
gesamten Euro-BR.
After each select committee meeting minutes are made and send to the members of
the select committee. The discussion items and the items for the next select committee
meetings are also reported to the other EWC-members. As such they get information
from the select committee four times a year. Feed-back from the EWC members to the
select committee comes only very seldom, by phone or e-mail.
Wenn der Ausschuss sich trifft, führe ich immer ein kleines Protokoll mit. Dieses
Protokoll bekommen alle Ausschussmitglieder und aus dem Protokoll mache ich an
alle Mitglieder des Europaforums ein Rundschreiben. In diesem Rundschreiben steht
dann drin: Wir haben zusammengesessen, wir haben über diese Themen gesprochen,
werden das auf dem nächsten Treffen ausführlicher behandeln oder haben mit dem
Arbeitsdirektor, Dr. Schöneberg, zusammen gesessen. Es gibt also eine
vierteljährliche Information vom Ausschuss aus an die Mitglieder.
In 1998 when the select committee was created it was composed by three members,
Bernd Kreiling, the German EWC chair, Erik Dirkx, the Belgian deputy-chair and from
Austria, Walter Wallner. With the merger with Hüls in 1999, a second German select
committee member joined, Cornelia Stockhorst-Köthe. From 2001 on, there were another
two German delegates added to the select committee, Engelbert Gerstandl (representing
the SKW Trostberg emplyees) and Hartmut Gomm (from Goldsmidt). As such there were
four out of six mandates for German delegates.
Select committee members before May 2002
Bernd Kreiling (EWC chair, D)
Erik Dirkx (deputy chair, B)
Walter Wallner (A)
Cornelia Stockhorst-Köthe (D)
Engelbert Gerstandl (D)
Hartmut Gomm (D)
Select committee members after May 2002
Bernd Kreiling (EWC chair, D)
Erik Dirkx (deputy chair, B)
Daniel Allibert (F)
Javier Puertas-Gorriz (E)
Walter Wallner (A)
Hartmut Gomm (D)
For some EWC members this was seen as an opportunity to get more countries
involved in the select committee, while from a German point of view this was not
perceived as an advantage. At their side there was some fear that the necessity of
interpretation in select committee meetings would hinder its functioning. This however
has proven to be a wrong assumption. The two new members, coming from France and
Spain, have integrated very well, and from all sides is said that the select committee
works as good as before.
Wir haben vorher im Ausschuss diskutiert, wie können wir so einen Wechsel
durchführen und haben dann Vorschläge gemacht, dem Gremium, der Versammlung
und dann gab es eine Wahl. Ja, es war schon spannend. Wir hätten uns vielleicht
eine andere Struktur gewünscht, weil wir in Deutsch hätten miteinander reden
können jetzt müssen wir Dolmetscher dabei haben. Aber das ist eine Wahl gewesen,
dazu stehen wir. Das hat jetzt den Vorteil, dass wir jetzt wirklich international sind.
Bringt auch die Meinungsvielfalt besser rein.
Before this change, meetings always took place in Frankfurt, where the EWC is
located. Since the new election of the select committee in May 2002, there has already
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been a meeting in Antwerp and in Barcelona. The select committee does not always meet
with management, the Antwerp meeting for example was an employee only one. The
location however proves not to hinder the presence of management, since CEO
Schönenberg attended the Barcelona select committee meeting in November 2002.
Lift com
From 2002 to 2004, IGBCE and EMCEF are involved in a Leonardo project, aiming
to develop a training package for European Works Council development. It focuses on
intercultural communication and team-building. The first pilot training seminar was held
for 12 of the 30 Degussa EWC members.
Da waren zwar nur zwölf von den 30 anwesend.
Wie haben die anderen EBR-Mitglieder reagiert, dass sie nicht dabei waren?
Die gucken da natürlich etwas traurig. Die Stimmung und das Verständnis
zwischen diesen zwölf ist ein bisschen besser. Und da haben wir auch gesagt, wir
würden gerne so ein Liftcom Seminar für dieses Europaforum machen, wenn alle
dabei sind. Nicht eine ganze Woche, wenn es machbar ist zwei Tage. Wir wollen die
Organisation ändern. Weg von einer Vier-Tages-Tagung zu einer Zwei-Mal-ZweiTages Tagung ab nächstem Jahr. Eine Tagung mit den Vorstandmitgliedern und eine
Tagung nur für uns AN. Und dann kann man Schwerpunktthemen besetzen.
One of the exercises in the seminar was a simulation of an announced closure of one
of the operations. The discussion on what to do in these circumstances could have lead to
the conclusion that in such a situation of panic, an hour of two are not appropriate to plan
a collective position or action towards this. Differences in culture, trade union practice
and approach, make it rather difficult to agree under time-pressure on how to handle such
events. Taking this as a learning experience it would be logic that EWC members would
try to develop and agree upon a common approach towards such events if they would
occur one day in reality. From the interviews it became clear that the treat of such a
closure was rather realistic, and could happen in a few months. The link however
between the simulation and the reality had not been made openly during or after the
training seminar.
Da war niemand in dem Seminar, der gesagt hat, höre mal wir sind hypothetisch
am diskutieren und diese Übung könnte in einigen Monaten meine Übung sein, in
Bordeaux. Niemand hat das so gesagt.
Ja, das stimmt. Wir haben Streik diskutiert, wir haben Maßnahmen diskutiert.
Aber keiner hat gesagt, eigentlich bin ich mal selber in einem Jahr in der selben
Rolle wie die Kollegen von Bordeaux.
It is explained in the following way, as human, that people, even worker
representatives react different if they are directly concerned or not by a problem. Most
important however is that EWC members learn to develop ways that prevent them to be
played off one against the other.
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Ich denke das ist rein menschlich: steck dein Haus an aber nicht meins. Und
wenn Dein Haus brennt, bin ich erst mal nicht so direkt betroffen. Wenn ich sage, die
Rußfabrik in F. hat das Problem gehabt, aber meine Rußfabrik in Ravenna oder in
Malmö hat das Problem momentan nicht. Es kommt noch eins dazu: die
unterschiedlichen gewerkschaftlichen Strukturen in den Ländern. Traditionell ist es
nicht so ein Thema, wie z.B. bei den Kollegen in Schwede in Malmö, der auch in der
Rußfabrik sitzt und der u.U. direkt betroffen ist, wenn die hier geschlossen wird oder
reduziert wird. Das ist ein bisschen gewerkschaftliche Struktur. Es ist das Problem,
wie gehen die Leute miteinander um, Verhältnis BR zu Management. Insofern denke
ich, ist es etwas hochgekocht. Was weniger gut war, war, dass der Kollege Daniel
K., der bei uns war, der dort unten BR-Vorsitzender ist in Wien. Als der weg war ...
Der war auch sehr betroffen wie radikal oder brutal seine Kollegen da reagiert
haben. Die Betroffenheit bekommst du dann nur hin wenn du auch direkt betroffen
bist. Und das versuchen wir über die gemeinsamen Gespräche in diesen
Bereichsforen hinzubekommen. Damit sie uns nicht ausspielen. Was im Hintergrund
steht ist Ausspielen: Du bekommst die Produktion und die schließe ich und ich hoffe,
dass die nicht miteinander reden. Das haben wir Gott sei Dank so hinbekommen,
dass das mit dem Streik oder dass einer denk ...., das kann ich momentan nur so
erklären wie ich eben gesagt habe. Haben wir auch noch keine Erfahrungen, das
muss ich auch sagen.
In any case the internal cooperation and cohesion within the EWC has been
reinforced significantly through the lift.com training seminar. But most of all among
those that were present.
Hombre, al principio el proyecto lift.com... hay mas cohesion entre la parte que
asistio a este proyecto esta mucho mas cohesionada, se conocen mucho mas que el
resto de colegas que no pudieron asistir
Internal cooperation
Technically there are all means available for communication in-between meetings.
Wir können stolz sein. Jeder der im Europaforum tätig ist einen
Internetanschluss und Emailanschluss. Einmal über Email, Telefon auch ganz
normale Post und über die Treffen, die wir haben.
Iedereen heeft e-mail. Het probleem blijft natuurlijk, als ik geen italiaans spreek
en de italiaanse collega alleen maar italiaans, dan kan ik er ook niet mee mailen.
Communication-flows are rather centralised. Most of the communication goes via
the German chair of the EWC.
Con que miembro del comite europeo tienes mas contactos?
Con el preseidente
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Alles läuft über mich. Wir sind die zentrale Stelle, der Vorsitzende und die Fr.
Fischer im Sekretariat. Wir haben den schnelleren Zugang zum Vorstand. Ich bin
freigestellt. Deshalb kommen die Informationen hier zu mir und wir geben sie dann
entsprechend weiter.
Kommunizieren die anderen Mitglieder untereinander?
Nicht so viel. Ein aktueller Fall: Im Bereich Perphorat (?). Dort haben wir ein
Werk in Österreich, eins in Belgien und eins in Deutschland. Die drei bringe ich
dann zusammen oder die kennen sich schon in der Zwischenzeit, dann rufen die sich
gegenseitig schon an.
As already mentioned before it is recognised that there is a certain German
dominance within the EWC. Yet, the awareness of this includes attempts to moderate it,
in the sense that there is aimed at a “gleichberechtigte” discussion (amongst equals), on
the basis that each EWC member has one vote. Voting however, has only taken place at
the appointment of the chair, subsidiary chair and other select committee members.
There have not yet been conflicts, and this is because some EWC members know
each other now for about 10 years. As such they got to know how the other will act and
react. The chair and the deputy-chair also got to know each other personally. They have,
for example, already met in private, so that their spouses got to know each other as well.
Also the Spanish select committee member reported similar collegial / friendship-like
relations.
During the meetings there is not so much space for such getting to know each other.
The meeting stuffed with information and reports so that there is not much time for
internal discussions. For this reason the evening-activities aim to create an informal
atmosphere to stimulate the getting to know each other.
Wir gehen dann dort in die Altstadt in Düsseldorf. Wir werden dann hier den
Abschlussabend in einer Brauerei machen. Wir machen Bewusst auch solche
Veranstaltungen in der Freizeit damit die Kommunikation und das miteinander
Umgehen gefördert wird. Das ist Tradition. Ich glaube auch über den Weg lernt
man sich besser kennen. Da spielt auch ein bisschen der Alkohol ... Die lockere
Zunge, ... Da spricht man auch leichter Englisch, oder so etwas. Wir haben da einen
relativen guten Mix. Insofern verstehen wir auch ganz gut. Wechsel überhaupt
führen dazu, dass man die Leute schon kennt, die da hoch gehen. Es ist tatsächlich
das Problem, wenn man sich ein Mal im Jahr sieht ... dann siehst du den Kollegen
aus Schweden, kann ich den wählen, soll der da rein. Wenn du ihn kennst, ist das
einfacher.
Even though technically there are all communication tools available, there are still
language barriers and inter-cultural prejudices to be overwon. Some EWC members did
make progress in English, while other still only speak their mother tongue. The language
barriers are perceived as the most difficult.
De grootste barrière is de taalbarrière. Dus, het is daarom dat we beslist
hebben van eigenlijk op termijn, op termijn moet de voertaal eigenlijk engels
worden. Omdat dan de barrière voor iedereen hetzelfde is. Maar er, allez, ik heb
het voordeel dat ik meerdere talen ken, met de Spaanse collega’s een cursus engels
gevolgd. Nu dat die nu niet zo goed engels spreekt, maar we kunnen mekaar toch al
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verstaan. Maar bijvoorbeeld met die Italiaanse collega’s krijg ik totaal geen
contact, ik vind dat altijd wel een probleem. Ik denk dat dat een hele goede gast is,
ik kan daar niet mee klappen buiten dat de tolken erbij zijn.
In the future, the working language of the EWC is supposed to become English.
Wir haben das Problem, dass der eine oder der andere nicht Englisch kann,
sondern nur seine Heimatsprache. Da tun wir uns noch ein wenig schwer. Wir haben
aber vor zwei Jahren gesagt, wir würden jedem empfehlen schon mal Englisch in
seinem Heimatland zu machen, weil es uns wichtig ist, dass man sich in den Pausen
oder abends auch mal unterhalten kann. Dass wir im Europaforum, während der
Tagung Dolmetscher brauchen ist klar. So weit und so gut sind wir noch nicht. Den
ersten Schritt haben wir schon gemacht. Es gibt eine Vielzahl von Kolleginnen und
Kollegen, die im Forum mitarbeiten, mit denen wir uns einfach so mal auf Englisch
unterhaben können. Das geht schon ganz gut. Im Ausschuss dort sind wir schon ganz
gut im Englischen. Natürlich nicht im Detail, wenn es um fachspezifische Dinge geht.
Also die Sprache ist ein Problem.
In the select committee the working language is German. Until the French and
Spanish member joined the select committee in 2002, all spoke German. Now there is
worked with interpretation.
The Lift.com training seminar has helped the EWC members very much to handle
the diversity in national and trade union cultures. Although, EWC members indicated that
from some countries they still have no idea what the culture or the trade union practices
there are.
Mensen hebben een andere manier om hun doel te bereiken dan wij, maar
uiteindelijk bereiken die ook dat doel. Ik vond dat, dat zijn zo van die dingen die je
leert doorzien en begrijpen, allez. Nu van andere landen, van Spanje, ik heb daar
eigenlijk geen idee van, nu dat was, ik kan niet zeggen dat ik daar vooroordelen over
had, ik had daar gewoon geen idee over.
Also concerning the dominance of certain approaches and trade union cultures, the
lift.com seminar has brought the EWC members closer together
Je hebt zowel de vakbondscultuur als de nationale culturen he. Nu op dat punt,
allez, ik kom altijd terug op hetzelfde, heeft dat seminarie van vorig jaar echt wel
heel veel, dat heeft heel veel geholpen. D’er was wel oog voor, vooral bij een aantal
andere Duitse collega’s, dat die ook wel door hadden van, wij domineren hier te
veel. En dat is niet juist. Als we echt tot éne Europese ondernemingsraad willen
komen, moeten wij een stapje achteruit zetten, en die erin betrekken. Dus ik denk dat
de wil er wel was, maar dat die gewoon niet wisten hoe ze eraan moesten beginnen.
Maar door dat die wil er was, heeft ook de mogelijkheid gecreëerd van ok, laat ons
dan dat seminarie organiseren. En dat heeft echt veel geholpen.
The Belgian deputy chair sees also a wide variety of ideological approaches.
Allez, ik zeg, ik ben van de conservatieven, allez ja, wat er vandaag conservatief
wordt genoemd, wat vroeger progressief was. Ik ben binnen het ABVV, behoor ik tot
de linkervleugel, als je dan met zo’n Duitse delegee die doordrenkt is met de
Mitbestimmung discussieert, dan zijn dat 2 totaal verschillende visies. Maar je hebt
bijvoorbeeld, je hebt dat evengoed in Frankrijk, in Spanje, je hebt de communistische
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vakbonden, de sociaal-democratische vakbonden. In Frankrijk heb je dan nog niet
georganiseerden, of zo van die aparte vakbondjes nog eens en zo. Je zit er wel mee
he. De Scandinavische vakbonden, dat wist ik eigenlijk ook niet, dat die, die zijn nog
erger in hun Mitbestimmung dan de Duitsen. Allez, in Zweden, daar ben ik van
verschoten. Daar zitten wel serieuze verschillen.
The chair of the EWC has build bridges and established confidence by taking serious
the representatives of other countries, by visiting them in their plants and to inform them
openly and honestly. His strength lies very much in his willingness to take up the
interests of others and in his thorough motivation. For the other German EWC members,
most important is the contact with the representatives from the other countries, while for
the latter, the information from central management most helpful is to perceive that
Degussa is more then their local plant. It is not clear whether a lesser motivation or
interest is shown in the fact that some of the German members do not arrive the evening
before the Meeting, but the morning itself.
Worker representatives from outside Europe
As a member of the supervisory board the EWC chair has had the opportunity to
travel outside Europe and to meet worker representatives in the USA, in Brazil, China
and Korea.
Als ich im Aufsichtsrat war, war ich viel auf Reisen. Ich habe mit AN-Vertretern
in USA, in Brasilien, in China und Korea haben wir Kontakte.
There are no initiatives taken to set up a world works council (WWC), since the
deployment of efficient EWC work is first to be realised before further challenges are
taken up. Furthermore most Degussa operations outside Europe are smaller then 500
workers and are placed in very different business units. Therefore it might be very
difficult to come to a WWC representing all workers.
Es ist erst mal wichtig, in meinen Augen, dass wir den Europa-BR zum Laufen
bringen. Dann darf man auch nicht vergessen, dass die Firmen, die die D im
Ausland hat in der Regel kleine Einheiten sind. Also keine mit 1.000 MA sonder 200,
300 oder 400. Da ist es schwieriger so etwas zu machen. Diese dividieren sich dann
noch in verschiedene Businessunits. Also ist es schwierig so etwas zu machen. Ich
denke, Europa voran zu bringen.
A major challenge lies already in the inclusion in the EWC of worker representatives
from the EU applicant countries.
A partir de mayo de este ano que es cuando se celebrara el europaforum en
Dusseldorf, se van a iniciar los contactos con los paises del este, con sus
representantes, para su integracion en el comite de empresa europeo, entonces de
momento, los contactos se limitan a esto y como europa se va a ampliar a 10 paises
mas, pues el objetivo del comite europeo es integrar a todos estos paises donde
Degussa este trabajando y tener mas representantes en el comite de empresa
europeo.
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There has been launched an initiative to subscribe to some kind of UNO initiative on
‘corporate social responsibility’.
Lo que tenemos es una iniciativa en marcha en el comite europeo que es
conseguir que Degussa suscriba la iniciativa de la ONU, no se si sabes de que va,
relativa a los derechos minimos basicos, derechos laborales, derechos sindicales,
derecho de interlocucion a nivel internacional, entonces, supongo que a partir de
alli tendremos via libre para todo lo demas, no?, para contactar a otros paises.
All relevant employer counterparts are present in the EWC, from the board, central
management, and branch level management.
Es gibt Direktoren, Management und es gibt den Vorstand. Die vertreten die
Interessen von den Aktionären. Der Zentralvorstand. Der vertritt das Unternehmen
nach Außen. Das sind die vier. Die kommen alle zu uns. Dann haben wir hier auf der
Unternehmensbereichsebene Businessunits, Bereichsvorstände. Und hier auf dieser
Ebene Geschäftsbereiche gibt es die Direktoren.
The communication with employer delegates is rather open. When there was elected
a new board, there was however a critical moment because they had to get used to deal
with the EWC.
Inzwischen sind alle sehr offen. Sie gehen auf die Fragen der Leute ein, wenn
man direkt, spontan fragt. Das ist sehr offen bei uns momentan.
Es war mal ein bisschen kritischer als wir den neuen Vorstand bekommen haben,
weil die nicht mit uns umgehen konnten. Die wussten nicht was ein Europa-BR ist,
was sind das eigentlich für ausländische Kollegen. Aber inzwischen ist das
Verhältnis sehr offen.
There is certain stability at the side of board and management.
Wechseln die Personen häufig?
Sehr selten. Die sind für fünf Jahre gewählt. Hier kann es schon mal eher zu
einem Wechsel kommen. In der Regel sind die sehr konstant.
structures
In Germany there are about 20 plants, and just as much works councils. Each works
council is represented in the central works council (gesamtbetriebsrat). The trade union
density in Germany is among the blue collar workers about 90% while for the white
collar workers this is only 10 to 20%. The central works council just as the “aufsichtsrat”
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gather 4 times a year. In the German operations of Degussa industrial relations are good,
thanks to a long history of social dialogue. The merger, including relocations,
disinvestments and closures, brought along some conflicts.
All German Works councillors know about the EWC, and they are considered as
multiplicators. To make the EWC more known among the workers, an offensive is started
with the creation of a separate logo for the EWC. This “rainbow”-logo is printed on
Paper-blocks, folders and towels, that will be largely distributed, to promote the EWC.
With the select committee meetings that were held in Barcelona and Antwerp
informal contacts with other local representatives were arranged in the evening.
Important successes have been realised through EWC interventions in France and
Spain. The initiative taken for France was at the occasion of the EWC plenary and branch
level meetings. As such national problems have been raised within the EWC-meetings.
Gibt es eine Möglichkeit lokale oder nationale Probleme im Euro-BR zu
besprechen?
Ja, haben wir schon gemacht. Zum einen in diesen Bereichsformen, zum anderen
auch im großen Forum. Wir hatten einen Konflikt, der der D aufgedrückt worden ist
in der Nähe von Bordeaux. Das haben wir im Europaforum diskutiert, es aus dem
Europaforum rausgenommen, haben das auf mich gezogen, auch weil die
gesetzlichen Vorschriften so sind und ich den Kontakt ins Nachbarhaus habe und
direkt hinlaufen kann. Dort haben wir den Konflikt weiter bearbeitet und Gott seit
Dank inzwischen gelöst. Das Werkt ist also nicht geschlossen worden. Aber das hat
andere Gründe gehabt, das war nicht unsere Arbeit, sondern der AG hat sich mit
dem Kunden wieder geeinigt.
The intervention towards Spain is done on the request of the Vienna EWC meeting,
to moderate between Spanish social partners that were no longer able to sit around one
table. Based on this successful intervention of the EWC chair in Barcelona there is now
the plan to help the Spanish worker representatives to install a Spanish central works
council to coordinate the employee representation across the various Spanish Degussa
plants.
Wir wollen da auch ein Länderforum aufmachen, also einen Gesamt-BR in
Spanischen aufmachen. Wir haben inzwischen eine Vereinbarung abgeschlossen.
Insofern können wir sicher sein, dass dort die Informationen inzwischen besser
rüberkommen als das noch vor ein, zwei Jahren der Fall war. Mein erster Besuch
hatte ja einen ganz anderen Grund. Der Grund war, dass sich der BR nicht mit dem
Management an einen Tisch gesetzt hat. Wir sind dann in Wien auf die Idee
gekommen, dass ich quasi als Moderator dort hin fahre. Und das haben wir dann
auch gemacht. Ich bin dann hingefahren und es hat dann auch wirklich geklappt,
dass die sich wirklich gemeinsam hinsetzen.
In Germany, 90% or more of the blue collar workers are trade union members, while
amount the white collar employees this is only 10 to 20%
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Also, man muss das unterscheiden zwischen gewerblichen MA, also Arbeitern,
und Angestellten. Im gewerblichen Bereich geht das bis zu 90-100 % hoch. Im
kaufmännischen Bereich, also Angestelltenbereich, eher weniger: 10-20 %. Das ist
traditionell in Deutschland so.
In Belgium there is the socialist union the largest, followed by the Christian union
(ACV). There are also some workers representatives from the liberal union and a few
from the Dutch union FNV, because some workers in Antwerp are coming from the
Netherlands (the frontier is 30 km away).
The Belgian select committee member is also deputy secretary of the local works
council. He is member of the local executive of his trade union, Algemene Centrale
Antwerpen-Waasland. In the past he also used to be involved in giving trade union
training.
The Spanish select committee member still is responsible for training and he is also a
member of the local executive of CC.OO.
Within the Spanish operations of Degussa, CC.OO organises 85% of the trade union
affiliated employees, UGT only 15%. While there are two mandates in the EWC, each of
them holds one. This is done based upon a national agreement between UGT and CC.OO.
UGT, however, has not been able to nominate its EWC delegate. Officially, CC.OO. can
not claim the second EWC mandate. Together with the EWC chair the solution is found
in inviting as guest the second CC.OO. Representative.
Y espana tiene 2 miembros?
Si, 2... En activo, 1, trabajando 1 y el otro por nombrar... A Espana le
corresponden 2 delegados europeos. Despues, la legislacion nacional dice, la
transposicion de la directiva europea [94 47] que los delegados europeos seran
designados por las organisaciones sindicales mas representativas dentro de las
empresas o grupos de empresas. En el caso de Degusa, los unicos sindicatos
representados son UGT y CCOO. Son los que tienen la potesta para designar... estos
dos sindicatos han firmado un acuerdo para dividirse la representacion en funcion
del porcentage que tenga cada uno. En estes momentos, UGT tiene un 15% y CCOO
85%. A CCOO le corresponde 1 y a UGT otro... Lo que pasa es que UGT, o no tiene
el delegado la suficiente capacidad o lo que sea, que no ha nombrado a nadie.
Visto que UGT no nombra su delegado, es posible para CCOO pedir que sea
nombrado por Comissiones?
En teoria, no se puede. Segun este acuerdo, UGT tiene derecho a no nombrar a
nadie y nadie se lo puede quitar este puesto. Lo que succede tambien, lo que voy a
intentar hacer, ya he acordado con el senor [Creiling] presidente del comite de
empresa europea, es invitar, con mandato de invitado unica y exclusivamente, a las
reuniones, no como delegado sino como invitado, a un segundo delegado por
CCOO, que actuara temporalmente, mientras UGT no nombre.
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The Degussa EWC was created on the basis of the 1995 installation agreement that
was never renegotiated or renewed. This means no blocking in the further development
of the functioning of the EWC. The Rules of Procedure have been renewed, and as such
they reflect more precisely the way the EWC works. The practice of the EWC builds
however much more on voluntarism then on the written agreement or the rules of
procedure.
The good financial situation of the company probably explains the easiness in which
EWC costs are unlimited covered by Management. Also the mergers that took place in
1999 and 2001, brought most of all opportunities for the improvement of the EWC. As
such the select committee was extended and later on more internationalised. The fear that
including non German speakers in the select committee would hinder its functioning has
proven to out of place. The cooperation and team-spirit has recently been improved by
the IGBCE-EMCEF lift.com training seminar.
For the near future promising perspectives are shared. First of all there will be from
next year on a second annual meeting. The first annual meeting in may will be a joint
one, the second is supposed to be employee-only. Furthermore, an improved mechanism
of sharing information across the employee representatives from the various countries
will be worked out. Thirdly there will be held language training for select committee
members and another kind of lift.com training for the whole EWC during the second
EWC meeting next year.
These possibilities raise also higher expectations for the future development of the
EWC. First of all on the level of getting to know each other and informal communication,
English language efforts will have to be increased. Secondly the German views and
predominance have to be shifted more to European approaches. And finally there is the
enlargement of the EWC with delegates from EU applicant countries.
Ich glaube, für mich war am Anfang das persönliche Kennenlernen wichtig. Das
habe ich vorne angestellt. Das persönliche Kennenlernen schafft Vertrauen und eine
gute Basis. Das haben wir. Da mache ich einen grünen Haken dran. Wo wir noch
besser werden müssen ist: Sprache. Meine langfristige Vorstellung ist, dass wir uns
im Smalltalk, in der Freizeit, dass kann meines Verständnisses nach nur Englisch
sein, unterhalten müssen. Es gibt einen weiteren Schritt: man muss sich als
Deutscher auch zurücknehmen, das gilt auch für dass Management. Dass wir nicht
nur aus Deutschland berichten, sondern das Forum als europäischen Gremium
ansehen. Die Berichterstattung darf nicht deutschlandlastig sein, auch wenn die
Zentrale in Deutschland ist, sondern wir müssen es auf der europäischen Ebene
sehen. Der nächste Schritt wäre die Integration im Osten. Das wird sicherlich auch
relativ gut laufen, und dass wir über das Selbstverständnis diskutieren: was ist
eigentlich ein Europa-BR, welche Möglichkeiten haben der. Es wird ein Punkt auf
uns zukommen, darüber müssen wir noch intern diskutieren, ist die Beteiligung der
AN am Erfolg des Unternehmens. Also, gibt es irgendwann mal Belegschaftsaktien
für alle MA weltweit oder in Europa. Wir haben einen guten Schritt gemacht. Wir
sind gut aufgestellt. Wir werden mit der Reorganisation den nächsten Schritt
machen, um effektiver zu werden.
272
To get the proper worker representatives involved in the EWC, visits are planned to
the Degussa operations in Poland and Slovakia
Wir haben im Ausschuss mal einen Prozess festgeschrieben, wie so eine
Integration aussehen könnte. Wir werden das hier berichten im Mai. Und dann
beginnen wir im Mai in dem wir Informationen zusammenstellen, Ansprechpartnern
über den Unternehmer herausfinden, wer ist dort Chef, anschreiben und bitten uns
beim Finden von Delegierten zu helfen. Der nächst Schritt ist ein direkter Besuch in
den jeweiligen Betrieben in der Slowakei oder in Polen, Vorstellen des
Europaforums und die Vereinbarung, wir haben die schon in die Sprachen
übersetzten lassen und die Kontakte knüpfen. D.h. bis zu dem Treffen in 2004 wollen
wir persönliche Kontakte hergestellt haben.
The interviewees
Hartmut Gomm (D)
Daniel Allibert (F)
Frédéric Pris (F)
Liz Lourensz (UK)
Hans de Jong (NL)
Walter Wallner (A)
Kenneth Ollson (S)
Javier Puertas (Es)
Bernd Kreiling (D)
Erik Dirkx (B)
Rolf jeager (IGBCE)
Michael Linnertz (IGBCE)
Claudia Schipmann (IGBCE)
Short interview (lift.com)
Extensive interview
Extensive interview
Extensive interview
Short interview (emcef)
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15-05-2002
15-05-2002
15-05-2002
16-5-2002
14-05-2002
14-05-2002
1405-2002
24-03-2003
27-03-2003
11-04-2003
16-05-2002
10-03-2003
15-11-2002
22p
26p
45p
The EWC of BP Oil
Peter Kerckhofs
Introduction
BP p.l.c. is the holding company of one of the world's largest petroleum and
petrochemicals groups, having operations in over 70 countries. In the company's first six
decades, its prime focus lay in the Middle East. But from the late 1960s the centre of
gravity shifted westwards, towards the USA and Britain itself. Forced by international
political and economic shock BP first diversificated, but concentrated again on its core
activities later. The main activities of BP now are exploration and production of crude oil
and natural gas, refining, marketing supply and transportation, and manufacturing and
marketing of petrochemicals.
Because of mergers there have been created several EWCs within the former parts of
what is now all BP. Currently there exist two EWCs. One for the oil branch and another
for the chemical one. This Case Study Report focuses on the BP Oil EWC. The European
approach in the link committee is successfully outbalancing any possible dominance in
the EWC composition. The performance of the EWC is however not really outstanding.
This is due to the priorities of the key persons, the changes of the employee side
coordinator, the lack of representativity of some EWC members and most of all the lack
of trade union support for the EWC in the home country of BP. Thanks to the European
Federation EMCEF, the BP Oil EWC benefited from a training seminar on cross cultural
communication and teambuilding. A concrete result of this is the extension of the
employee-only preparation meeting from a half to a whole day.
The company history
The history of BP goes back to 1901 when a concession was obtained to explore for
oil resources in Iran. Over time, BP’s centre of gravity has shifted in the type of its
activities as well as geographically. These changes in the shape of BP have been
influenced by geopolitics, the world’s economy and also for a period by the UK
government.
The public stake and government influence in BP was linked to the strategic
importance of oil for military purposes. Furthermore the industry is rather capital
intensive, especially in the exploration phase. To avoid falling under the domination of
Royal Dutch Shell, BP turned for new capital to the British Government. The Admiralty
(headed then by Winston Churchill) wanted to secure supplies for oil for the ships of the
Royal Navy. In 1914 an agreement was reached between BP and the UK government
injecting £2 million. Although the government did not to interfere in the normal
commercial operations, its shareholding introduced an unusual political dimension to the
company's affairs. The government shareholding was reduced later on, and the remaining
31,5% sold in 1987.
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The history of BP was always closely related to shocks in international politics. In
1951, for example, the Iranian government passed legislation nationalising the company's
assets in Iran, then Britain's largest single overseas investment. Only after three years of
negotiations this crises was resolved by the formation of a consortium of oil companies,
restarting the Iranian oil industry in 1954. BP held 40% in this consortium.
By the end of the 1970s, the Iranian BP operations were affected by the revolution
and the assets in Nigeria nationalised. In the same period of time, the OPEC countries
took control of production and prices. The two great oil price shocks in 1973 and 1980
made BP lose direct access to most of its supplies of OPEC oil.
These influences from international political crises and the world’s economy, forced
BP to diversificate its activities in other countries and other products. Geographically,
the core of BP’s activities did move westwards, away from the Middle East. When
hydrocarbons were discovered in the North Sea and under the permafrost of Alaska, after
1965, these new supplies were exploited more and more in the 1980s. Now, BP has
operations in Europe, North and South America, Australia and Africa.
After the Second World War BP entered into petro-chemicals, and in the 1970s also
nutrition, minerals, household cleaning and related products. Following these
diversifications, the recession of the world economy confronted BP in the 1980s with
overcapacity problems. This lead to a major restructuring, including severe cuts in its
operations. Between 1980 and 1984 BP closed a number of chemicals plants and
withdrew from certain products. After the diversifications of the 70s and early 80s, BP
decided to concentrate on its core activities and to sell activities in computing service,
minerals, Coal and nutrition. In the beginning of the 1990s the disinvestments
programme was well advanced. To enforce the cohesion among the parts of the company,
BP launched a campaign to introduce a stronger corporate identity, emphasising on the
colour green.
At the end of the 1990s, three successive mergers make BP a giant multinational
company. In 1998 BP merges with Amoco, in 1999 with Arco and in 2000 with Burmah
Castrol. The company has set up EWCs for both the Oil and the Chemicals branch. This
case study report focuses on the BP Oil EWC. The Oil Branch is also called BP
Downstream. In this part of BP there are 35800 European employees spread over 27
countries. Most of them are working in the UK (31%), in Germany (25%) in France (9%)
and in Spain (7%).
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Fig.1. Approx headcount BP Downstream Europe
UK
Germany
France
Spain
Poland
Russia
Netherlands
Portugal
Turkey
Austria
Greece
Italy
Belgium
Switzerland
Denmark
Czech
11 other
countries
Total
11100
9100
3100
2500
2200
1900
1400
1000
800
600
500
400
300
200
200
200
300
35500
The employment figures are rounded to the nearest 100
In the last five years the workforce almost doubled in Germany, while in most of the
other countries quite a few jobs were lost. In the UK it is now about the same as five
years ago, even though it has fluctuated in-between. “As BP merges with a company, it
goes up initially, but than when they rationalise, than they make people redundant, it
goes back the way it was before. Even if the company is bigger.”
The EWC history
Several EWCs have been created in the operations that are now part of BP. This case
study report focuses on the BP Oil EWC.
BP Oil
BP Chemicals
Mobil Marketing & Refining
Mobil Chemicals
Amoco
Burmah Castrol
02-06-1994
02-06-1994
01-04-1996
04-06-1996
26-01-1998
12-05-1998
The current Spanish coordinator of the employee only link committee was involved
in the EWC creation in of Mobil in 1996. . The Mobil EWC was composed of 13
members and had a select committee of 5 delegates.
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The Mobil Chemicals EWC and the Amoco EWC are now integrated in the BP
Chemicals EWC. The interviewed EWC members did not report any contact between the
different EWCs.
From the interviewed no one was involved in the creation of the BP Oil EWC. The
UK delegate involved at that time has retired some years ago.
The EWC agreement
The two EWCs within BP have been created based upon two separated agreements.
These agreements are almost completely identical and were both signed on 2 June 1994.
Both of the EWCs were jointly composed of Management and employee delegates. The
Oil EWC is chaired by the CEO of that branch, while for the Chemicals EWC this is
done by the deputy CEO. In both of the EWCs the Human Resource director takes the
role of Secretary of the EWC.
Role of management
delegates
Chair EWC
Secretary EWC
EWC BP Chemicals
EWC BP Oil
Deputy Chief Executive officer
BP Chemicals
General Manager Human
Resources
General Manager
Communications
Works General Manager
Chief executive officer BP
Oil Europe
Director Human Resources
and Organisation
And dependent on the
agenda items …
Chief Operating Officer
Business/Oil Directors
Both of the EWCs are entitled to an employee only preparation meeting before the
annual meeting with management. According to the 1994 installation agreements, the
EWC that was created for the Chemical branch was composed of 30 employee
representatives, while for BP Oil there were 20 employee representatives. At the time of
creation of both of these BP EWCs there are workers representatives from 13 different
countries. In number of mandates the Chemicals EWC reflects a British dominance that
is absent in the BP Oil EWC.
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UK
Germany
France
Spain
Netherlands
Belgium
Brussels office
Portugal
Turkey
Austria
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Switzerland
Denmark
Sweden/Norway
Total
EWC BP
Chemicals
9
(3 or) 4
5
1
1
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
30
EWC BP Oil
3
3
3
2
Benelux 2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
20
The agreement creating a EWC for BP Oil in 1994, was revised in 1999, and is again
under renegotiation in the spring of 2003. If the January draft will be signed, as expected
then the number of EWC members will increase from 20 to 26. For the rest, this 2003
renewal copies the provisions of the 1999 version. That 1999 version increased the
number of annual plenary meetings from one to two, enlarged the select committee from
5 to 7 members and included the provision that all EWC members will be provided with
e-mail facilities.
The importance of the text of the agreement for the functioning of the EWC is rather
small. In only very few occasions reference has been made to it. The interviewed link
committee members believe that the practice of the EWC goes further then the text of
their agreement. The functioning of branch level task forces is an example of this.
El acuerdo es importante para el funcionamiento del comité europeo de
empresa?
Es bueno que haya un acuerdo porque... si las cosas van bien, no importa nada
si lo tienes escrito o no, pero cuando hay un problema puedes ir a ese escrito.
Se menciona a menudo, el texto del acuerdo?
Pocas veces...
La practica del comité europeo de empresa es mejor que los derechos atorgados
por el acuerdo?
Yo creo que si...
In the agreement there is not put a period of time on the mandate of Employee-side
coordinator of the link committee. The new 2003 agreement will introduce 3 yearmandates. It was expected tat in the 2003 spring meeting elections would have been held,
they have however been shifted to the autumn meeting. Until last year a German
representative had taken this role. He got it extremely busy with his work in Aral, and it
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seems he is going to accept a social package and leave his job and the EWC. Since then a
Spanish female EWC member has taken up the position of coordinator. The British link
committee member has now also been asked by some to candidate in the elections in the
fall.
The composition of the BP Oil EWC
In 2003 the EWC is composed of 26 Employee representatives and 11 management
delegates. There is available a list with all the EWC members, the former company they
come from, their business unit and phone numbers. The phone numbers of the
management delegates are not included in this list.
From the current 26 Employee representatives in the BP Oil EWC, 14 have always
been working fro BP. While 6 are integrated from Mobil and 6 other from Castrol. Both
of these companies had a EWC before they became part of BP.
UK
Germany
France
Spain
Netherlands
Belgium
Brussels office
Portugal
Turkey
Austria
Greece
Italy
Switzerland
Denmark
Poland
Sweden (& Norway)
Total
1994
3
3
3
2
2
(Benelux)
1
1
1
1
1
1999
3
3
3
2
2
(Benelux)
2003
4
4
4
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
20
20
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
26
It is possible that there will be a second representative from Poland. In the new 2003
version of the EWC agreement there will be put a maximum of 4 delegates that can come
from the same country. In total the EWC should not exceed 30 at any time.
There is also reported some kind of problem with the representativity of some EWC
members. Apparently this problem occurred in the past and things have been solved now.
And I know that there are a couple of countries, not now but before, where, our
rules are that you have to be elected, by whatever means your country chooses. And
I know that we have had a couple of occasions, Isabel will tell you more than me,
that where people haven’t been elected, but were selected by the manager of that
country, which is not right. They should be elected by the people. I think it happened
once before in Turkey, but not now. The Turkish is elected now, and it also happened in Poland.
The Belgian EWC member is having a management function. It is doubtful if all the
BP employees feel really informed and represented by this EWC member.
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The EWC resources
There is no budget for the EWC. The local operations pay for the travel expenses and
accommodation expenses. The European president of BP Oil, Michel Defabiani, who
chairs the EWC, accepts the bill for the meetings. The covered costs are however limited
to meetings. What the EWC costs is not known.
Somebody must know somewhere, because that is what accountants do, but
because the way they charge it, like my business will pay for my flight, and my
accommodation. It doesn’t come out of a central work council budget, it comes out
of each part of the business, I mean, at the moment, 2 of the European reps are from
… refinery, and so their boss is not happy, because every time they have a meeting,
he is paying twice. (Laughter) So, there is no central budget for the European
works council. I suppose if you sat down, you could work out how much it cost, but I
don’t know if they actually do that.
The time available for the EWC meetings is made available. Other EWC activities
in-between are done in the time that worker representatives got available on through their
local mandates. There is no general arrangement for extra time off serving the continuity
of the EWC. The UK link committee member has the necessary time of for his local and
EWC tasks. It is not calculated. For the Spanish employee side coordinator there are 30
hours available on the basis of her local works council mandate. For her EWC
coordination work the 'necessary time off' is available on demand.
Tengo lo que necesito... Si digo que necesito mas horas libres, me las dan, pero
es una situación especial, porque yo ahora soy la coordinadora europea, antes se le
llamaba presidente, pero hasta principios de febrero, y era la vice-presidente, mi
cargo de coordinadora europea es algo temporal porque estamos estudiando un
nuevo sistema de elecciones, dentro del comité de empresa europeo, y pensábamos
que las elecciones tengan lugar mas o menos en septiembre, y en septiembre no
sabemos a quien van a elegir nuestros compañeros, entonces esto es una cosa
temporal, y como temporal, se toma aquí, porque es lo que yo he pedio, yo he dicho
“es algo temporal, no se como va a quedar en septiembre” de manera que ahora
cuando necesito mas horas, me dejan mas horas libres.
Some kind of secretarial support is made available by Bruno Wolf, who is senior HR
manager in Europe, and secretary of the EWC. His assistant does most of the
administrative work for the EWC. Translations are made available on demand of the
EWC coordinator.
Hay posibilidad de traducir lo que recibes del comité europeo de empresa?
Si, les han obligado a hacerlo, había quien no quería, quien quería ahorrar en
estas cosas, pero yo lo he reclamado y me he quejado y lo tenemos siempre... ahora
lo tengo siempre que quiero. Casi ninguna cosa en la vida es gratis, muchísimas
cosas son... se tiene que luchar... pero lo tenemos.
New in the 1999 version is the article 8.5 in the EWC agreement stating that all
EWC representatives will be provided to e-mail facilities. This is helpful in the exchange
of information and the circulation of invitations and minutes of meetings. Furthermore
there is an internal BP intranet page for the EWC that is only accessible for BP
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employees. For the moment the German office of the German workers representatives are
running this intranet-site.
Visiting other sites is possible but it does not happen, probably because it is made rather
difficult for the EWC members.
Well, the European works council, we don’t visit any plants at all, but on the UK
forum, every meeting we have, we go to a different part of the UK and visit a
different plant.
There is no direct trade union officer or expert assisting the Belgian, UK or the
Spanish select com member. Also during the meeting, some EWC members need to be
cautious. Perhaps this indicates a need for more trust at some sides or a need for
additional protection provisions for EWC members.
I know that in some countries, they have to be careful what they say. Sometimes.
Because it can affect their actual career, whereas I say something and I say honestly,
it’s an honest thing I say, my boss is not really going to say to me, oh, you lost your
bonus now (laughter). … But I think there are some countries where something like
that might happen.
An important resource for the EWC is the existence of breach level task forces. For
seven sectors of activity such a task force exists. These task force groups are composed
by 4 to 8 EWC members. Some of the delegates are included in several, sometimes up to
4 different task force groups.
BP Oil EWC task forces
Shared services
Retail
IST+Logistics+Refinery
EBM - CINE
Digital Business
International / special Business / projects
Lubricants
Number of members
6
4
8
5
6
6
8
Mostly there is also a management representative on such task group meetings. A
current attempt to use audio conferencing equipment. This experience taught the
participants that there is a need for proper meeting possibilities, including translation
facilities.
Well, we had a meeting last week about digital business that was in Paris –
Charles De Gaulle airport. 3 of us plus Bruno joined us audio and a digital business
guy joined us audio, and the Netherlands later joined us by audio. So we had a bit of
both meeting. We didn’t had a translator, but we asked this, well, we said this time
that we must have a translator next time. We managed, but it is not fair. Because we
must have a translator, especially if you are talking about people’s jobs and stuff like
that, you have to be clear what you are talking about.
None of the interviewed reported any special EWC training that their trade union had
provided them. A group of 12 EWC members has however received a pilot training
seminar that was organised by the German Chemicals Union IGBCE and the European
Chemical Workers Federation EMCEF. This Leonardo project is entitled Lift.com, and
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aims to develop training modules to improve the teambuilding and the cross-cultural
communication in EWC.
The only training I had on the European works council is at Leonardo Project
“lift.com”, which is good. The best thing about for us. Which is actually, we had to
go there for a week. And we got to know each other a lot better. Because, a lot of
the meetings is just 2 days, and 1 day is with the manager, and we don’t really get to
know each other well. And a lot things can get mixed up, with lots of different
languages, and misinterpreted.
In organisational terms the training seminar held for a selection of EWC members
was not problem free. Even though from a pedagogical an a practical point of view there
were some conflicts, the participants got an important opportunity to get to know each
other
It was not so good but, it was good! It was good; we actually managed to start
talking to each other, understanding each others point of view. At the time, when I
finished the Leonardo Project, I thought, I’m not to sure about that. But looking
back now, I realise that I appreciate other countries’ points of view that I didn’t
knew before, or didn’t think about things, in a different way if you like. Because a
French person will have a different solution to a German person, to a UK person,
it’s from your heritage. But, you can’t necessarily say that yours is right and theirs
is wrong. There are different solutions. And we should consider them all.
The getting to know each other better definitely also had an intercultural aspect. All
this helps to improve the communication in the EWC in the future.
Oh yes, I think that Leonardo, like I said, when I quit it, at the actual time I
wasn’t that convinced like I could. But afterwards, and when I thought about it, yes.
Because, there are different ways of solving the same problem. And different
countries do it differently. And your way may be not be right. Or might not be the
best. And you have to be open, and to be open to everyone else’s ideas. Really. And
people have different ways of thinking about things. I noticed that especially the
Spanish, the first thing they would think about if, one of the things we were given to
do is, we have a factory, it is losing money, what are you going to do? Right. And
the British answer is, we are going to work hard, and we are going to do this and we
are going to do that. And the French answer was something different, and the
Spanish answer was always, sit down and talk to the workers. And everyone has a
slightly different approach. And they all would have worked, but there are different
ways, different countries think about this. Like, Spanish and Portuguese are really
sort of family orientated, and the French are really very very strong on legal things.
Hubo una cosa muy muy positiva... Yo entendí que el objetivo prioritario era
mejorar la comunicación entre los miembros de comité de empresa, y ese objetivo
fue cumplido en mi opinión, extraordinariamente bien. Al estar muchos días, muchas
horas, y tener grupos de trabajos pero a la vez también otros asuntos de diversión,
juntos, hizo que nos conociéramos y en nuestro comité de empresa europeo, ya
nunca no ha sido como anteriormente, se nota que somos un grupo mas compacto,
incluso los que son miembros del comité europeo y que no estuvieron en Paris con
nosotros, lo han notado... Han notado que el grupo había cambiado mucho, y a
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mejor, éramos un grupos mas compacto que incluso cosas en las que discrepábamos,
entendíamos mejor porque tu haces unas cosas así, yo no estoy de acuerdo en que
escribas en verde, pero entiendo ahora porque escribes en verde, ya no me opongo,
aunque yo escriba en rojo... entiendes? Esto fue muy bueno, esa fue la... Yo creo que
fue un valor que hemos apreciado todos.
In the initial EWC agreement of 1994, the EWC was entitled to hold one annual
meeting in March or April. Through the 1999 version of the agreement, this was brought
to two annual plenary meetings, one around April and the other in October. The location
of the meetings is the European coordination centre in Brussels. This location is found
easy to find there interpretation in 7 languages. For the near future, it has been proposed
to hold a meeting in Krakow, Poland.
Si, si, lo pedimos siempre y algunas veces se hace, pero la dirección es reacia,
porque la organización es mucha mas fácil en Bruselas... Es fácil de acceso, está
allá muy controlado el tema de loa traductores, hay muchas cosas, la seguridad...
Solamente en Londres por ejemplo, los accesos... una ciudad preciosa, pero los
accesos son muy complicados...
Plenary meetings take 2 days. The EWC meeting with management representatives takes
one full day, while the afternoon before the employee representatives have a preparation
meeting on their own. Before the Lift.com training seminar this preparation meeting time
as a half a day. A concrete result of this training seminar was the extension of this
preparation meeting to a whole day.
So you have 2 days meeting, and it is the second day you meet the management.
The first day, you have half a day or a whole day?
A whole day.
A whole day to prepare, is that enough?
No, because what tends to happen is, this is our own fault, because another thing
we discussed to keep in order is we need a time keeper. Because there are some
people who will dominate a meeting. And they will talk, and they will talk, and they
will talk. And maybe they won’t say much. They will waste a lot of time, especially
when you got interpreters and so. But now there is a time management thing that we
have to sort out.
There have not yet been held exceptional plenary meetings. In exceptional
circumstances, it is the task force meetings that are supposed to gather and play their role.
We never had an exceptional meeting. We had a meeting last month, which is the
make up for the meeting that was cancelled. But task, the whole idea of the task
force, we discussed it, we spent a lot of time at Leonardo not doing Leonardo things
but to talk to each other. (Laughter) And we decided that this task force thing is
quite important because if we want to argue with the company, or we want to
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convince the company, we have to be as, we have to know what we are talking about.
And it is no good, somebody on the link committee who is in the refining talking to a
manager in retail. Because they don’t know each other, he doesn’t know what he
tells. Whereas if you get somebody from retail, on the task force, to speak to that
manager, that manager will respect them, will probably tell them all. They know
exactly, if they know what the business is about.
After the plenary meeting with management there are a few hours for an employee
only post meeting.
We have a couple of hours, but after the managers have finished, we have a
meeting amongst ourselves to discuss what management just told us. And what we
think, because we thought that is very important, because it is no good, management
tell us and everyone just disappears. We need some feedback, because some people
have personal experience with what management just told us. And whether it is right
or not the full story, or whatever, that we thought we would have a windup meeting.
But we just discuss what they told us. To see what we think.
A problem with this employee only meeting is that some EWC members have to
leave earlier.
That’s the trouble you see. If you, people will disappear having said that, we
have to say the meeting ends at 4 o’clock. But when it says it ends at 4 o’clock, it
means you don’t get a plane before 4 o’clock. Because once you got to the last
afternoon meeting, you know, people are well, bye, I got to go now. And so on. I
think that it probably would be better if we could, I don’t know, we have to discuss it
with ourselves, but it’ll probably be better maybe if we, the 2nd day we stayed in the
hotel, right. And the meeting and we all left the next morning. Right. Because a lot
of the time, you know yourself, a lot of meetings, sitting in the bar, or when you have
the dinner at night, the people really talk to each other. And a lot more business gets
sometimes done there, than it gets done in the meeting. If we stayed after the
meeting for another night, probably, and went the next day, it would probably be
better.
The agenda of the EWC meeting is set by the corporation committee or link
committee.
- Right, the actual council meetings, we have a link committee meeting a month
before, with Michel Defabiani and with Bruno Wolf. And we sit down and say what
we want to discuss, and they tell us what they want to discuss. And than we set the
agenda, we work out. And if we want to, we can say, well, can we have who ever is
in charge of refinery to come and tell us what the strategy is, or who ever is in
charge of retail. For each plant of the business unit we have, to be available for
questions.
- So, you can put whatever point on your agenda you like.
- Yes. No, it might not get on the agenda, but we can ask for it. And than we will
talk about it in the link committee meetings. Before we have a link committee
meeting, I will send out an e-mail to everybody or each of us will send out an e-mail,
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saying, oh, we all are going to have a link committee meeting. Is there anything you
want to discuss at the next meeting?
- What if somebody puts a point there, you meet with Bruno, and he says no, that
cannot be on the agenda.
- And than he has to give us a reason why. If we don’t like his reason, we will
ask him again.
- And have there been already occasions where you were in a problem, or where
the person that you gave that reason to in a certain country said, yes, I’m not happy
with this.
- Well, they are quite free at the meeting to say that they are not happy. Because
we can ask, but if they say no, they say no. We go back and say, …
The meeting itself is not so much structured or in detail prepared. It leaves a lot of
space for whatever problem that occurs.
No es nada estructurado, porque vamos a resolver problemas cotidianos,
problemas de la gente, si lo haces muy estructurado... y conmigo son menos
estructurados que con otras personas porque creo que hay que dejar... Justamente
los temas sociales... tu puedes estructurar mucho una cosa que dice no hemos tenido
accidentes de trabajo con baja, o hemos tenido uno en Bélgica, dos en España,
ninguno en Alemania y 0.5 en Inglaterra y suman tantos y teníamos que haber hecho
tantos, objetivo de no accidentes y no daño a las personas, y hemos hecho esto...[ ]
íbamos a ganar tanto, hemos empleado todo ese capital, hemos empleado tanta
gente, íbamos a hacer esto, eso lo puedes estructurar, pero luego cuando llega que
tu tienes un problema y que a lo mejor te quedas sin trabajo, o que quiero que te
den a ti las acciones que me daban a mi, esto es muy difícil, si lo estructures, la
gente no habla. En general, la gente tiene miedo de hablar, sobre todo cuando se
viene ... esto pasa, la gente en general, en estos sitios, no se atreve a hablar, y si se
lo pones muy estructurado, muy serio, se va a atrever menos.
With this openness and unstructured way of holding the employee only preparation
meeting, there has occurred the need to limit the time that some EWC members speak.
Somebody will be given the role of ‘time keeper’ or ‘communication officer’. This
person will guard the time and the efficiency of the meetings.
Pues eso, puede ser el presidente, el vice-presidente, ahora tenemos un
“communication officer” que puede ocuparse de esto, una persona que se ocupa de
decir, “bueno, esto ya acabó”
According to the EWC agreement, ‘Consultation’ means the exchange of views and
establishment of dialogue between employees’ representatives and European
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Management or any other appropriate level of management of BP oil Europe. This does
not match completely with reality.
“There is a lot to be said about, consultation, and to be frank, it is only recently
that we got any consultation. Lots of times it was the company that was coming to
tell us what we had to do. And we are like an information channel. And really, I
don’t know if they want the feedback. They just said, we gonna have a works
council, have a works council. And we tell them, this is what we are going to do, and
that’s what we are going to do. Right. But I think it is changing, it is not perfect,
and I don’t know if it ever will be, but it’s, I get the impression now that if we talk to
people, they listen. Before they didn’t care what we thought.”
Consultation practices are still under development. Essential for the EWC members
in consultation is the openness to change proposals, without this the EWC is limited to
information.
Consultation is when the company say that want to do something, what you think
about it. Not, we’re gonna do this. And consultation means you know about it
before it happens. Or you are asked about it, you are asked about it, it still happens.
And you have the ability to change it, it’s not already decide it. That’s important.
Because a lot of the time, in the past, it wasn’t consultation, it was information. This
is gonna happen now. It’s not perfect now, it’s a long way to become perfect. We
got a long way to go. But, I think it is beginning now at last. And that’s essential,
really. I mean, the company are looking at it at one point of view, money. Money is
a God. But there are other sites, and they don’t necessarily have to be different.
Because what is, it’s back to employee satisfaction and stuff like that. If people are
satisfied now, they will work better. And it is bad for the company, I don’t care what
you say. And sometimes confrontation, sometimes people get ideas and they don’t
know all the facts, so they don’t know things. So they only looked at one bit of the
whole, or they already decided what they want without thinking about it. But
consultation really means that somebody is suggesting something and they are open
to change. You can change it. If you can’t change it, it is not consultation, it is, they
are just informing you.
The information given is never completely useless. On the other hand is it either so
that the information given by management is that what the EWC members are expecting.
Yo creo que la información nunca es demasiada, lo que pasa es que si tu vas a
una reunión y tienes 6 horas y durante 4 te están lanzando información uno y otro,
un “slide”, otro, otro, pues al final, te han dado mucha información, pero tu no has
asimilado... Además en otro idioma... Hay quien utiliza la traducción simultanea,
pero eso es las cosas menos fluidas... Yo creo... Yo nunca diría que ninguna persona
me da demasiada información, lo que si nosotros pedimos, es que nos adelanten los
“slides” y nos digan antes su presentación, para podernos prepara, pero no lo
hacen...
Information in itself can however mean a lot. The EWC members did learn that, it is
necessary to ask questions largely in advance, to get a proper answer.
What we found out, if you want a question answered properly, you got to give
them time. If that question is important and you want an answer, you put it in
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writing and you put it in writing 1-2 months before the meeting. So they have plenty
of time to get the answer, and they got no excuses if there is no answer. If you ask
somebody, try to catch somebody out on the spur of the moment, you’re not gonna
get a proper answer. So there is no point to spring questions like that on people,
because they are not going to give you an answer. They might not want to, they might
want to check something, or do whatever. But for whatever reason, you will not get
a straight answer. And unless you ask it plenty of times up front.
Under these conditions, the information function of the EWC can have an important
added value for the workers representatives. For example, in the context of fear for
closures.
No, usually if we ask like that and pose a question where we want an answer to
that, I think one of the things we have asked over the last couple of meetings is what
is BP’s strategy as far as refinery is concerned. Because I don’t know if you know
but in Europe there is too many refineries. And what the guys who work in the
refineries are worried about is am I in one of the refineries they don’t want. So they
want know what the strategy is, are we going to close the refineries or .. And they,
we asked them plenty of times and they came back with a presentation, exactly how
they think refinery in Europe goes and what their strategy is. And their strategy is
that they are not going to shut up refineries. They might shut up a few plants here
and there, but they are not going to shut any, which is good. Because the people at
the refineries now can go, ah, I don’t have to worry about that anymore. We will
lose a few jobs here and there, but there won’t be shutting a big refinery. That is, we
are happy, that is the answer that we like to hear. And, they looked at it, and they
presented it, and have given us a proper answer, like, with all, why it is in BP’s
interest not to shut a refinery. Because we have different products at different
places. It’s a reasonable answer and it makes sense.
Select committee (Link Committee)
In the original agreement setting up the BP Oil EWC there was provided for a select
committee of 5 employee representatives. In the 1999 renewed version of the EWC
agreement the size of the link committee was put to seven members. The coordinator of
this link committee is the deputy-chair of the EWC.
In the spring of 2003, there are special rules of procedure being negotiated for the
functioning of the link committee. According to the January draft of these “terms of
reference” representatives have to be EWC member for at least one year and need to have
attended 2 EWC meetings, to be eligible for the link committee. It is furthermore laid
down that there is no permanent membership of any country, and that no country can
have more then one member in the link committee. The term of office for link committee
members is three years.
The link committee, we don’t say that you have to got a German; you have to got
French, you got to have a UK. That’s sort the company sort to say. That’s the
difficulty with us now, because we say no, it’s up to us to decide who we want.
Because who ever is on the link committee is not representing a country, they are
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representing the whole of the workers council. And we want the best person, not
necessarily the biggest country, and sometimes if you get someone of the biggest
country, they are really representing that country. And so it is up to the people to
choose and we think, we want it democratic, the big 5 people or 7 people and they
can come from anywhere. But the company would like them to be French, UK,
German. They probably will be, but I don’t think you should say that. It should be
multiple choose. Because, when you are starting to have restrictions, than you start
to have preferred places. That’s not what we want to see anymore.
The composition of the EWC reflects the European approach and the explicit
willingness to outbalance any possible domination of certain countries. The role of the
link committee is to build a bridge between the EWC and Central management. Contacts
with central management are kept through Bruno Defabiani, the European president of
BP. He or his secretary will mail the link committee at least once a month.
Well, my role on the link committee is to have a bridge between the rest of the
works council and the management. Right. And feeding information, or opinions, or
whatever, both ways. It is not just one, both ways. Feeding back, and taking in. I
know that sometimes a manager is a lot happier talking to 4-5 people than they are
talking to 26. And that’s just the way it is. And sometimes you can get a lot more
information that way because you won’t get so many interruptions. And sometimes
people will look at their own little bit and not the big picture. The European works
council is European, it is the big picture, it is not national things, and we don’t want
to get put down in an argument.
The number of meetings the link committee was entitled to have, was not determined
in the 1994 agreement. In the 1999 version, there are foreseen four regular annual
meetings of which two serve to prepare the plenary EWC meeting.
The meetings of the link committee are held in English. This implies for some of the
link committee language problems.
Hay… Quiere decir que no todos los miembros del “link committee” dominan el
ingles, por ejemplo, que es el idioma oficial, o no todos dominan el francés que es el
idioma que mas miembros del LK dominan. O sea, que si se habla en ingles, Bill,
que es un encanto, esta muy a gusto, pero Antonio y Robert, el ingles es mas bajo, y
si hablamos en francés, pues, Bill no sabe francés y los miembros de la dirección
tampoco saben francés, excepto Michel de Fabiani, claro y [Ramone] también habla
muy bien francés, claro. Entonces si eso se le puede llamar tener problemas, hay
problemas, pero normalmente, se pide que haya un traductor del ingles al francés y
del francés al ingles, con esto, se suele arreglar. Y el problema viene cuando en
lugar de reunirte, tienes una audio conferencia, allí con un idioma que no es el tuyo,
es mas problemático.
Branch level working groups
An important resource for the EWC is the existence of branch level task forces. For
seven sectors of activity such a task force exists. These task force groups are composed
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by 4 to 8 EWC members. Some of the delegates are included in several, sometimes up to
4 different task force groups.
BP Oil EWC task forces
Shared services
Retail
IST+Logistics+Refinery
EBM - CINE
Digital Business
International / special Business / projects
Lubricants
Number of members
6
4
8
5
6
6
8
Mostly there is also a management representative on such task group meetings. This
role is taken by Bruno Defabiani.
He don’t have to be at all of them, but he was at the last one we had. And he is
there as a management. He is an HR person, he knows what is going on in HR, and
most of these problems are people problems. That’s what we are here for, I
represent people. And HR, is Human Resources, it’s people. They know.
In each of the task forces there is appointed a coordinator. This person is in charge to
call for meetings.
I see that each of these task forces has a co-ordinator.
Yes, well, the reason for that is that is someone can arrange the meeting and
arrange where to have the meeting. Sometimes we can get by with an audioconference, but it is very hard because of the languages. And if you have people
speaking different languages like you got to be in the same room, you need to see the
face and the expression.
A current attempt to use audio conferencing equipment. This experience taught the
participants that there is a need for proper meeting possibilities, including translation
facilities.
Well, we had a meeting last week about digital business that was in Paris –
Charles De Gaulle airport. 3 of us plus Bruno joined us audio and a digital business
guy joined us audio, and the Netherlands later joined us by audio. So we had a bit of
both meeting. We didn’t had a translator, but we asked this, well, we said this time
that we must have a translator next time. We managed, but it is not fair. Because we
must have a translator, especially if you are talking about people’s jobs and stuff like
that, you have to be clear what you are talking about.
Not all of the task forces that exist on paper function in reality. It depends on where
problems occur, that can be dealt with in this way.
“No, no, no... Los que se han reunido... Estos no se han reunido nunca, este
tampoco... Se han reunido este que coordinaba yo entonces, que es el que te comento
que nos reunimos en varias ocasiones, “digital business” que acaba de tener su
primera reunión en Paris, y “Lubricantes” que tuvo su reunión en Milán y que
tenemos que volver a tocarlo porque ahora vienen reestructuraciones...”
Problems can be raised to the task force after an information of management, or the
task force can be activated on the demand of the workers representatives.
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No, the others are there, but if there is anything happening in that part of
business… And also it is a 2-way thing. It is not what the company tells us, we hear
from our people who represent, sometimes they would tell us something is going on
before the company will tell us.
The digital Business Task Force however was the most active recently.
There is one very active at the moment, which is the digital business one.
Because we are a bit worried because BP is a multinational company and they got a
new word. The new word is off-shoring. And off-shoring means that it goes to India.
All you need is a telephone line, digital business, you got a telephone line and you
got your databases, but a database doesn’t have to be in a certain country, the back
officer doesn’t have to be in a certain country. And unfortunately for the UK, and the
USA, there are a lot of English speakers in India. And they are quite cheap
compared to people being employed here. And digital business is doing that now.
So there is a lot of turmoil in digital business at the moment. They are trying to
reduce the cost by half. They say it doesn’t mean the half of the people who go, but,
we’ll see. But there is a lot of turmoil in there now. So which I, we just had a
meeting last week with digital business people to see what they are doing in Europe.
Because, India is not so much a threat for digital people in Europe because of the
languages. But there are other things, they have moved e.g. the Netherlands business
has move the back office business, digital business has moved to Poland, because all
you need to be is on the end of a telephone line. It doesn’t matter where you are
actually located. And in digital business these are like multinational jobs and BP
being BP, we’ll put them where it is the cheapest.
While the SINI task force, got involved in some kind of negotiations or a follow up
of social measures in a European wide restructuring.
A part of the retail-business called SINI, was shut down and there were about 800
people involved in Europe. The Sini EWC task force first of all try to save jobs and if this
was not possible, then it was made sure that those people, who had to go, would get the
best possible conditions. As such this task force was involved in some kind of
negotiations. An additional importance he differences in local conditions and legislations
in the different countries.
There is ongoing e-mail communication between some of the link committee
members. Some of the French EWC members are the most active in this.
E-mail, quite, e-mail very often. In fact I’d say, in a month, 5-6 times, I get at least 5-6 e-mails in a
month from different people in different parts of the country.
In the EWC meetings there are some EWC members that are scared to speak. This
problem is recognised but not really solved. It is not that those EWC members that are in
a position strong enough to say what needs to be said take the initiative to raise the
questions of those who don’t dare to do this themselves.
Si, lo primero es que cuando estamos solo los representantes de trabajadores,
habla mas gente, y cuando esta la dirección delante, solo hablamos unos pocos
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osados... No, hablan, yo no se porque no hablan, cada uno tendrá sus razones, a
veces, el miedo es una cosa positiva, ya que sabes que si criticas no te van a tener en
cuenta para un puesto mejor, o...
Cooperation has been a success in a European action. It was seven years ago, when
the EWC organised a manifestation in Brussels.
Esta manifestación fue de los alemanes y franceses que llegaron en autobuses
desde sus países, esto hace por lo menos 7 años y yo no se si fue una cosa europea....
Efectivamente, todos los que estábamos allí, todo el comité europeo de empresa se
mostró solidario, mostró su solidaridad, y mostró su rechazo al “outsorsing”, pero...
es que no he llegado a entender la pregunta bien del todo... in english
There are however cultural differences raising barriers for the good internal
cooperation. In the eyes of the current employee side coordinator there is some kind of
dominance of the north.
Es que es un poco complicado... Dentro del comité de empresa europeo, no...
Dentro de los representantes de los trabajadores, no, dentro de la dirección, no,
pero en la práctica, con muchísima frecuencia, la gente, en general, ya sin tener... ya
he dicho que todos los del comité de empresa europeo, que no ni la dirección, ni los
empleados, ninguno, pero el la práctica, cuando hay un grupo de europeos, con
frecuencia es fácil ver que la gente de mas al norte piensa que son mas inteligentes y
que trabajan mas... y la realidad nos demuestra que no es cierto... Yo
particularmente, ya te he dicho que llevo 28 años en una empresa internacional aquí
tenemos muchos que no son españoles, algunos incluso de otros países, pero la
mayoría son europeos, de otros países europeos, también tenemos de otras partes
del mundo y tenemos de todo... y en mi familia tenemos pues muchos ingleses y mi
hija es inglesa, y no veo diferencia... Veo diferencia en personas, pero no veo
diferencias a la hora de trabajar y de ser serios... Ellos vienen aquí y vienen
creyendo que vienen a la selva, pero luego se encuentran con nosotros, y yo a uno
que cree que viene a la selva, le digo “demuéstrame, que tu selva no exista o a ver
con quien has tratado, con quien te has reunido tu...” y esto suele pasar siempre...
These cultural diffences have also occurred in the way the meetings would be
structures. A result of this was the introduction of the time-keeping-system.
Klaus was chairing it, but we really needed a time keeper. We decided, you get
so many minutes to speak, and you say what you can in that time. If you haven’t
finished, tough. Because you must be like that.
At a certain moment the top of BP decided to cancel for a period of time all
travelling to cut costs. As a consequence the EWC meeting was cancelled. It did not
really save any costs since most of the tickets were already booked and were not
reimbursable. The cancelling of the meeting made some EWC members so furious that
they wanted to sue the company, since the EWC had the right to meet. In this context it
became clear that the different EWC members stood for different approaches.
No, that’s going back to confrontation. It’s going the wrong way. I mean, I’m
not saying, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not saying that I want to be a pet of the
management and do what they, if they say jump, jump. No ! But there is a way,
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there is an easy sensible way to do things our way. And once you start confronting
people with that, there is no trust. You’re back to…
In another context, the risk for delocalisation from the Netherlands to Poland, there is
again a difference in the degree of solidarity among the different EWC members. At least
this is the explanation given for the fact that this issue has not yet been raised in the
EWC.
Hasta ahora no ha habido influencia del comité de empresa porque el asunto
principal esta con los alemanes y los alemanes con frecuencia no son solidarios...
Through the EWC a bridge is build between the central management and the worker
representation structures in the various countries. This is far from being optimal, but it
exists also in-between the annual meetings.
In between is just so, we can talk to the company and say, if there is anything we
should know about, or, is there anything you need to ask us. The other meetings that
we may have or those task force things, if anything is happening. And we can phone
people and talk to people.
Continuity is an important factor. When the composition of the EWC changes or
when management representatives change, trust relations have to be build up again.
Yes, and that’s the problem, when there is someone new, you have to start all
over again. And it is the same with us, I mean, I think Klaus has a very good
relationship with Bruno and Michel. But Klaus will go, and than we’ll have to start
all over again with Isabel, or who ever. So it, it has to start, slow things down. But
really, if we can convince management that we’re all at the same side, because we
are really, that would go a long way. But it’s a long, a hard social thing because
there has been workers and bosses and sort of, they exploit them. But somewhere
there is a much better situation, somewhere there is something better than that.
The EWC makes it possible to discuss the strategy of the company. Doing this there
are of course different views. Management sees only what is good for the company,
while the employee representatives think about the effects it has for the workforce.
Si, lo que pasa es que como es natural, ellos lo explican desde el lado de la
dirección y nosotros lo vemos desde el lado de los empleados, algunas estrategias
son muy buenas para la empresa porque supuestamente las acciones van a subir de
precio, y se va a ganar dinero, entonces, como parte de empresa, lo ves y lo
entiendes, pero algunas veces eso supone que algunas personas van a trabajar mas
incomodas, van a pasar menos tiempo con sus familias y en sus casas, o van a
perder su empleo...
Having this discussion is also good for the company, since it can contribute to the
motivation and performance of the employees.
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The added value for management is, if you have a work force that’s happy, they
are more efficient and if they are more efficient, your company makes more money.
And everybody is happy.
Furthermore the EWC is an instrument to promote the corporate identity of the
company.
¿Utiliza la dirección del grupo el Comité europeo de empresa para desarrollar
“corporate identity”? Si, claro si, lógicamente la dirección nos expone allí las líneas
maestras de BP, los pillares en los que se basa, si, si.
In general it can be that the company has a EWC only because it is obliged to by the
EWC Directive, in any case, the EWC members see the EWC as a form of
democratisation of the Company.
Por una parte, es útil porque se puede demostrar que BP es cumplidora de las
leyes, esta obligada a tener un comité de empresa europeo. Por otra parte, siempre
una empresa que tiene un comité de empresa se muestra como algo mas
democrático, un canal por donde puede dar información a sus empleados pero a la
vez, recibir informaciones, quejas, consultas de sus empleados... Y realmente, BP ha
sido pionera en este aspecto.
structures
There is awareness that national problems are linked to the European wide context of
the firm.
Well, it was a strategy thing which is just recently. When they said, they told us
that they’re re-organising the whole of retail in UK, and they got a new strategy to
make more money, but what we have noticed is that because the UK labour laws are
not so strong, if the company wants to experiment, they experiment here.
Nevertheless local or national issues can not be raised in the EWC.
No, no. A local issue is for the local forum.
And it is not that has been already been an occasion that the European works
council mediated in local conflicts or…? No, the local forum is the local forum.
That’s for them.
Although some other EWC members do not completely agree with this.
Es posible hablar de problemas locales o nacionales en el comité de empresa
europeo?
Es posible, aunque no es lo previsto, pero de todas formas lo hacemos. Un
problema, es un problema, y si tu crees que se le puedes resolver a un compañero,
no te pares en nada. A mi no me vale que una persona porque tiene mas poder diga
”no, esto no se trata aquí”... Se trata en cualquier sitio, yo por lo menos, lo trato en
294
cualquier sitio si pienso que al darle publicidad, o denunciarlo, puede ayudar un
poco a resolverlo... Lo que pasa es que a algunas personas, no les gusta...
In some countries like in the UK and Spain, there are voluntary systems of financial
participation.
Normalmente, cada año hace una oferta, y cada año es diferente, pero la oferta
suele ser... tenemos hasta una cantidad de dinero... si tu compras 100 acciones, la
empresa te regala otras 100, si compras 20, te regala 20... hasta una cantidad que
cifran en dinero, en euros ahora mismo, pero desea que tu a tu vez, compres, dobles
la cantidad regalada...
The support from the home country unions to this EWC is missing. Also in the other
countries the unionised EWC members did not report of any kind of training or regular
support. In Spain, France and Germany there is a close link between the representatives
and the unions... Except for the Lift.com training seminar that was organised by IGBCE
and EMCEF.
It was assumed that the trade union involvement played a role in the difficulties of
cooperation between the French delegates.
One is in a different union. And for an outsider, and it is not just me, there are
other outsiders, we don’t think they like each other. Well, they don’t get along very
well. Because I have found that on the link committee, I will tell the other French
people things that I, you know, come out of the link committee meeting. And say, so
and so, this is going to happen if that happens. And the French guy is up there, I told
him, right. And there is a bit of a breakdown of communication there, and that is a
cultural thing, it has nothing to do with the union.
Strengths in the BP Oil EWC are the link committee, the task force structure and the
availability of intranet en e-mail for all. At the side of the weaknesses are to be noted, the
lack of trade union support, the representativity of some of the delegates, the lack of
initiatives to develop projects and a clear visible outcome. Finally the change of the
coordinator can be an opportunity, but if it happens to often it might counter the need for
continuity in the EWC work. The EWC members themselves realise that there is still a
lot of development work to be done to get the EWC matching their expectations.
You could be completely cynical about this, or you couldn’t be open. But I
prefer to be open. If you want to be cynical, you can say, management, we have got
a European works council because we got to have one. It’s for show, it doesn’t mean
anything, it doesn’t do anything, but we have to got one, European law says we are
going to have one. Now, we just tell them what we are going to do, and that’s it, we
295
do it. I hope what I know that our works council is not, is better than that. It is not
as good as it should be, but it will get there. And the more we consult and talk, the
better it will get. We’re getting better, we are not finished, it’s a long road. We
started walking. And we just carry, we, we can, we must improve. There are a lot of
things that can be improved. And we must do it. That is going to take time, but we’re
on the way. The journey started, we’re not perfect, we’re near perfect.
As perspectives for the future the EWC members think first of all at the improvement
of their involvement in the sense of real consultations.
I would like to see in 5 or 10 years, where, if the company wants to change the
strategy, or they want to shut something, or they want to sack somebody .., make
people redundant. They will come and ask and consult. Not think about it, plan it
and than just tell us. And we can change a few little things here and there. No, right
at the beginning of the idea, at, we should be there at the conception of the idea, not
when it already started, or at the end. The end is no good to anyone. And sometimes
we’re in the middle somewhere; we’re not at the beginning. There is where we
should be.
References
The BP archive at the University of Warwick
www.bp.com
Interview with Bill Partridge (UK-Link Committee member), London, 06-03-2003
Interview with Isabel Alvarez (ES-Employee side coordinator link committee), Madrid,
31-03-2003
Interview with Edmond Charly (B-EWC member), Antwerp, 28-04-2003
Interview with Silvain Lefèvre (Fr- CFDT – trade union coordinator Emcef), Brussels,
15-11-2002
Evaluation EQT of the Lift Com training seminar of 16-09-2002 to 20-09-2002, Paris.
296
Bayer EWC
Peter Kerckhofs
Introduction
Both the company as the EWC have are fore-runners with a long history. The early
establishment of the Bayer EWC based on a informal agreement of 1991 that was
adopted in a formal way in 1994, did not succeed completely in its aim to improve
continuously the functioning of the Euro-Forum. That is how the Bayer-EWC is called.
Not only in its name it is original. Also with 70 members its size and joint composition is
typical. Where the EWC is perhaps too large, its select committee used to be too small.
The EWC introduced country-speakers that need to coordinate the EWC work in
their country. This structure does however not work without proper national structures to
coordinate the employee representation across the different operations. Furthermore, the
limited language skills of the EWC chair and the dominance of the German worker
representation structures slightly hinder the EWC to perform progress. On the other hand,
the extension of the select committee (which is called “Paritätische Kommission”) brings
promising perspectives for the future development of this EWC.
The company history
Bayer is a German company, with a history going back to a dyestuff factory
established by Friedrich Bayer and Johann Friedrich Weskott in 1863. In the first twenty
years of its existence, the company grew from a three to a three hundred employees.
Having internationalised towards the USA, Moscow and France, Bayer established in
1988 its pharmaceutical department, and launched Aspirin the world famous painkiller in
1899. During the First World War, the company was largely cut off from its major export
markets, and began to produce war materials. After the war the company's assets,
including its patents and trademark were confiscated in the USA and expropriated in
Russia. In 1925 Bayer merged with BASF and Agfa, into IG Farbeninsudtrie AG. Again,
because of its role in the war economy, the company was split in pieces after the Second
World War. Bayer was newly established in 1951, and in 1952 it acquired Agfa.
Fifty years after its creation, in 1913, Bayer employed about 10.000 persons, of
which nearly 1.000 outside of Germany. At the same time 80% of its revenues came from
export. Again fifty years later, in 1963, Bayer counted nearly 80.000 employees. The
enormous expansion of the company continued for another 25 years and made it grow
into a huge multinational with a workforce of 165.000 persons in 1988. All this happened
through Greenfield investments, like for example the Bayer site in Antwerp Belgium that
launched its operations in 1967. But also, through take-overs, like for example the
Canadian Rubber producing company Polysar, that was acquired in 1990.
More recently, in 1999, Bayer floated its subsidiary Agfa on the stock market, which
brought its European workforce from 82.700 to 63.300. The same year, the US-company
Lyondell was acquired. The largest acquisition in Bayer's history was done in October
297
2001. It consisted of Aventis Crop Science (ACS), with a European workforce of 6.030
persons and 22.000 worldwide.
In November 2000, Bayer announces the centralisation of its accounting in a shared
service centre based in Barcelona. A much larger restructuring in 2002 resulted in several
operating subgroups and service companies under the umbrella of a management holding
company. The Bayer business subgroups are: Bayer Chemicals, Bayer Crop Science,
Bayer HealthCare, and Bayer Polymers. Besides them, three different subsidiaries
perform the Business, the Technology and the Industry services, in a central way.
In the health care pillar, Bayer was confronted with losses because of the necessary
withdrawal of Lipobay, in August 2001. This cholesterol-lowering drug launched in
1997 had rapidly become a blockbuster product. Its withdrawal had serious consequences
for the entire Bayer Group. Above this, political uncertainty in the world, rising oil prices
and falling stock markets hampered Bayer’s results and its share price.
In this context the strategy of the group was to increase competitiveness and
diminish its debts. This involves disinvestments and a reduction in personnel of some
15,000 (www.bayer.com), of which more than 7,000 European jobs that were eliminated
between November 2002 and March 2003. All this happened after the last plenary
meeting of the EWC that took place in August 2002.
Fig. 1 – the evolution of the Bayer share price over the last 3 years
Bayer clearly is a German based multinational with the location of its headquarters
and the concentration of 70% of its European employees in Germany. Furthermore, the
capital of the company still is very much in German hands. A stock ownership survey
from 2001 identified 437.000 German and 59.000 non-German stockholders. Fifty five
percent of the capital is in the hands of banks and insurance companies. Among them is
to be found the biggest single stock-holder which is Allianz AG, with 5,7% of the shares.
Private individuals hold 24% of Bayer’s capital. Of these people, 12% are Bayer
employees, owning all together 2,1% of the capital.
A German based multinational
At the end of 2002, the Bayer group had a worldwide total of 123.500 employees.
From them, 71.200 or 58% are working in Europe. About 50.000 of its employees are
based in Germany; this is 40% of the worldwide workforce, but more then 70% of the
European employees.
At the Group's Headquarters and largest site in Leverkussen, there are 23,500 people
directly employed by Bayer, and another 8.000 through its subsidiaries and sub-
298
contractors. The other Bayer operations in Germany are, located in Dormagen (6100
employees), Krefeld (6000 employees), Wuppertal (3100 employees) Brunsbüttel (1300)
and Bitterfeld (650).
Fig. 2 –the European workforce of Bayer (from 1994 to 2002)
Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Netherlands
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
UK
Norway
total EEA
1994
542
10852
300
201
4103
64108
378
300
3091
750
408
3090
415
2550
164
91252
1995
509
10436
289
197
4007
60582
371
377
3036
695
457
3066
414
2472
143
87051
1996
532
9787
288
218
4189
58643
365
362
2969
601
440
2942
416
2355
146
84253
1997
509
9251
281
210
4055
57934
360
391
2954
590
429
2796
412
2303
148
82623
1998
483
9005
290
215
4121
57431
362
376
2889
599
425
2818
429
3145
146
82734
1999
219
3296
139
95
2829
48673
249
301
2480
267
352
2171
250
1974
72
63367
2000
218
3467
134
85
3076
50360
288
312
2458
258
343
2185
244
2017
65
65510
2001
200
3440
137
81
3017
49204
297
260
2414
365
289
2253
234
1900
65
64156
2002
211
3663
155
82
4926
51268
359
269
2595
692
327
2537
239
2797
66
70184
As long as Agfa-Gevaert was part of Bayer, 12% of the European workforce of
Bayer, was employed in Belgium. From 1999 on, after Agfa's independence, the Belgian
workforce became just like the French, Italian, Spanish and British between 5 and 3% of
the European workforce. In this context, Hans-Joachim (Ha-Jo) Möller, the Chair of the
EWC, compared the modest goals of the Bayer EWC with a mosaic11. Composed of a lot
of small pieces, but all together it can give a huge impression.
11
After his election in the employee only preparation meeting in August 1998, Ha-Jo Möller gave a short
deleration in the beginning of the joint meeting with management. At this occation he committed himself
for an improved information of employees of Bayer’s foreign subsidiaries using the metafphor of the
mosaic.
299
Fig. 3 - A large proportion of the European Workforce of Bayer is located in Germany.
D
80%
70%
B
FR
60%
50%
40%
IT
30%
ES
20%
10%
UK
0%
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
The take over of Aventis CropScience (ASC) added at the end of 2001 another 6.030
European employees. Most of them are located in Germany, France and the UK. As such,
the second largest proportion of Bayer employees is no longer to be found in Belgium,
but in France (7%).
Fig. 4 – Country of employment breakdown of the 6.030 European employees of Aventis Crop Science
country
Germany
France
UK
Netherlands
Spain
Belgium
Italy
Greece
Portugal
Denmark
Austria
Ireland
Other
ACS Workforce
2064
1909
897
327
284
223
181
62
38
18
11
9
7
The Bayer Europa Forum is typical for its size and inclusion of both management
and employee representatives. From the 121 German based multinationals with a EWC,
87 or 72% opted for a German model EWC, including only worker representatives
(Kerckhofs 2002). Even if this choice does not make much difference to the practical
functioning of the EWC, the type of composition should not be regarded as irrelevant.
The choice in favour of a French- model EWC within Bayer could be an indicator of the
limited influence of the home country industrial relations practices on the functioning of
the EWC.
300
Fig. 5 - The countries with German- model workplace representation systems have also taken this
model in most cases for the EWCs in the companies headquartered there.
%
100
100
90
90
joint bodies (French model)
employee-only (German model)
87
80
80
70
70
60
60
63
62
60
50
50
40
40
30
S
34
20
10
30
29 29
25
18
13
2 8
12 13
9
9
CH
BE
14
8
0
AT
DE
NL
IT
20
25
23
US
UK
10
15
1
JP
1
FR
5
0
other
The Bayer European Works Council consists of 70 members or more. In 1998 there
were 73 members and in 1999 and 2000 exactly 70. Since 2001, the Europa Forum
consists of 72 members, of which 45 are employee representatives and 27 representatives
of management. The management delegates do not only represent central management.
Also the management of the operations from the various European countries are included
in the EWC.
Fig. 6 – the Joint composition of the Bayer Europa Forum (in 2002)
EWC delegates
Germany
France
Belgium
UK
Italy
Spain
Netherlands
Greece
Portugal
Ireland
Sweden
Austria
Denmark
Finland
Norway
Total
employee
16
4
4
4
4
4
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
45
management
8
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
27
In the first meeting based upon the 1994 EWC agreement there were 46 employee
representatives and a number of management delegates just like nowadays. The
Composition of the Europa Forum before 1994 seems to have been slightly smaller,
considering a report of Deppe (1991).
301
"Die Teilnehmer am ersten Europa-Forum werden, wie schon dargelegt, aus den
Ländern und Gesellschaften kommen, die an den bilateralen Gesprächen
teilgenommen hatten; je Land maximal zwei Arbeitgebervertreter und drei
Arbeitnehmervertreter, letztere können zugleich Gewerkschaftsrepräsentanten sein,
müssen aber nicht. Die Airbeitnehmervertreter werden durch das
Landesmanagement in Abstimmung mit den Belegschafts- bzw.
Gewerkschaftsvertretungen aus dem Kreis gewählter Belegschaftsertreter bestimmt.
Dieser Weg hat sich als äußerst praktikabel erwiesen (vgl. Wiedemeyer 1991a,
p332). Die Bayer AG wird durch zehn Arbeitnehmervertreter des Gesamtbetriesrates
sowie fünf Arbeitgebervertreter vertreten sein; dadurch wird das Verhältnis der
Belegschaftsgrösse (Muttergesellschaft, Tochtergesellschaften) im Gegensatz zum
EG-Richtlienentwurf mit berücksichtigt (Wiedemeyer 1991a, p337). Bewußt sind als
Gäste in den Kreis der Teilnehmer auch Repräsantanten der europäischen
Chemiegewerkschaftsf¨deration (EMCEF) aufgenommen worden, um bie entwaigen
Konfliktstrategien der Richtungsgewerkschaften ausgleichend wirken zu können."
(Deppe 1991, pp 132)
The EWC history
The history of the Bayer Europa Forum is determined by its early start, before the
creation of most of the EWCs in the year 1996. Not being able to build upon other
experiences in the sector there was opted for a EWC which is especially in its
composition different from many others. It all started with an informal German
agreement of 17 June 1991. As such, Bayer was the first and only EWC in a German
company, until a formal EWC agreement12 was signed for VW in February 1992.
Verg (1988) and Wiedemeyer & Struck (1992) illustrate that Bayer has also in the
past played a pioneer role in introducing worker representation structures on a voluntary
basis before being obliged to do so by any law. Consequently, European wide
information and consultation was requested by workers representatives already before the
EWC Directive got adopted. In 1990 the German social partner organisations for the
chemical sector13, a common position (gemeinsamen Hinweise) on works councilcontacts at European level, “wobei jedoch keine Empfehlungen zur Gründung
europäischer Betriebsräte gegeben wurden; vielmehr wurde es jedem einzelnen
Unternehmen überlassen, im rahmen seiner Konzernstgruktur initiative zu warden”
(Wiedemeyer & Struck 1992 p.127).
Already in 1989, Bayer, IG BCE, and the University of Wuppertal started of a
project including seminars (Gestler 1991) and an exploration of the industrial relations in
the Bayer subsidiaries in France, Belgium, the UK, Italy and Spain (Wiedemeyer 1991,
p131). In the conclusions from all these preparations were found a high correlation with
Slomp’s hypotheses (1990) dividing the different types of industrial relations into 3
models, being the German model, the French and the English one. The awareness on the
12
The difference to the VW EWC was and still is, the employers involvement. The Bayer EWC was
composed jointly by worker representatives and central management and representatives from
management from the European subsidiaries, while VW had opted for an employee only EWC.
13
Bundesarbeitgeberverbandes Chemie and IG Chemie-Papier-Keramik, in Deppe (1992) p127
302
variety of systems, brought the actors to the conclusion that the employee-only works
councils from the German model, were not necessary the best solution for the EWC.
Deppe (p132) wrote about this the following;
"Hier ist eine schwierige Problematik nicht zu verkennen. Das deutsche Modell
hat im Gegensatz zu Mittel- und Nordeuropa bisher keine allzugroße akzeptanz in
West- und Südeuropa gefunden. Deswegen kann auch bei einer nur
konzernbezogenen Betrachtung das deutsche Modell nicht einfach auf die
Beteiligungsgesellschaften übertragen werden. Auch insoweit bietet sich daher das
Europa-Forum an, um die Dinge behutsam und organisch sich entwickeln zu lassen."
The issue ‘EWC’ was discussed in the beginning of 1990 in the “Konzernbetriebrat”.
Subsequently, its chair started talks with management, which were accompanied by IG
Chemie and the European industry federation Emcef. These talks were spread over the
period of appreciatively one year. The organisational questions dealt with were settled in
by this very small number of persons, resulting in the agreement signed on 17 June 1991.
On the basis of this central works council agreement (Gesamtbetriebsratvereinbarung)
was established the first Bayer Europa Forum in 1991.
In the first Europa-Forum held in March 1992 in Leverkussen, was attended by both
management and worker representatives from Germany, Belgium, France, UK, Italy and
Spain. As guests were invited the EMCEF general secretary, the Agfa-Gevaert central
works council chair and its European Human Resource Director. Speakers to the EuropaForum were an employer and an IG Chemie officer. The goal of the first meeting was to
present the different national representation structures and the expectations towards the
Europa-Forum. Content wise, the issue of environment, health and safety were debated.
As such German standards in this area were introduced as well in the other European
operations. Finally, discussions were held on the question of a social partnership in
Europe.
The second Bayer Europa Forum meeting took place from 22 to 24 March 1993 also
in Leverkussen. New, were the separate preparation-talks of management and worker
representatives. The main theme was the Bayer training policy. Both management and
worker represented presented the training systems in the various countries after which a
visit was made to a Bayer training-centre.
After the creation of the Bayer Europa-forum, other Bayer subsidiaries that are
multinationals on their own, like Agfa Gevaert attempted to set up an own European
works council (EWC). The board however decided that there would be only one EWC at
the level of the whole concern.
This decision, as well as the adoption of the EWC Directive on 22 September 1994,
brought a second constitutional pace for the Bayer Europa-forum on 4 October 1994.
That day, the original central works council agreement was replaced by a
‘Konzernvereinbarung’.
“Ähnlich wie die Gesamtbetriebsvereinbarung wurde die Konzernvereinbarung
zwischen Unternehmensleitung und Konzernbetriebsrat der Bayer AG
abgeschlossen. Die übrigen europäischen Standorte des Bayer-Konzerns schlossen
sich der Vereinbarung per Abstimmung an, habe sie jedoch nicht unterzichnet”
(Blank, Geissler & Jaeger 1996 p60)
The third Europa-Forum meeting from 4 and 5 October 1994, aimed most of all to
establish an agreement shaping the conditions for the EWC-functioning. On this basis
303
were invited representatives from all 11 countries where Bayer has operations; Germany,
Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, UK, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
The worker-representative preparation meeting started off with a personal
presentation of all the participants. Following this the chair of the Groups works council
presented the new agreement. In the following discussion the Belgian delegates asked to
make reference in the agreement to the EWC Directive, and to provide for countryspokes-persons. The Italian delegates demanded that all trade unions could be presented.
Referring to the already high number of participants Paul Laux called this problematic,
inviting some as a guest however was nevertheless possible. While the Spanish
participants requested the provision of the three working-languages to be on ‘a long term’
instead of a ‘medium term’ basis. Finally the UK representatives’ proposal was followed
to vote separately over the agreement and the rules of procedure. In the election of a
chair, a deputy chair, a political and an administrative secretary, all these mandates went
to German worker representatives.
The fourth EWC meeting held on 29-30 August 1995 was the first based upon the
new EWC-agreement. At this occasion a new chair was elected during the employee only
preparation meeting. In the joint meeting a special presentation was given on the French
operations.
Since then the changes in the EWC agreement and in its functioning are rather
limited. In 1997 a select committee was established. It is called “paritätische
Kommission” because it is a body composed jointly by workers and employers
representatives. After years of demanding an extension of this select committee, the
number of employee members was changed from 3 to 7 in 2002. In 1999 this select
committee had been given a role in the occurrence of exceptional circumstances.
The EWC agreement
The initial 1991 GBR-agreement contained five articles. It was replaced by the 1994
agreement consisting of nine articles. Nevertheless, with its size below 1000 words, it
ranks amongst the shortest agreements. In the pioneer times before the adoption of the
EWC Directive, this was however not exceptional.
Fig. 7 – the average word count of EWC agreements by year of signature
3000
average words per agreement
2500
2057
2000
1728
1252 1218 1269
1500
1000
2757
2350 2386 2290
950
802 728 811
500
0
1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
304
Typical for the Bayer EWC agreement is not only the limited number of words, but
also the fact that the initial agreement had been negotiated among a very limited number
of persons. The actors from employee representation side were: Paul Laux, who chaired
the joint works council from 1988 to 1993 and Hubertus Schmoldt, the Chairman of the
German Mine-Chemical and Energy Workers’ Union IGBCE, who was also member of
the Bayer supervisory board.
“Den Grundstein, den hat damals der Paul Laux, gelegt. Man darf es eigentlich
gar nicht erzählen. Es ist auf ganz wenigen Köpfen gewachsen. Ich weiß, daß der
Hubertus Schmoldt, jetzt Vorsitzender IGBCE, daß der damals ganz dominierend
dabei war. Ich habe es zufällig damals gesehen, wir hatten Tarifverhandlungen und
Laux und Schmoldt hielten die Köpfe zusammen. War kein anderer beteiligt, auch
kein Gesamt-BR. Das war einfach so. Laux war damals eine dominierende
Persönlichkeit und so war das Ding da. Man hat sich bemüht eine Tagesordnung zu
schuster, die garantiert konfliktfrei war. Ich habe nach dem zweiten Mal als ich dort
teilgenommen habe, da habe ich beschlossen, daran nie wieder teilzunehmen, bei
diesem Scheiß, weil wir Tagesordnungen hatten, die so gesteckt waren.”
The many years of EWC experience within Bayer are an advantage. The pioneer
status of the Bayer EWC agreement has however played more as a handicap, since
changes to the agreement have been proven very difficult to make. Demands for
improvements to the agreement were related to the definition of consultation, the role of
the EWC in exceptional circumstances and the size and compsosition of the select
committee. In 2000 only minor changes could be integrated in a new version of the initial
agreement.
“Dann ist das ergänzt worden. Man hat nie neu verhandelt, sondern man hat
immer ergänzt. Das hat noch mal einen besonderen Drive bekommen. Ich glaube
1996 ist die Richtlinie erlassen worden mit dieser Übergangszeit von 1999 und da
hat man richtig den Drive bekommen uns sich richtig nach vorne entwickelt. Ich
behaupte heute, weil 1996-1999, noch freiwillige Vereinbarungen zuließ, und wer
1999 nichts hatte, mußte mit diesem besonderen verhandeln und das hatte auch die
AG-Seite beflügelt vor 1999 fertig zu werden. Und hat damals auch Dinge
aufgeschrieben, die sie so ohne weiteres nicht aufgegeben hätten. Ich bin davon
überzeugt, wenn jetzt wieder die Debatte kommt, welche Ergänzungen, welche
Reformen müssen da sein, und wir würden jetzt darüber reden, dann würden uns die
AG deshalb entgegen kommen, damit sie nichts Neues als Auflagen bekommen. Das
ist so ein Spiel, was bei uns gespielt wird.”
In the august 1998 EWC employee only preparation meeting an Italian EWC
member demands that the agreement would be stronger respected and better put in
practice. Chair of the German Groups works council Mr. Gipperich aggress with this; the
revision of the EWC agreement is seen as an opportunity to get stronger consultation
rights.
In the 7 June employee only preparation meeting it is concluded that a legal action
against Bayer to get exceptional meetings on the issue of Agfa-Gevaert, would not have a
chance of success, and because management was not cooperative on this matter, it would
be proposed to denounce the EWC agreement. The compromise reached was that the
Agfa members of the Euro-forum could meet once in the fall of 1998 and anther time in
the spring of 1999.
305
Human Resource Director Mr Mohr, states in the 1999 Euro-forum meeting that the
constant threats of denouncing the agreement have no positive effect on the “social
partnership” at Bayer. After deliberating all considerations, the existing agreement can be
further developed. The soundness of the EWC agreement as such is proven for Mr Mohr
in the fact that the negotiations to install a EWC at Agfa, started of with the Bayer
agreement.
Before the final joint session of the 1999 euro-forum meeting was preceded by a
short separated preparation of the employee-representatives on the one hand and the
employers on the other. In this way, both sides could agree with the proposal from the
joint select committee to specify the provisions for additional meetings in exceptional
circumstances. This was included in the agreement and signed again on 15-11-2000:
Subsequent to any information about exceptional circumstances*, the Joint
Committee shall meet at the request of one of the parties.
A further meeting of the Joint Committee for an exchange of information and
opinions** may be convened in agreement with the Corporate Management in
individual cases.
Subsequent to consultation with the Corporate Management the Chair of the
European Forum may invite as a guest one representative of the employees of each
country where undertakings or enterprises are affected by the exceptional
circumstances.
The Corporate Management may also invite as guests representatives of the
main Bayer company in the European countries affected.
Both sides will try to ensure the most appropriate composition of their
representatives at the meeting.* As defined in Supplement III Item 3
** These terms shall be deemed to mean information and consultation.
Renegotiations of the EWC agreement were difficult, because certain discussion had
on for example the meaning of consultation that had to be seen as in the EWC directive
and not as in German co-determination rules.
There are Rules of procedure annexed to the agreement.
“Wir haben natürlich eine Geschäftsordnung für das Europaforum. Ob der
Begriff Geschäftsordnung der richtige Begriff ist, weiß ich gar nicht. Aber wir wissen
alle, daß wir auch von unserem Tagesgeschäft, von unseren Emotionen, die wir
mitnehmen geprägt sind. Und du hast vor einer Stunde oder zwei gefragt, wie
bekommst du Effizienz hin. Ich möchte formal vermeiden, daß ich meinen Kollegen
mit Paragraph 17, du gehörst nicht hierher, weil ich das für einen formalen Scheiß
halte. Wenn wir uns aber gemeinsame Regeln geben, die wir gemeinsam erarbeiten,
dann bekommt man das durch eine Erinnerung, bekommt man das schon wieder (…).
Deshalb habe ich gesagt, ich möchte so etwas. Es gibt ein Grundgerüst wie ich
darüber denke. Ich habe mit der AG-Seite darüber gesprochen. Und habe gesagt,
daß müssen wir Sieben mit ihnen zusammen mit ihnen schustern, daß alle Sieben
ihren Teil dazu beigetragen haben, dann lebt man das anders, als wenn drei was
machen, was andere machen sollen. Also wir sind dabei so etwas aufzustellen, ob
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das ....(?) am Ende den Namen Geschäftsordnung hat mit Paragraphen 1-17, daß
weiß ich nicht. Aber ein Regelwerk, so wollen wir es gestalten, wir Sieben mit den
AG.”
The EWC ressources
The Bayer EWC agreement only provides for the organisation of the annual plenary
meeting. For this Bayer covers the costs for travel and accommodation, according to
article 5 (d). Also based on the agreement, there can be invited in agreement with
management, representatives from the relevant trade unions in the participating countries,
and one representative from IGBCE and one from EMCEF.
Resources for continuous EWC work are available through the select committee as
well as under the form of a secretariat, a budget, time off and training. These means are
however not included in the EWC agreement.
The secretariat of the EWC is done by the same person who is taken care of the
secretariat of the Central Works Council (Gesamtbetriebsrat). Until his retirement in
1999, this role was taken up by Carl-Otto Czikowsky, and afterwards by Barbara Barz in
assistance of Irene Thiel. The official title of Barbara Barz (45) is “Büroleiterin des
Gesamtbetriebsrats bei Bayer”. Besides this function she is studying in “Berufskollegs
für Wirtschaft und Verwaltung in Leverkusen. Her services for the EWC apparently are
considered as secondary14.
Obscurity and vagueness is all that could be recorded about the budget of the EWC,
and especially about its amount. According some of the interviewed the budget is fixed
and covers the annual meeting only. This assumption is based upon the idea to hold a
EWC meeting in Antwerp, which was countered with the argument that costs for such a
meeting had to fit in ‘the’ budget. Also other initiatives, like for example language
training, have been refused upon budgetary arguments.
Without much precision on its amount, the German EWC chair confirmed that there
is a fixed budget.
Habt ihr eigentlich ein Budget für den EBR? - Ja.
Ist das festgelegt? - Ja.
Wie viel ist das? - Die Frage kann ich im Augenblick nicht beantworten. Kann
ich dir nicht mal im Ansatz.... Ist ein stolzes Budget. Müßten wir noch mal ... (?) bei
der Geschäftsführung. Ich bin da was die Zahl angeht bar jeder Vorstellung. … Das
hat sich auch eingefahren. Ein Europaforum da liegst Du schnell bei 70.000 Euro.
Das letzte mal haben wir uns überlegt, ob wir das nächste in Antwerpen machen. Da
bist du ruck zuck bei 70.000 Euro was nur ein Europaforum kostet. Wobei da nicht
alle Kosten dem Budget...also meine Arbeitskosten, meine Arbeitskraft wird einzig
und allein aus Brunsbüttel bestritten obwohl ich heute inzwischen einen Anteil von
20-25 % für das Europaforum arbeite. Wenn man die Kosten sauber auseinander ....
(?) würde, dann müßte auch das was ich koste zu 25 % dem zuschreiben. Da lege ich
14
An interview with her done in 1991 has not yet been transcribed yet, and the information given by her
could therefor not yet been taken into this report.
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gar keinen Wert drauf, weil unser Budget noch größer aussehe. Eigentlich müßte es
so sein. Trotzdem ist es ein stolzes Budget. Aber müßte noch mal nach...(?). Ich
könnte jetzt nur in der Phantasie sagen. Ich hätte keinen realen Bezug.
Wenn es eine besondere Veranstaltung gibt, dann geht das auch auf das Budget.
Ja. Und wenn es dann noch eine besondere Veranstaltung gibt, die das Budget
nicht mehr hergibt, dann überziehen wir unser Budget. Und machen aber deutlich
woraus das resultiert. Man kann nicht pro forma mal drei, zwei besondere
Veranstaltungen ins Budget reinstellen, sondern man kann nur das was man an
Wiederkehrendem hat... Unser Budget wird jetzt auch noch mal deutlich zunehmen
durch die .....(?) paritätischen Kommission.
The Bayer central management, and especially the European Human resource
Manager, Mr Börkly, seem to take a rather cautious attitude towards EWC expenses. For
example the hotel invoices have to be paid by the individual EWC members, which are
reimbursed afterwards. The argument for this is that the Hotel where the EWC members
stay during the meeting is, since 1998 no longer owned by Bayer.
Beyond the limits in the means that are allocated specially for the EWC are however
to be added the resources that the worker representation structures have at local and
national level. In some countries there are central works councils permitting the
employee representatives to prepare and coordinate their EWC-work. Furthermore some
national trade unions support and train their members in the Bayer Europa Froum.
Especially in Italy, Belgium and in Spain this is the case, and in the Netherlands and in
France not at all.
The Spanish member of the Europa-Forum, that recently also joined the select
committee, has 25% of his working time free for employee-representation-tasks.
Furthermore a general secretary of his trade union within Bayer who co-ordinates all
trade union activities, also those towards the EWC. While the Belgian select committee
member only has formally the ‘necessary time’ available to do representation tasks, this
is in practice a full-time mandate.
Thanks to the individual language skills of the Belgian select committee member,
documents could have been translated easily. If for translations or language training,
financing had to come from the EWC budget, then it has been proven extremely difficult
to obtain. This can eventually also indicate the limits of the importance given to the EWC
by the home country worker-representation structures. An example here is an e-mail that
was ignored for weeks because it was send in French to the EWC chair, who did not
understand it.
On the other hand, there has to be included among the EWC resources the finances
for the EWC chair to undertake, eventually together with other select committee
members, visits to foreign operations. As such important visits for the EWC cooperation
have been done to the Italian and Spanish operations.
In the EWC plenary meetings are presented 72 members. Forty-five of them
represent the employees of the various European operations of Bayer, while the 27 others
are central management and national management delegates.
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Fig.8 – Dates of the 12 annual plenary meetings of the Bayer Europa Forum
1st Europa
Forum
March 1992
7th Europa
Forum
19&21-Aug
1998
2nd Europa
Forum
22-24 March
1993
8th Europa
Forum
7-9 June 1999
3 rdEuropa
Forum
4-5 October
1994
9th Europa
Forum
14-16 June
2000
4th Europa
Forum
29-30 August
1995
10th Europa
Forum
29-31 Aug 2001
5th Europa
Forum
1996
6th Europa
Forum
1997
11th Europa
Forum
28-30 Aug 2002
12th Europa
Forum
17-19 Sept 2003
Since 1992, one single annual plenary session has been organised every year, in line
with the EWC agreement. As such, in September 2003 will be held the 12th meeting of
the Bayer Europa Forum. The venue for these meetings has always been in Leverkusen,
at the headquarters of the company.
Until 2000 the annual Europa-forum was held in May or June. Three reasons were
raised for the shift to the end of august or beginning of September. First of all this is a
moment when everybody has returned from holidays. Secondly, the EWC meetings have
been linked to the yearly meeting of the annual meeting of the “Leverkusener
Betriebsräteversammelungen”. A final reason had to do with the agenda of the boardmembers that are invited to attend the Europa-forum. And finally, in May or June there is
not yet much to say about the results of the ongoing year, which is more possible in the
second half of the year.
“Wenn wir den Termin im Mai hatten, da war zum laufenden wirtschaftlichen
Jahr noch nicht viel zu sagen, so daß sicher eher die zweite Jahreshälfte, der Beginn
oder Mitte des dritten Quartals, als besser dargestellt hat.”
The agenda of both the employee only preparation meeting as well as the joint
meeting with management are well prepared by the select committee.
Normally there is a half a day preparation meeting, where at the same time the
employee representatives meet separated from the management members of the EWC.
This happens in the afternoon and sometimes also in the evening of the first day. In 2003
there will be a whole day employee –only preparation because of the new elections of the
select committee members. The second day and a part of the third day are joint meetings
of the whole EWC. After which a 2 or 3 hour employee only debriefing meeting is
foreseen.
During the joint meetings the company results are presented and questions on current
problems are answered. Furthermore, special presentation of countries and activities were
given.
Exceptional plenary meetings have not yet taken place. Concerning the selling of the
copier-system division of Agfa-Gevaert, a special plenary meeting was asked for by the
employee representatives in the select committee on 4 December 1997. A special meeting
of the select committee itself took place on 9 December 1997. In the next ordinary select
committee meeting of 16 February 1998, it was decided that not exceptional plenary
meeting would be held on this issue.
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The employee-only preparation meeting is prepared by the select committee. Some
three months before the Euro-Forum meeting, the select committee send a draft agenda to
the country contact persons, asking them for input or opinions. Only from a few countries
feedback is received.
Etwa drei Monate vor dieser Tagung schreiben wir unsere Sprecher an, wir
haben in jedem Land einen Sprecher, und sagen, hör mal zu, wir haben uns gedacht
das und das soll auf die Tagesordnung. Bitte gebt uns noch Input was eurer Meinung
noch auf die Tagesordnung soll, bzw. wo eure besonderen Probleme liegen, was
eurer Meinung noch mal diskutiert werden sollte. Das ist die Resonanz, bis auf
weniger Ausnahmen, eigentlich so wie es zu erwarten ist, eher gering.
On this basis the preparation of the plenary meeting is done in a way that most of the
interventions are transcribed in advance and simply read from paper. The meeting itself
normally starts at 14h and is supposed to end at 19h. In 2002 a morning session was
added from 9h to 12h30, to elect the select committee members.
This time available for the employee-only preparation meeting is perceived as sufficient.
“Es gibt genug Zeit. Je mehr Zeit wir haben, das müssen wir auch lernen, um so
wortgewaltiger werden wir. Um so mehr wird erzählt. Je mehr Zeit wir haben, um so
breiter wird diskutiert. Ich habe es als Vorsitzender um so schwerer es auf den Punkt
zurückzuführen. Erst wenn wir merken, daß uns die Zeit wegläuft, dann sind wir
auch in der Lage zielgerichtet zu diskutieren. Also wir haben Zeit und das ist auch
besser geworden. Wir haben uns von Jahr zu Jahr verbessert. Wir haben eine
Schwierigkeit. Wenn wir Wahlen durchführen müssen, wenn Personen zu wählen
sind, dann ist die Zeit eigentlich zu knapp, weil dieses Wählen schon viel Zeit in
Anspruch nimmt. Das haben wir aber auch vor zwei Jahren geändert. Immer dann
wenn Wahlen anstehen, haben wir einen halben Tag mehr Zeit zur Verfügung als wie
wir jetzt haben.”
The structure of the preparation-meetings is repeated almost identically each year. It
all starts with a formal welcome, the adoption of the agenda and a presentation of the new
EWC-members. In 2001 there were 10 new members, and in 2002 there were 9 new
members.
Das ist was ich kritiklos übernommen habe. Wo ich immer mehr zu komme, daß
ich eigentlich... Ich habe das kritiklos übernommen. Ich halte es eigentlich für falsch
was wir dort machen, denn wenn der Neue sich vorstellt, daß ist für uns schön, wenn
wir ihn kennenlernen. Eigentlich müßten wir uns dem Rest der da ist, dem Neuen
vorstellen, damit der weiß wie er sich zurechtfindet
After this, the minutes of the previous meeting are adopted, the country-speakers
appointed and a report given from the activities of the select committee. Next on the
agenda of the last two years was the item of the “virtual working group”, the “social
charter” and the EWC-intranet-pages. Finally, perhaps the most important, is the
preparation of the questions for the next days joint meeting with management
representatives.
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For the worker representatives from the non-German subsidiaries, the preparation
meeting is judged as most important. Nevertheless, the way of it is organised still leaves
plenty of room for improvement. The installation of working groups has for example
been proposed as a way to increase its efficiency.
Para mi es mucho mas importante siempre la reunion preparatoria. Lo que pasa
es que hasta el momento, ha habido problemas de... no de comunicacion sino de
como organisar estas reuniones. Yo creo que a partir de ahora, todo esto va a
cambiar, entonces lo que nosotros intentamos, a nivel... cuando hablo de nosotros
quiero decir desde CCOO, es que en las reuniones preparatorias realmente se
prepare la reunion pero no solo se prepare la reunion, sino que... yo lo que pienso es
por ejemplo, en esta reunion preparatoria de mayo es intentar volverme a espana
con algun trabajo por hacer porque yo para ir alli y preparar una reunion, para
mino es... Yo lo que quiero es que se formen equipos de trabajo para no solo acudir
a las reuniones diciendo pasa esto pasa lo otro sino, yo que se, si hay que hacer un
grupo de trabajo sobre salud laboral a nivel europeo, o a nivel de condiciones de
trabajo, homogeneizarlas, pues impulsar todo este tipo de trabajo, para ello, para mi
es mejor las reuniones preparatorias que no la global, no?
The agenda of the joint meeting of the whole EWC is as stable and well planned as
the employee only preparation meeting. It starts on the second day at 9 in the morning
with a formal opening by employee side chair Hans-Joachim Möller and European
Human Resource Manager Wolfgang Böckly and some EWC internal information’s.
After which a presentation is given on the economical position of the company. This is
done by the president, Manfred Schneider until 2001, and since 2002, Werner Wenning.
This presentation takes about 45 minutes and is followed by a half an hour discussion. At
11h30 information is given on the items in Article 4 of the EWC agreement. In this part
questions are raised and answered by the board member responsible for Human
Resources and the strategy of the Group, Richard Pott.
In the afternoon and early in the morning of the third day there is time for the
presentation of specific countries or types of activities of the Group. In 1998, such a
specific presentation was given on the Benelux operations and the “kunststoff” activities,
in 1999 for UK and IRL and “pflanzenschutz” and in 2000 Spain and polyurethane and
introduction SAP. In 2001 Animal Care was presented and in 2002 Bayer Chemicals.
The agenda of these meetings and the reports of them indicate the focus on the
information and much less on dialogue or consultation. This is also recorded in the
discussion and interviews with EWC-members, especially with the non-German ones.
A ver nosotros en el foro nos informan... Normalmente, la reunion anual es
una... yo creo que la reunion anual, tal como esta muntada, si que no sirve para
mucha cosa, porque es... los resultados de la empresa, como va la empresa, una
exposicion de una de las partes de la empresa, una exposicion de un pais europeo y
contestar a las preguntas que nosotros hacemos, no? Entonces, dentro de la
comision paritaria, lo que, por lo menos la en que he estado yo, ha habido una
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detallada informacion sobre una de las patas de la empresa, pero detalada
informacion, pero nos referimos por ejemplo los planes de la gente que van a
despedir durante este ano, de que planta corresponde cada uno, estudios de
rentabilidades de diferentes plantas en europa, lo que se esta estudiando por otros
tipos de empresas, esto si que nos sirve. Lo que nosotros tenemos establecido es el
canal que hay de informacion, la empres lo que hace es: a traves del europa forum,
lo que hace es enviarnos... esto es el bulletin que nos envian ellos a nivel de
informacio, esto lo he traducido yo, pero por ejemplo... en este caso han informado
sobre lo de Belgica, hay otros casos que informan sobre todos los paises, o... por
ejemplo en este caso, no? en este casa seria de bayer chimi que afecta a todos los
paises europeos, y en que afecta, no? Pues explica el timing que van a hacer y el
impacto en el empleo. Esto seria a nivel de informacion lo que ahora estamos
buscando es el ambito de consulta, entonces ha habido unos primeros pasos en el
tema de Polimeros para poderlo hacer, o sea ya nos detallaron cuals serian todos
los pasos que van a seguir, y hasta ahora es tal como esta funcionando. Como ha
dicho Albert, hasta el momento era unicamente de informacion y lo que se esta
abriendo ahora es efectivamente que el tema de consulta se pueda discutir tambien.
While the German Chair of the EWC sees both positive and less successful
experiences in European wide consultation. In the interview with him, he gave the issue
of the Barcelona shared service centre as an example of goods consultation practice and
the Belgian joint venture with Shell as a failure.
Ich greife mal ein Beispiel raus, wo es nach meiner Auffassung hervorragend
funktioniert hat. Man hat vor drei oder vier Jahren entschieden, das Thema
Unternehmensrechnung, Rechnungsstellung, Wertermittlungen von einer dezentralen
Verfahrensweise zu Zentralisieren in Barcelona. Dort hat dieser
Konsultationsprozeß, wie sich was auswirkt, finde ich, sehr gut stattgefunden. Hat
sicherlich auch in den europäischen Ländern die meisten Emotionen ausgelöst,
denke ich mir jedenfalls, natürlicherweise. Und dort hatte man auch ein Thema wo
man viel entgegenspielen konnte. Das Thema Konsultation ist nach wie vor eine
Schwäche von uns und ist durchaus verbesserungsfähig. Information an uns und
vielleicht auch eine erste Einschätzung das Mitnehmen von Sorgen, die wir dann
formulieren, das funktioniert aber das Lösungen-Gegenüber-Stellen, was man auch
unter Konsultation versteht, das ist ein Problem aus den Strukturen wie sie bei Bayer
sind. Wenn bei Bayer ein Vorhaben ernsthaft beschritten wird, dann ist es vorher
durch so viele Institutionen gegangen wo man überlegt, wo man über
Notwendigkeiten nachdenkt, wo man auch darüber nachdenkt, was hat es denn für
Auswirkungen, daß es, wenn es dann formuliert wird, im Regelfall so ausgereift ist,
daß man zu einer Totalveränderung der Ausgangslage nicht zu erwarten ist, daß das
noch mal stattfinden kann. Wenn früher in einem Geschäftsbereich, heute in einer
Gesellschaft, wenn die so weit sind, daß sie sagen, wir glauben wir müssen das so
machen, dann müssen sie mit in den Vorstandsausschuß. Der Vorstandsausschuß
sagt ihnen dann, ihr dürft weiter machen oder beerdigt das Projekt, macht nicht
weiter. Wenn die auf den Weg kriegen, denkt mal weiter nach, dann wird gleich
gesagt, was hat das dann für Auswirkungen. Was hat das für Konsequenzen auch auf
das Personal. D.h. der Prozess ist so sehr weit. Das was die europäische Richtlinie
dort schreibt ist für mich ein wenig naiv. Das müßte man anders ansetzten, weil der
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Prozess an der Stelle quasi abgeschlossen ist. Nicht bösartig indem man unsere
Rechte nicht beachtet, sondern bis der Vorstand dann noch nicht endgültig hat
beschlossen das machen wir so. Aber alle die, die dem Vorstand zugearbeitet hätten,
die hätten den, wenn wir dann aus den Konsultation heraus noch ganz wesentliche
Dinge, verändern können. Hätten den so schlampig zugearbeitet, dass nicht zu
erwarten ist, das von schwarz nach weiß und von weiß nach schwarz Veränderungen
vorgenommen werden können.
Ich wollte nur sagen, dieses Share Service Center war das wichtigste Beispiele
über Konsultationen. Ein jüngsten Beispiel wo es unheimlich schlecht geklappt hat,
aber da sind auch die Rahmenbedingungen wieder so bescheiden gewesen, aber
objektiv hat es dort schlecht funktioniert. Das Beispiel Stammt aus Belgien. In
Belgien gibt es ein Join Venture zwischen Bayer und Shell in Antwerpen wo die
Anlagen jetzt zugemacht werden. Dort hat Bayer sehr früh gesagt eigentlich wollen
wir das nicht mehr. Bayer hat aber gesagt, ich kann mit euch noch nicht reden. Sie
waren dort auch in einer Zwickmühle aber eigentlich hätte Bayer mit uns reden
müssen. Ich kann mit euch noch nicht offiziell reden, im Detail, weil ich gar nicht
weiß, ob ich das darf, was ich dort will, denn ich bin verpflichtet erst mit meinem
Partner darüber zu reden. Aber vorher mußte Bayer sich so sehr festlegen, will ich
da aussteigen, warum will ich da aussteigen, was hat das für Konsequenzen usw.
Und das ging natürlich an unseren belgischen Kollegen und Kolleginnen nicht
spurlos vorbei. Die belgischen Kollegen und Kolleginnen waren über die Absichten
von Bayer mindestens so gut informiert, wahrscheinlich noch besser wie wir selber
mit den Konsequenzen. Bis Bayer dann mit Shell ...(?) Shell wir wollen mit dir reden,
aber die durften nicht sagen wir wollen aussteigen. Sie mußten mit ihrem Partner
reden. Und dann war ...(?) mit Shell dann klar gehabt. Und dann habe ich gesagt,
wenn das jetzt noch käme, dann wäre das nur noch ein reines Schaulaufen gewesen.
Ich weiß meine belgischen Kollegen haben das nicht so gesehen. Ich bin da
manchmal ein fürchterlicher Pragmatiker. Müßte man vielleicht mehr politisch dann
sein. ...(?) über den Schatten weg. Eigentlich ist es Gerede ... (?), wenn wir beide
miteinander geredet haben, ohne daß wir formal darüber geredet haben, dann kann
ich es nicht einsehen, wenn noch mal mit dir treffen soll unter einem Stichwort der
Tagesordnung und das gleiche mit dir formal mache. Da ist es schlecht gelaufen.
Euro-relevant information is send around in-between meetings. The number of info’s
send out varies every year. Between the 2000 and the 2001 Europa Forum meeting there
were distributes 14 European information’s to the country-speakers of the Europa-Forum.
Its number depends very much on the events occurring within Bayer. In the first three
months of 2003, there had been send out 3 such information’s.
Esto normalmente nos envian solamente cuando hay estas afectaciones a nivel
de empresa, entonces, tanto puede ser que te envien 1 como que te envien 8, no?
todo depende de como esta la situacion en este momento, no? mira hasta el momente
este ano llevamos 3, pero todo depende de la situacion.
313
Employee-only debriefing meeting
After the joint meeting with management, a short employee-only debriefing meeting
is held. At this occasion an evaluation is made of the Europa Forum meeting as a whole.
Last year this was done rather fast, since everybody was rather satisfied. In previous
years, it has however happened that the debriefing meeting was the occasion to give
certain tasks to the select committee, on issues that were not settled during the meeting
itself.
Zwischen einer halben und zwei Stunden, je nach dem. Im letzten Jahr haben wir
eine halbe Stunde gebraucht. Im letzten Jahr ist alles super abgelaufen. Das was wir
uns vorgenommen haben, haben wir umsetzten können. Also wir haben uns
eigentlich nur auf die Schulter klopfen müssen. Aber wir haben auch schon mal eine
kritische Bestandsaufnahme gemacht. Oder es wird der paritätischen Kommission
auch schon mal Arbeit übertragen, bitte macht das und das. Ich halte sie nach wie
vor für notwendig, daß man so eine Feststellung trifft. Haben wir was offen gelassen
oder nicht. Aber sie ist nicht mehr von so überragender Bedeutung wie sie es zu
Anfang war.
For this debriefing, the necessary time is guaranteed. There has not been reported
any complains that members rush out of the EWC-meeting before it is completely ended,
except then for some of the German EWC members.
Die einzigen, die immer schnell weg wollen ohne Essen sind die Deutschen. Alle
anderen legen wert darauf, daß man nach der Veranstaltung ... Ich habe einen riesen
Fehler gemacht bei einer besonderen Veranstaltung. Ich habe reagiert wie wir
Deutschen es machen. Laßt uns mal einen Eintopf machen. Also einen Gemüsesuppe
mit einem Stück Brot. Damit habe ich bei den spanischen, französischen,
italienischen Kollegen ganz verkehrt gelegen. Das hätte ich nicht machen dürfen.
Wenn schon, dann muß vernünftig gegessen werden. Man rennt nicht so
auseinander. Und wir haben es dann so gemacht, daß wir bis mittags immer durch
sind. Und die Flüge gehen am Nachmittag. Diese Zeitnot gibt es dann nicht. Es ist
einfach so, man kann sagen, es hat sich ausgelaufen. Man hat diskutiert. Entweder
hat man es geschafft. Der Zeitdruck entsteht im Regelfall, wenn wir unsere
Vorbesprechung machen. Da kommen auch noch mal Unzufriedenheiten mit, was
nicht funktioniert hat kommt mit, was man sich selbst zuzuschreiben oder was
andere auch haben. Das kommt am letzten Tag eigentlich nicht mehr, wenn wir es
vernünftig vorbereitet haben.
All EWC members have access to e-mail and telephone. Even though there are no
technical barriers to it, there is hardly any communication among EWC members’ inbetween meetings. This might be to the large size of the EWC.
Effizienz lässt zu Wünschen übrig. Es gebe eine größere Effizienz, wenn die
Gruppe kleiner wäre.
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The select committee and the structure of country contact persons do not completely
cure the size-handicap. This is because initiative and communication depending upon
EWC-resources are very much centralised and controlled by the EWC Chair. In
combination with a dominance of the German worker representatives that is perceived as
evident and a lack of language skills at their side, the real barriers come into view. Under
these conditions differences in trade union culture have not always been recognised
properly. The inter-cultural learning within the Bayer Europa-Forum has not been
conflict free.
At the occasion of the election of the select committee members in 1998, the tension
was accumulated with the EWC. Al this took place during the 18 August 1998 employeeonly preparation meeting of the plenary Europa forum. Where, Rolf Nietzard the chair of
the Central works council (GBR) and of the Groups-works council (KBR), proposed
Dieter Meinhardt, a German worker representative, to lead the election procedure. This is
accepted with unanimity. After this, Dieter Meinhardt explains that there will be elected
one chair and two deputies, all with a mandate of four years. Since the German works
councils represent 57.431 employees and all the other European subsidiaries together
only 25.303, it is his opinion that the chair and one deputy have to come from Germany.
An additional argument for this is their direct access to the central management. When
Dieter Meinhardt demands candidates to present themselves, a discussion is held in
which it is made clear that not the country or the number of employees in that country,
but the competences of the candidates should be crucial in the election. Hans-Joachim
Möller gets elected as chair. Apparently the argument of direct access to the central
management was not to be interpreted in sense of distance from the Headquarters, since
Ha-Jo Möller is based in Brunsbüttel, which is about 500km from Leverkussen. Some
non-German subsidiaries like the Antwerp one, is only 300km away from Leverkussen.
Anyway, after Ha-Jo Möller’s election as chair it was time to elect the two deputies.
At that moment Mrs. Tauisano, from Bayer Milano, demanded a renegotiation of the
EWC agreement, including representatives from all over Europe and taking the EWC
directive as a reference. Furthermore an extension of the select committee to eight
members was demanded and as such she presented herself as candidate. After the
counting of the votes, she had 94 votes which were not enough to be elected. Ha-Jo
Möller was elected with 429 votes, Thomas de Win with 339 and Robert van Wolputte
with 407.
Later on in the preparation meeting Emcef general secretary Franco Bisegna,
indicates that not only in Italy, but also in other countries some frustration has been
cumulated concerning the EWC functioning. He says that also other EWCs experience
this, and he calls for lowering this.
This however could not prevent that the Italian delegates had decided15 in May 1999
not to attend the next Euro-forum meeting in June 1999. At this occasion, however, a
new deputy chair needs to be elected, since the Belgian select committee member Robert
van Wolputte, is no longer member of the Euro-forum, since Agfa is no longer part of
Bayer. Ha-Jo Möller reminded about the agreement with management that for practical
reasons it had to be somebody for whom no interpretation would be necessary.
Furthermore the Belgian delegation stayed the second largest in the Euro-forum and
15
Five reasons were given for their absence in a message to the Chair of the EWC. First of all they had
requested to renegotiate the EWC agreement, to get an exceptional Euro-forum meeting on the AgfaGevaert matter, to get the select committee extended and the role of trade union officers (from italy) in
the EUroforum. Finaly they were disappointed that Emcef had not doen efforts to bring the views closer
to each other.
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therefore, he recommended the Belgian member Irene Gorrebeeck. A Spanish
representative did not agree with the language argument, while somebody else said it
would be good if a southern European member would be part of the select committee.
The Spanish candidate does however only get 90 votes, while Irene Gorrebeeck is elected
with 221 votes.
The frustrations cumulated through these election-procedures have thrown up
significant barriers to good cooperation and communication among the employee
representatives in the EWC. With the extension in 2002 of the select committee from 3 to
7 members these problems have been taken away. For this extension demands were
formulated already in 1998. At that time however, differences in trade union practices
threw up additional barriers leading to further misunderstandings and frustrations.
From the point of view of the non Germans, they had to get used to the German
‘mitbestimmung’ way of dealing with demands towards management.
“Met het dingen zo van, wij Duitsers, wij weten wat goed voor jullie is. En
eigenlijk zijn die gasten door die Mitbestimmung, zijn die ook een stuk, die.. Je stelt
een vraag, en je krijgt dan het antwoord dat je normaal van een directeur zou
moeten krijgen.
Die Mitbestimmung is een totaal andere manier van denken en doen, waar dat
wij dus.. Ik was daar hard, een tijd hard voorstander van, maar ook al niet meer. Ik
denk dat het bij ons eigenlijk redelijk gezond is. Iedereen blijft zijn eigen ding
verdedigen en het loopt minder door mekaar. Ik moet niet uw ding mee verdedigen.
Ik kan, ik denk dat wij bijvoorbeeld op vakbondsvlak met de mensen van Italië en
Spanje veel dichter staan, ja, ja. Hoe langer hoe meer.”
While for German worker representatives their more harmonic approach was
evident, and as such the critical attitude of their foreign guests, not always appreciated as
‘good’ trade union work.
Aber wir damals in einem beginnenden Lernprozeß. Man hat das sehr kritische
Nachfragen anderer, die nicht so nah anderer Zentrale waren, ich sage das mal
etwas ironisch, die wir immer eingeladen haben, die zu uns kommen sollen, zu uns
kommen dürfen, wenn die dann noch so kritische Fragen stellen, dürfen Gäste das
dann überhaupt. Das war ein Lernprozeß, den wir machen mußten. Wir haben alle
anderen auch unsere belgischen Kollegen eingeladen. Und die Belgier brachten so
viel Selbstbewußtsein mit, auch durch eigene Fragen wieder geprägt, daß es einige
von uns schier erschrocken hat. Dürfen die das denn. Dann ist man dahin gegangen
und ist sicherlich aus, das habe ich aus der Berichterstattung gehört, ich trete auch
niemanden zu nahe, ist dort auch mit einer gewissen Voreingenommenheit
hingegangen. Und da hat man anschließend ein Stückchen gelernt. Man hat gelernt,
daß unsere belgischen Kollegen mit einer anderen Art und Weise als wir das hier
machen aber genauso zielgerichtet an Problemlösungen rangehen wie wir das hier
in Deutschland
Adding to this the language barrier did not make the intercultural learning more
easily.
“J’étais impressionné par l’organsiation, j’étais choqué que les gens qui
dirigent l’Europa-forum ne parlent même pas un seul mot d’angalis. Donc, ils sont
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incapabeles de parler avec qui que ce soit dans l’entreprise qui ne soit pas
Allemand.”
This is clearly recognised from the side of the German Chair of the EWC. According
to him, over time this problem will be solved by itself. For the next generation of worker
representatives, language skills will be more evident.
Ich bemühe mich Englisch zu lernen. Aber das ist für einen über 50jährigen ein
längerer Prozess als für einen jungen Mann, eine junge Frau. Den anderen denen
geht es ganz ähnlich. Wir sind nicht so weit voneinander entfernt, außer unser
Sprachgenie Irene. Also es wäre schöner. Es wäre manches auch einfacher, wenn
man mal so am Rande ohne Dolmetscher direkt miteinander Reden könnte. Da ist
z.B. der spanische Kollege, der versteht sehr gut Deutsch, spricht ein bißchen
Englisch. Also das kriegen wir hin. Problem klingt belastend. Es wäre schöner, es
würde uns allen Helfen, wenn wir in der Lage wären uns, in welcher Sprache auch
immer, direkt zu unterhalten. Die uns nachfolgen, haben es da ein bißchen besser.
The visit of The Chair of the EWC and his German deputy to Italy form an indicative
example of how the german dominance in the EWC in combination with these language
and cultural barriers and the differences in trade union practices did not made it easy to
perform efficient transnational cooperation at the employee side of the Bayer Europa
Forum.
Der Thomas und ich haben eine ganz wahnsinnige Erfahrung gemacht. Wir
haben eine Frage hier versucht zu lösen. Unsere italienischen Kollegen habe immer
gefordert am Bayer Europaforum müßten die Gewerkschaftsvertreter teilnehmen.
Wir haben kein Problem mit Gewerkschaftsvertretern, nur habe ich mir vorgestellt,
wenn neben den 44 Delegierten aus 15 europäischen Ländern aus jedem Land mind.
noch ein Gewerkschaftsvertreter ist, daß sich aber kaum lösen lässt in Frankreich,
Belgien, Italien und Spanien, weil dort immer mehrere gleichberechtigte, gleich
starke Gewerkschaften sind und wir vielleicht aus jedem Land noch zwei
Gewerkschafter dazu einladen, aus Deutschland dann auch zwei, nun ist ja wichtig
es werden noch zwölf Gewerkschafter da sitzen haben, die hauptamtlich sind und
natürlich eine Daseinsberechtigung sich gegenseitig beweisen müssen. Und jeder
von denen sich zu Wort meldet und die sich nicht auf zwei Minuten disziplinieren
lassen sondern jeder seinen längeren seinen Monolog bringt, dann ist das am Ende
keine Veranstaltung der AN mehr von Bayer von Europa sondern die wird dominiert
von den Hauptamtlichen. Das wollten wir nicht. Ich habe keine Probleme mit denen
Zusammenzuarbeiten. Ich habe keine Probleme mit denen auch Kontroversen
auszustehen. Nur, es soll eine Veranstaltung der Bayer-AN sein, der Delegierten aus
den verschiedenen Ländern, die sollen das prägen. Das habe wir mal versucht, da
gab es mal eine Koalition zwischen den italienischen Kollegen und den
französischen Kollegen manchmal war der spanische Kollege dabei. Und dann
waren die alle besänftigt, waren von ihrer Meinung abgerückt, wir haben nichts
gegen Gewerkschaften. Aber hier ist die IG BCE, die betreuende Gewerkschaft bei
uns. Das müßte eigentlich genügen. Alle waren alle mit zufrieden. Nur die Italiener
haben wieder gesagt wir aber nicht. Das führte sogar dazu, daß die Italiener gesagt
haben und wenn ihr diese Frage nicht zufriedenstellend für uns löst, dann kommen
wir nicht mehr. So kann man doch nicht miteinander umgehen. Man kann immer
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wieder sagen, ich bin anderer Meinung als du, aber daß man sagt in einer solchen
Frage, das ist eine reine Verfahrensfrage, das spreche ich nicht mehr mit dir, das
kann doch nicht im Interesse von Zusammenarbeit liegen. Jedenfalls habe ich
gemerkt, da muß mehr hinter sein. Das ist nicht das was ich an Problemen sehe
sondern das muß mehr hinter sein. Dann habe ich mich in Italien angemeldet und
habe gesagt, wie wäre das, wenn wir nach Italien kommen und dort diskutieren. Mal
gucken wo dort das Problem ist. Und dann Thomas, De Win und ich nach Mailand
geflogen. Und dort waren dann zehn italienische AN-Vertreter, oder sogar zwölf,
also nicht nur, die die mit dem Europaforum zu tun hatten und zwei Gewerkschafter
saßen am Tisch. Thomas, De Win und ich hatten jeweils einen Flüsterdolmetscher.
Der Tisch war in U-Form gestellt. Ich saß an einem Schenkel, der Thomas am
anderen Schenkel, da hatte ich dann erst morgens eine Taktik eine Strategie dahinter
vermutet, daß uns weit auseinander haben möchte. Man ist dann auch fürchterlich
voreingenommen, wenn man weiß, daß da ein Konflikt ist. Und dann kam die erste
Auffälligkeit. Da hat die italienische Kollegin uns begrüßt., die Sitzung eröffnet, wie
gesagt da saßen zehn oder zwölf italienische AN-Vertreter. Dann haben wir
diskutiert. Thomas, De Win und Hajo Möller ausschließlich mit den beiden
Gewerkschaftsvertretern, ausschließlich. Es gab keine einzigen Diskussionsbeitrag
mehr von zwölf anwesenden AN-Vertretern Bayer in Italien. Sondern ausschließlich
mit den beiden und die haben ihre Interessen dann formuliert. Dann hat man immer
mehr gesehen wie die Strukturen dort arbeiten. Während bei uns und sowieso und
Belgien, betriebliche Probleme erst Mal mit den betrieblichen Vertretern gelöst
werden und die Gewerkschaft als Berater im Hintergrund ist oder als Partner da ist,
läuft das in Italien anders. Die erste Kontaktebene ist Unternehmen und der
zuständige Gewerkschaftsvertreter. Und die AN-Vertreter aus dem Unternehmen
sind ein Teil der Delegation.
EWC projects
In 1999, the idea was launched to have a working group on these cultural differences
within the EWC. This idea however has never been taken closer to realisation. Other
ideas for project-work within the EWC concerned a questionnaire on social data, a social
charter and the creation of a virtual (electronic) working group.
At the employee only meeting of the 8th Europa Forum, in June 1999, a questionnaire
was distributed to the employee representatives in the EWC. The questions dealt with the
worker representation structures, the location of the operations of Bayer, the investments,
working time, performed overtime, health care and trade unions. Due to a lack of time,
while this was the final point on the agenda, the questions could not be presented in
detail, as foreseen. Nevertheless the employee representatives were asked to complete the
questionnaire and return it by October 1999.
At the June 2000, employee only preparation meeting, the results are presented and
compared. Unfortunately not all countries had completed and returned the questionnaire.
The answers from Italy, Ireland, UK, Greece, Finland and France are missing. A
presentation is given on the results and a complete report distributed. This report will be
completed later on when the missing countries can be added. On the question what to do
318
with the collected data, the proposal is made to take one item out of the questionnaire to
continue to work further on that within the select committee. It is the issue of Health and
safety that is proposed for this.
The questionnaire was a German initiative. The idea was to develop some kind of
database that could support social dialogue. The lack of cooperation from some of the
countries disappointed the German worker representatives in such a way that the project
did not get any further. Perhaps certain difficulties in the approach had not been
considered enough in advance. Also afterwards this initiative has not been evaluated in a
way that lessons were drawn from the experience made.
Mijn duitse collega's waren heel ontgoocheld dat heel wat landen dat niet
ingevuld hadden. Maar die vragenlijst was gewoon veel te moeilijk. Ten eerste die
was in het engels. Men begreep niet wat, wij hebben dus op die cursus gans die
vragenlijst overlopen, ik heb die dan zogezegd ingevuld vanuit mijn hoofd. Ik heb
daar een halve dag over gedaan, …en dan hebben ze ingezien, ok, daar is iets mis
mee. Ja maar dan zij Thomas, dat is opgesteld door nen universitair. Ja maar nen
universitair heeft daarom nog geen voeling met wat er leeft in … Als ze nu vragen
wat verdient gij hier, of hoe zit het met het pensioenstelsel daar, wat zit daarin, dat
is…
Much more successful was the idea to develop a code of conduct for Bayer, a so
called “social charter”. This initiative came from the Spanish delegates at the end of the
2000 employee-only preparation meeting. In January 2001 a draft had been send to all the
employee representatives in the EWC, so that this could be discussed in the employee
only meeting in August 2001. At that occasion a neogtiationmandate was given to the
select committee. With success the social charter could be adopted in the 2002 EuroForum Meeting.
The Belgian Employee representatives were impressed by this achievement.
Especially since it is applied in practice also in Belgium.
…ongelooflijk. Er stond o.a. in, maar ik wist dat dus zelf, niet…. Als er
vacatures zijn in een land, moet dat bekend worden gemaakt worden in alle
vestigingen. En op een bepaalde dag krijg ik een telefoon van onze Human
Resources manager, en die zegt, zeg Mevrouw Gorrebeeck, ik wil u maar verwittigen
dat er vanavond aan de poort een actueel ligt waar dat alle vacatures van alle
vestigingen van België op staan. Dat je weet dat wij het sociaal charta volgen. Ik
zeg, dat meen je niet. Ik wist dat dus echt niet. Dat ooit zoiets verdoken, maar
blijkbaar waren ze al vanuit HR vanuit Duitsland toch al die managers verwittigd
hadden, dat ze dat moesten doen.
In the interview with the Spanish delegates they indicated that they got the idea from
their contacts with members from the EWC of Freudenberg, another German Chemical
Company with operations in Spain.
Pues si, esta carta social fue idea de Bayer Espana, de Feliu, que despues la
empresa la recorto, pero bueno, tenemos una charta social, pues a mi me gustaria
pues por ejemplo que fuera comparada, con... yo me estuve viendo la de
Freudenberg y me parecio que era interesante... Otra cosa interesante, que esto ya
es mas dificil es.. Panasonic a nivel espanol presento... tiene un acuerdo con la
direccion, para que el tema de las nuevas tecnologicasno influyera en los puestos de
trabajo, que la implantacion del sab, que no supusiera destrucion de puestos de
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trabajo. En Bayer es asi y si se pudiera en proximos convenios introducir seria
bueno, aunque lleguemos un poco tarde, pero bueno, hay que seguir metiendo cosas
en este aspecto, no?
PK: El acuerdo social hay habido dificultades para que los demas lo aceptaran
o la direccion?
PU: No, lo que pasa es que hicimos un acuerdo, esto si quieres te lo puedo
enviar, nosotros hicimos un acuerdo que se redacto, se envio y despues Ayo supongo
que lo discutio con la empresa, y la empresa lo acepto, pero recortando... Uno de
los puntos que nosotros, y asi lo puse en el plenario, es que estabamos de acuerdo en
esta charta social, pero eramos de acuerdo que fuera una charta dinamica, que se
pudiera ir moviendo, porque en su momento, habiamos planteado que todas las
empresa subcontratadas que tiene Bayer, tambien fueran participes de esta charta
social. Esto desaparecio de la charta social. Entonces lo que queremeos es de que en
proximas reuniones este tema pueda aparecer. Porque nos interesa de que... en
espana se ha aconseguido que todas las empresas de empleo temporal tengan las
mismas condiciones que las empresas donde trabajan, nos interesa ahora que para
las empresas subcontratadas suceda lo mismo, no?
PK: Como se pondra en practica? Tienes posibilidades en el euroforum de
controlar que el acuerdo social es respetado por todo el mundo?
PU: A ver, no hay ninguna comision de control. Bayer lo que si ha hecho es en
su pagina internet y intranet tiene un acuerdo de responsabilidad social donde hace
mencion de la OIT, de la ONU, etc. Lo que pasa es que, que yo sepa, en ningun sitio
esta reflejado el acuerdo social de Bayer. Nosotros aqui en espana, existe una
revista que publica la empresa que se distribuye a todos los empleados y la hicimos
publicar, esta charta social para que todos los empleados tuvieran conocimiento de
la charta. Lo que yo desconosco es si a nivel europeo esta charta ha tenido la
misma repercusion o no. En este momente no tenemos ningun mecanismo de control
o comision de control que esto se este llevando a cabo.
PK: Tiene el mismo valor en los otros paises?
PU: Si, si, si, esta es una charta social aprobada por el comite europeo y la
direccion de Bayer, para la union europea.
Another idea launched at the 2000 meeting was to set up a working group, not with
additional meetings, but through e-mail communications. It would be a so called “virtual
working group”. The Idea resulted from the unsuccessful proposal to have a real working
group on intercultural learning, and the idea to apply for a Leonardo project on automatic
interpretation in such a working group. The Belgian select committee member had been
disappointed because there was never mobilised the necessary support or resources to get
such an application done. As such she invested the energy to get such a virtual working
group. The select committee decided in December 2000 to go ahead with such a virtual
working group, and in the August 2001 employee only preparation meeting, an extensive
discussion was held on the virtual working group. It was agreed to let this virtual working
group deal with the Health and safety-questions resulting from the answers on the
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questionnaire. Certain promises and commitments were made (for example from
EWCEF) at that time that were not realised later on. Finally, in 2003, Irene Gorrebeeck,
the animator of this virtual working group, had to admit that unfortunately she did not
have the time to keep this initiative going. The restructuring of Bayer, and the
negotiations accompanying the collective dismissals were more important then this
virtual working group. Nevertheless, it has functioned for a while this virtual working
group of the Bayer Europa Forum.
Er is er éne geweest he, een virtuele werkgroep rond veiligheid en. Waar we dus
een conflict hebben, waar dat oh, begrenzen hoe, wat en hoe. Maar ik zei, jullie
Duitsers met jullie regels, laat dat toch een keer groeien. En dan hebben ze gezegd,
awel, doe jij het. Jij mag dat coördineren. Ik heb dat dus geprobeerd, virtueel,
alleen via email. En de conclusies waren, je moet daar tijd voor krijgen om dat te
doen, je moet een middel zijn om. Ik vertaalde dat voor iedereen, maar, ik had ik dus
ook geen tijd. Je moet daar de toestemming voor krijgen van uwe werkgever. Je
moet mekaar een keer op voorhand gezien hebben, omdat je weet met wie dat je
praat. Een thema zoeken dat gemeenschappelijk was, dat was al heel moeilijk. Hier
wou men arbeidskledij. In het noorden, waar alleen marketing en verkoop is, dus, wij
vonden in België een thema. Het is dus niet evident om dat te doen, maar het zou wel
heel boeiend zijn. En we zijn daar Reinhard Reibst geweest en die had beloofd van
daar iets rond uit te werken. Of een voorstel te doen. En die heeft dat toen niet
gedaan, en na de laatste Europese ondernemingsraad zei hij, ik kom eens naar
Brussel. En we hebben gekeken welke subsidiemogelijkheden dat er waren, ik heb
dan al die verslagen opgestuurd, en we gingen daar dan nog wel eens over spreken.
Maar dat is zoiets, dat was in het kader van al die afdankingen is dat dan niet meer
belangrijk he. Als je moet onderhandelen om uw 3000 mensen, dan ..
The 2002 and 2003 efforts to set up intranet or internet pages on the activities of the
Europa-Forum are an indirect result of these efforts in this virtual working group.
Finally the whole EWC, employee representatives and management, issued, in
August 2001, a resolution on the EU White book on Chemical policy, the so called
Schörling-report. For the 2003 Euro-forum meeting a discussion is scheduled on the
Framework Agreement on Tele-work. Nevertheless some
Select committee
The select committee of the Bayer EWC is called “Joint-committee Bayer Europa
Forum” or in German “Paritätische Kommission”. It is composed by three employee
representatives the EWC chair and its two deputies) and three management delegates.
The select committee is not mentioned in the EWC agreement.
For this reason, the select committee meeting adopted its own rules of procedures in
their meeting of 30 October 1997. In the rules of procedure are provided for 3 or 4 select
committee meetings in-between the Euro-forum meetings. Invitations for the select
committee meetings are send out by the chair of the Euro-forum. The first year these
rules were applicable there was already an exceptional select committee meeting on 9
December 1997 in Mortsel (near Antwerp, Belgium) on the issue of the selling of the
copier-division of Agfa-Gevaert.
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Through the years the “Paritätische Kommission” of the Bayer Euro-Forum has
developed a practice of negotiation. On most of the issues, however, negotiations have
been very difficult, and successes were only reached after many years of discussions. An
important substantive agreement reached within the select committee is the Social
Charter. In the exception of this, most of al issues of select committee discussions and
negotiations were related to internal EWC procedures.
For example the demand for the extension of the select committee and the right to
extraordinary plenary meetings to deal with exceptional circumstance, have been debated
for many years in the select committee. The solution for the exceptional circumstances
was found in extraordinary select committee meetings extended to the countries
concerned. Another demand was to enlarge the half a day employee only preparation
meeting to a full day. This was accepted only for the occasion of elections of select
committee members. The demand from the select committee members to visit workerrepresentatives in the various countries was achieved.
On the timing of the information and the lack of consultation, the employees
confirmed their wish to co-operate in a confidential way. The management members of
the select committee regretted that they were not informed in advance about the initiative
of the social questionnaire. The changes and rewriting of the agreement has also been an
item for many select committee meetings.
According to the representation of the Spanish, Italian and French workforce in the
EWC, discussion were held and visits were made by select committee members to these
countries. Möller and De Win went to Italy, Möller and HRM Böcly went to Spain and
Möller with HRM Zander to France. Normally Irene Gorrebeeck would have joined HaJo Möller to Italy, but finally he went alone. Also to France he went alone, without that
the two other select committee members knew about this. Apparently, the select
committee did not always work perfectly as a team.
The select committee did obtain the commitment of management that all delegates
would have access to e-mail, fax and phone. For the translation of the Europeaninformation’s send out to the EWC members, each country contact person would be
informed about the possibilities. Management asked for the introduction of a threshold so
that not all information’s would have to be sent out as European information. This was
turned down by the select committee, after this was discussed in the employee
preparation meeting.
The composition of the select committee, and the changes in this, had some influence on
the internal cooperation in the EWC, as was mentioned before. In the August 1998 Euroforum employee only meeting a new chair was elected, in 1999 the Belgian select
committee member had to be replaced. And in 2002 the Select committee was extended
from 3 to 7 employee-side members. These seven persons are; Ha-Jo Möller (D), Thomas
de Win (D), Irène Gorrebeeck (B), Pedro Urbano (Es), Maria Grazia Taurisano (It), JeanGuy Haddad (Fr) and Russell Stables (UK). From the management side there are Mr
Böcly, Human resource director and Dr Heenen and Gert Verfuss.
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Fig. 9 – Select committee meeting from the last 5 years
30-10-1997
03-12-1997
09-12-1997 (ex)
16-02-1998
12-05-1998
26-10-1998 (eo)
26-11-1999
03-11-1998
25-02-2000
17-11-1998
24-02-1999
15-03-1999
23-04-1999 (ex)
04-05-1999 (eo)
17-05-1999 (eo)
28-05-1999
Eo = Employee only select committee meetings
Ex = exceptional meeting
04-12-2000 (ex)
05-04-2001 (ex)
+5 regular meetings
28-09-2001 (ex)
12-03-2002 (ex)
12-07-2002 (ex)
In the 1999 Euro-forum meeting, it was promised that after each select committee
meeting, a summery of the discussed agenda items would be made available to the
country-contact persons. Since it took too long before the formal minutes were adopted
by both sides, the chair of the select committee would immediately after the meeting
simply inform the country contact persons of the items on the agenda.
In May 2000, an English language seminar was organised for the three select committee
members. Even though this was a positive experience, bringing the employee side select
committee member definitely closer, there was never held a second seminar like this.
Anyhow, Irene the Belgian member spoke German so that there was no need for
interpreters in the meetings. With the extension of the select committee from 3 to 7
employee side members, meetings will become less fast and spontaneous because of the
interpretation. To keep the flexibility of the past as a potential there will be kept some
kind of bureau within the select committee. This Bureau would be composed of the Chair
and its two deputies.
Mr. Böckly stated in his introduction speech to the Bayer Europa Forum that it is an
important channel for information and communication. Furthermore he saw an important
role to be taken by the select committee. Of consultation, he did not speak.
Management presents the EWC, still in 1999 as a pioneer of European social
dialogue in the chemical sector, because it was among the first agreements establishing a
EWC before the Directive. At the 1999 Euro-forum meeting Human Resource Director
Mohr, recognises that improvement can be made, with an eventual enlargement of the
select committee or the improvement of dialogue possibilities.
The Chairman of the Board of management is Werner Wenning. From the other four
members of the board of Directors, Richard Pott, holds the responsibility over the
strategy and Human resources, which is most important for the EWC. Manfred
Schneider, the former Chair of the Board, is now the chairman of the supervisory board.
Through regular discussions with the Board of management, the Supervisory board is
kept constantly informed of business policy, corporate planning and strategy. It has to
approve the annual budget and the financial statements, taking into account the auditor's
report.
It is remarkable in the history of the Bayer that over the 140 years of its existence it
only had 11 different chairmen. In the early years of the Euro-Forum this function was
323
taken by Hermann-Jozeff Strenger (CEO from 1984 to 1992) and later on by Manfred
Schneider (1992 to 2002) and Werner Wenning (since 2002).
This Bayer Supervisory board consists of 20 members. Half of them are elected at
the Stockholders Meeting, while the other half are elected representatives of the
workforce. As such, the vice chair, Erhard Gipperich, is the chair of Bayer's group and
central works council. Other Chairmen from works councils in the Bayer supervisory
board are Karl-Josef Ellrih (Dormagen) Karl-Heinz Huchthausen (Haarmann & Reimer,
Holzminden), Petra Kronen (Krefeld) Reinhard Wendt (Walsrode Business Park).
Furthermore three important German Trade unionists are member of the Bayer
Supervisory Board; Hubertus Schmoldt, the chairman of IGBCE, Sigfried Wendlandt, the
North Rhine District Secretary of IGBCE, and Dieter Schulte the former Chairman of the
DGB.
structures
In the 1998 employee only preparation meeting, the Belgian "interzetel" is presented.
In the following discussion it becomes clear that not all countries have similar
opportunities to prepare and develop their EWC work. In Germany there is BR, GBR and
KBR. In Spain some kind of “interzetel” has been tried established, without much
success.
The German worker-representation structures have proven to be crucial for the
functioning of the EWC. In the chairman-ship of the central works council (GBR) and
Groups-works council (KBR) a similar stability or conservatism is to be found as on the
side of the chairman of the board of the company. In the early years of the EWC, from
1988 to 1993, Paul Laux chaired the Central works council. Rolf Nietzard chaired both
the central works council (1993-1998) and the group’s works council (1995-1998). After
1998, Erhard Gipperich took both functions. Since 2002, the chair of the Central works
council is taken by Thomas De Win, the deputy chair of the EWC. The cooperation
between the EWC and the German representation structures could be improved when
Thomas de Win would become also the chair of the Groups Works Council and perhaps
also of the Euro-forum.
The Belgian select committee member Irene Gorrebeeck has in the past always been
invited to the "wirtschafts auschuss" of the German Groups Works Council. It is not clear
how this practice will be continued now that the select committee is enlarged.
In the second half of 2002 an increasing number of collective dismissals were
announced in several of the Bayer operations. It would be interesting to research whether
the EWC has served for coordination of the negotiation of social measures accompanying
these dismissals in the various countries. At the time of the introduction of the Barcelona
“accountability” shared service centre, some kind of transnational coordination of trade
union actions was performed throughout the EWC-contacts. Even though the resulting
actions were however not completely successful.
Dan hebben we, in die 4 landen hebben we dat meegedaan in die zin dat we in
Milaan, en in Barcelona pamfletten uitgedeeld heeft, dat wij hier zo een
hongerstaking gehouden hebben, dat in Milaan weet ik niet meer. Dat men in
Frankrijk 2 uur zijne computer uitgetrokken heeft. Allez, dat was de
324
gemeenschappelijke actie die we ooit gedaan hebben, en dan hebben we nog willen 1
doen ook daar rond. Opvallen en…. Maar dat is afgeknapt op de Duitsen. Ik had
aan M…. gezegd, doe jij mee? En hij zei, ik zal het u laten weten. Maar daar heb ik
nu ook al ontdekt, als men geen antwoord geeft op een vraag, dan is het een
moeilijke vraag. Of men doet alsof men die niet gesteld heeft, en hij is naar een
taalcursus vertrokken en ik heb geen antwoord meer gekregen. En wij hadden ons
met de Fransen en de Italianen, en Nederland, wij waren akkoord om de 14de naar
Duitsland te gaan in Februari. Omdat daar een grote vergadering was met het
management van gans Europa, en wij gingen dat daar iets met … doen, hier willen
ze direct met 2 bussen, maar soit. Maar dan bleek dat de Italiaanse collega, enkelen,
die moest dat vliegtuigticket betalen. De franse collega’s, die wilden komen met een
auto. Wij wilden dus met een bus. Maar omdat de Duitsers niet antwoordden,
hebben we dat afgeblazen. En nadien, en daar ben ik eigenlijk nog altijd kwaad
voor, meen ik dat men ons daar in Duitsland zo uitgelachen heeft. En ze konden
geen bus bij mekaar krijgen, en daarmee is het niet doorgegaan. Dat steekt mij, ja,
dat vind ik nog altijd niet fijn.
Both EMCEF as IGBCE are represented in the Bayer Euro-Forum. The involvement
of trade unions from other countries has for the Italian delegates lead to a conflict. Even
though EMCEF was asked to mediate in this, its General Secretary, Franco Bisegna, said
that with the available resources support towards EWCs had to be done in a decentralised
way. In other words, IGBCE had to do some kind of European trade union coordination
for the Bayer Euro-Forum. When in 1999 the Italian delegates decide to stay away from
the Euro Forum, one of their five reasons for this is that Emcef did not undertake actions
to bring the views closer together.
Also on two other occasions, support was expected from EMCEF. This was in the
application for the Leonardo Project and for the formulation of amendments to get the
Bayer EWC agreement improved. During the 1998 employee only preparation meeting it
was agreed that the select committee would be assisted by Rolf Jeager (IGBCE) and
Franco Bisegna (EMCEF) to prepare a proposal, which would be presented towards
management in the course of 1998 so that the 1999 euro forum can decide on this matter.
In the introduction of the agreement management and group’s works council commit
themselves “das Europa forum weiter zu entwikeln”. In practice there has been a lot of
procedural progress made through hard negotiations within the select committee and with
the necessity of a lot of patience.
A large variety of expectations was recorded among the different EWC members. In
the evaluation of the EWC in the light of their expectations, most of them conclude that
the amount of information has increased in such a way that this is getting quiet good. The
325
information however could sometimes be given in an earlier stage. And most of all there
is still a lot of progress to be made on the side of “consultation”.
Nevertheless the select committee of the EWC could make important negotiation
experiences. The most important substantial result from this is the Social Charter.
References
Wiedemeyer, G. and Struck, W. (1992) Das Europa-Forum der Bayer AG, in Deppe, J.
(ed.) Euro-Betreibsräte: Internationale Mitbestimmung-Konsequenzen für Unternehmen
und Gewerkschaften, Gabler, Wiesbaden.
Verg (1988) page 372 in Deppe 1992 p 125
The interviewees
Irene Gorrebeeck (B)
Annemarie Koning (NL)
Jean Guy Haddad (FR)
Feliu Burgada (ES)
Hajo Möller (D)
Thomas de Win (D)
Participation in the EWC preperation meeting
Attendence in the Belgian "Interzetel" Central works
council.
Pedro Urbano (Es)
Hajo Möler (D)
Kent Karlander (Emcef)
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08-05-2000
17-05-2000
26-05-2000
18-05-2000
31-05-2000
30-05-2000
04-07-2000
14-06-2000
29-08-2001
June 2003
13 pages
12 pages
12 pages
7 pages
20 pages
18 pages
17 pages
21-03-2003
17-03-2003
02-04-2003
19-06-2000
29 pages
52 pages
50 pages
6 pages
The Italian Food Group
Volker Telljohann
Summary
The EWC of the agro-food group was set up in 2000 and is thus still relatively
young. Part of the problems of this EWC are certainly the due to a lack of experience.
Furthermore, there are problems that are linked to the structural characteristics of the
group itself. Indeed, this group is still strongly anchored to the Italian tradition. So also
inside the EWC the Italian industrial relations are dominant and prevent the development
of a representation structure that is truly European. Inside the EWC the Italian culture
clashes with the other profoundly different industrial relations cultures. As a result, the
search for a shared strategy has thus become much more difficult. Furthermore, there is
the management approach that until now how proven to be little respectful of the rights
of the EWC. As a result of these problems and obstacles the EWC must today aim at an
improvement in its technical and operative functioning, as well as achieving a real role
in providing information and consultations from the political standpoint. In order to
achieve these objectives it is nevertheless necessary to improve internal cohesion through
processes of intercultural learning.
The Group
The food company was founded in Parma in 1877 from a bread and pasta shop and
currently represents the leading Italian food group for the production and marketing of
pasta, a sector which it also leads on a world scale. The production activity is also
focussed around bakery products and on ready sauces occupying the top position on the
Italian market and third position in Europe. In 2001, from its plants operating in Europe,
Asia and America a total of 1,265,000 tonnes of food products were produced in the
shape of: wheat pasta, egg and filled pasta, ready sauces, bread surrogates, plain and
filled biscuits, cakes and snacks, crisp breads. The company attitude maintained in the
international encounters has always been that of a branded industry that has made of
quality its own added value. Out of respect for this principle we should consider the
substantial and continuing investment equal to 70 billion lire in 2000, channelled into the
activities of product and process research and development.
In the markets of the countries of reference, the Group as a whole has recorded a
further 9% growth in sales in 2000 and the vast range of products has gone beyond the
Italian border and has carved itself out a substantial portion of the world markets (Graph
1). In 2001 there was a rise in sales on the foreign market by about 10%, confirming and
actually bettering the previous year’s figures. Particular interest has been aroused by the
Group’s energetic expansion in the United States market where the market share grew
from 11% to 13%. The activities of the Group have brought the turnover to a
considerable figure of 2,200 million Euro, with an increase of approximately 5% as
compared with 2000.
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Graph 1: Market share abroad, 2000
11%
USA
22%
Turchia
14%
Svizzera
20%
Country
Svezia
10%
Messico
41%
Grecia
4%
Giappone
7%
Germania
15%
Francia
33%
Brasile
7%
Australia
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Market shares
Source: Balance 2000.
The management headquarters of the Group’s organisational structure are located in
Parma, Italy, and is made up of network of 15 companies spread out across most of the
world, touching four continents: America, Asia, Australia and Europe (Graph 1). The
production currently takes place in 27 facilities and production plants, 20 of which are
located in Italy, thus subdivided: 8 mills, from which about 70% of the necessary raw
materials are obtained, 7 pasta plants, 11 bakeries and 1 plant for frozen foods and ready
meals.
The Group’s staff levels on 31st December 2001 in Europe was equal to 7,033
people, of whom 5,406 in Italy (Table 1), thus revealing a company structure still deeply
rooted in the Italian territory and only partially oriented to assuming a global
configuration. Considering the employment values in percentage terms the
preponderance of the Italian working population in the group is even more apparent:
76.8% of the group’s workforce is concentrated in the parent company in Italy. Between
2000 and 2001 the group’s employment level underwent a slight drop going from 7,340
in 2000 to 7,033, as previously mentioned in 2001. It is worth recording a drop in staff
between 1999 and 2000 by 1,151 people mainly due to the effects of a company that was
part of the holding leaving the Group as a consequence of the growing divergence of
strategies, distribution channels and technologies that did not make belonging to the
Group economically favourable. The whole share issue of that company, which has 752
workers, was transferred from the Holding to a finance house owned by the Group and
so, while remaining under the control of the Group’s Chairman, the operational results
did not flow into the Holding’s balance sheet. By observing Table no.1 it can be seen that
the world employment level in 2001 went down by about 300 people, while the European
and Italian level went up significantly. Hence, it can be argued that the company
strategies still tend to be concentrated on the Italian territory or at most the European one.
Table 1: Workers of the Group in Europe, in the years 1999-2000-2001
Country
France
Germany
Greece
Total 1999
59
43
144
328
Total 2000
69
353
178
Total 2001
67
364
187
Sweden
Norway
Denmark
The Netherlands
Benelux, Iberia, Switzerland, Austria, United
Kingdom
Italy
Various services
First courses
Bakery
Total Italy
Total Europe
Total World
Source: Balance sheet 2000 and 2001.
655
66
18
654
64
18
6
17
18
19
1652
1305
2564
1614
1231
2422
1604
1257
2545
5521
5784
8491
5267
6624
7340
5406
6755
7033
In organisational terms there is a load-bearing horizontal structure inside which a
further two operative business structures branch out: First Courses and Bakery Products.
The matrix organised structure derives from the transformations in 2001 aimed at
obtaining a greater focalisation on markets and products of competence. In 2001 two
operative structures were set up at world level called: First Course, for Pasta, Sauces and
Gastronomy; the second one for Bakery products. In 2000 the Group sold off the logisticdistributions branch to a controlled company so as to offer a link between producer and
seller in the world of Groceries through a capillary presence on the territory (over 80,000
points served). In 2001 the Group confirmed its pre-eminence in Italy on the pasta
market, holding 32.8% of the bakery products, 31.2% of biscuits and 48.9% of crackers
and 25.1% of sauces. The management of the two new business units is entrusted to tow
separate Managing Directors.
The strategic line adopted by the Group presents a dual tendency. On the one hand, it
aims at entering the international markets proposing through two world-famous brands,
products of recognised quality whose prerogative is their simplicity and genuine
ingredients: wheat pasta, egg pasta, sauces and a broad range of bakery products
particularly addressed to the family. On the other hand, there is a tendency to penetrate
the local markets through the acquisition of national brands, or having a regional
characterisation, with a consolidated maturity, as has taken place in Sweden, Turkey,
Greece and lately also in Mexico and Germany where the largest bread-making company
in Europe was taken over in 2002, with 1,750 billion Euro turnover in 200 and 13,806
employees – excluding the stockholding in the French company. The change in
ownership has, however, come about with the agreement, for the German company, that
it will keep an independent legal body in Düsseldorf, and for the Italian Group the
commitment not to de-invest in any of the German company’s ongoing operations.
The Group’s organisational set up develops transversally being articulated in three
different territorial areas: Europe Region, North America Region and the Region of the
developing international markets. In turn the Region Europe is subdivided into a further 5
geographic sub-areas: Italy, south-eastern Europe (Greece, Albania, Macedonia,
Bulgaria), south-western Europe (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain,
Portugal, the United Kingdom, Ireland), Central Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland,
Poland) and Northern Europe (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland). At the European
level the central management in Italy centralised the functions of Finance, European
Logistic Customer Service, European Human Resources, Customer Business
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Development Unit with the management of the International Key Account, Category
Management e-Trade Marketing Service. The organisational structure in Europe aims to
identify a co-ordination pole for each one of the 5 European sub-areas with the functions
of Trade Marketing, Category Management, National Account, Finance, Human
Resources, Sales Administration and Logistic Customer Service. At the same time, the
aim is to develop the Sales Department at national level according to a principle of
coherence and sustainability with the size of the Business Unit. From the point of view of
the Trade the Group emphasises three key commercial points in Europe, besides the
Italian one obviously, in order to broaden their own markets: towards German for the
north-east Europe market, towards the Netherlands for the north-western European
market and France for the European market.
In 2000 there were substantial investments, equal to about 100 million Euro, tangible
fixed assets addressed to technological improvements and the enhancement of productive
capacities in Italy and abroad. The goal that the investments were supposed to fulfil is
demonstrated in the opening of the new pasta-making factory in Thebes to (Greece), the
new wing of the facility at Castiglione delle Stiviere, now the largest European pole for
bakery products, the installation of new systems for the production and packaging of
cakes at the installation in the Cremona site, the new production line at Melfi, and the
restoration of the damaged mill at Bolu (Turkey).
Inside the group there are three trades unions: the Flai-Cgil, the Fai-Cisl and the
Uila-Uil. Of these three unions the Flai-Cgil is the most representative. In the past the
relations between them were characterised by joint actions within the scope of which
company agreements were signed together. As a result of the recent competitive trends
occurring between the union confederations Cgil, Cisl and Uil, respectively, also at the
group level the relations between the three trades unions have become more bitter. In any
case there are some work committees at the plant level (joint representation bodies) with
a group coordination at national level, in other words, a joint works committee
coordination.
The Italian industrial relations have traditionally been of a cooperative kind,
characterised by a good level of information, consultation and bargaining. The processes
of internationalisation, according to the outsider Italian delegate, have led to a change in
the relations between the union and the management. Still according to the delegate, the
central management uses the internationalisation processes to create a climate of
competition between the factories and to put pressure on the Italian unions and the
company level representative bodies. As a consequence, in Italy the industrial relations
have become somewhat worse. In spite of that, 2 of the 3 insider Italian delegate
interviewees declared that the industrial relations were of a cooperative kind. Only one
insider delegate describe the industrial relations a conflict-based relationship. All the
management representatives in the EWC, both the Italians and the Swede, consider the
industrial relations to be cooperative.
While in Italy the industrial relations are considered to be based on claims, in
countries like Sweden and Germany the respective models of codetermination are also
very important within the cope of the relations between management and the workers’
330
representatives. These models re perceived by the Italian delegates as being models
hinging more upon participation.
Then there are the differences as regards the relationship between the company
representation bodies and the union organisations. In Germany, for example, the
company council (Betriebsrat) of the agro-food group is formally independent in respect
to the union organisations. Its competences are laid down by the law and concern the
rights to participation more, while the activity of the work committees is above all
focused on bargaining.
The setting up of the European Works Council
THE SET-UP PHASE
The EWC was set up following the joint initiative of the union organisations and the
central management. According to the outsider Italian delegate, the works committees
began in 1995, when the group really started process internationalisation, to put forward
the request to set up an EWC. The fact that the EWC was subsequently only set up in the
year 2000 was due to the inexperience of the works committee in regard to the processes
of Europeanisation of the industrial relations, and to the lack of belief in the idea by the
central management during the first phase of the internationalisation. Later on the
management acknowledged that, following its acquisitions in the countries of the
European Union, it had to comply with the European directive on the EWC. In this initial
phase, most of the Flai-Cgil members of the works committees took part in training
courses on the EWC organised Flai-Cgil. The Italian outsider delegate who is a member
of the Flai-Cgil is not aware about whether the other two unions Fai-Cisl and Uila-Uil
have actually organised courses for their delegates.
In the negotiations for the establishment of the EWC the representatives of the
European Federation for the food industry were involved on behalf of the workers and
the national union organisations of the countries affected by the group’s activities.
On 18 December 2000 the agreement for the establishment of the European Works
Council was underwritten at the head office of the parent company. It was thus an
agreement based on article 6 of the European directive. The agreement is extended to all
the companies of the Group directly controlled and operating in the territory of the
European Union, lasting four years, unless the parties withdraw from the agreement at
least three months before the end of the contract. In the event of new acquisitions the
agreement can be extended to the respective companies of the group operating in the
other countries of the European Union.
THE OBJECTIVES
The agreement aims, in compliance with the European directive no. 94/95, to
“…define a procedure for the exchange of information and consultations for the dialogue
between the Central Management and the workers’ representatives on issues of a
transversal European importance, with particular reference to the social, economic and
financial situation of the Group, the prospects for the development of the business, the
331
investment strategies, and fundamental change regarding the organisation and the
introduction of new working methods, and the foreseeable evolution of employment”.
The agreement specifies that by information and consultation the following is meant:
“…the supply of data, elements, news as well as the exchange of opinions between the
worker’ representatives and the Central Management”. This definition substantially
corresponds to the formulation of the European directive. Hence, the methods and the
timescales of the information and consultation procedures are not better specified, which
would actually be important in order to guarantee a greater efficacy. It is also explicitly
underlined in the founding agreement that the EWC cannot take on negotiating powers.
THE MAKE-UP OF THE EWC
The EWC is characterised by the presence of a dual representation (Table 2):
1. the Central Management, represented by a Chairman appointed by the Management
of the Group and assisted by the company leaders chosen by him/her;
2. 20 workers’ representatives including the delegates designated by the union
organisations. Of the 20 representatives at least 14 must be employee of the
companies in the group. The names of the workers’ representatives and the union
delegates are communicated by the union organisations to the parent company’s
management head office.
332
Table 2: Worker’ representatives in the EWC according to the founding agreement
Management representation
Workers’ representation
Chairman assisted by the company managers he/she has
chosen
14 representatives of the workers employed by the
Group:
6 Italy
1 France
2 Germany
1 Greece
2 Sweden
1 Denmark
1 Norway
6 delegates designated by the Unions organisations:
3 Italy
1 Germany
1 Greece
1 Sweden
Experts employed by the group and outside experts mutually chosen by the parties
From the point of view of the composition of the EWC, the agro-food group should
be classified as an example of the French model. The chairman of the EWC come from a
management background; also the management participant coming from the different
member States where the Group is present are formally members of the EWC.
The other particular feature regards the presence of the representatives of the union
organisations in the EWC. It is interesting to note that in the case of the food group not
only the Italian unions and the European Federation are represented as in quite common
in the other EWCs of the Italian groups in the food industry sector, but it has been
decided that apart from the European Federation all the union organisations of the leading
countries, and in particular Italy, German, Sweden and Greece have the right the take part
in the EWC as full members. This means that the representatives of the union
organisations represent 30% of the overall worker representation. The right to take part in
the EWC as full members certainly represents, from the standpoint of the union
organisations, the most advanced aspect of the founding agreement. This composition
of the workers’ representation delegation is typical of the Italian model of representation
that can be substantially be considered to be a single-channel model which guarantees an
important role, even at company level, to the bodies external to the union organisations.
Inside the workers’ representation the Italian delegation is, with its 9 members, the
strongest. This domination is due to the fact that even at the employment level the group
is still very much rooted in Italy. While until 2002 eighty per cent of the whole workforce
at European level was concentrated in Italy, the Italian worker’ delegates inside the EWC
covered only 45% of the whole of the workers’ representation. The Italian delegates, both
the union ones and the company ones, are spread across the three trades unions, which
are the Flai-Cgil, the Fai-Cisl and the Uila-Uil.
The agreement lays down the chance to resort to experts if this should appear
necessary for the fulfilment of the EWC tasks. Any assistance on the part of outside
experts can only be provided with the mutual agreement of the parties.
333
THE COORDINATION COMMITTEE
Inside the European Works Council a Coordination Committee I set up whose tasks
consist in organising the meetings of the EWC and in particular defining the schedules
and the agenda of the meetings. The Coordination Committee is made up of 4 member: a
management representative, possibly assisted by a management delegation and by three
representatives of the trade union organisations (one Italian EFFAT coordinator
[European Foodworkers’ Federation], one German representative and a Sweden one). In
actual fact the Swedish representative and the German one are workers’ representatives at
company level. In the German case this means that the representative is part of the works
council (Betriebsrat) which is formally a body that is independent of the union. The task
of coordinator of the European Federation is delegated to an Italian unionist. In actual
fact this role is covered by the provincial secretary of the Flai-Cgil [Italian foodworkers’
trade union of affiliated to the CGIL]. It should be stressed that the policy declared by the
Flai-Cgil is that of choosing its coordinator from among the provincial unionists, who in
general have a more direct and closer with the company level representation bodies.
THE MEETINGS
The founding agreement provides for an ordinary annual meeting of the EWC at the
Parma Industrialists’ Union. Only under exceptional circumstance is it possible to
organise the yearly meeting in other countries where the group is present.
The yearly meeting are prepared jointly by the Central Management and the
Coordination Committee. According to the agreement, the documents drafted by the
company should be translated into the main language and transmitted to the EWC
members at least 15 days before the meeting. The meeting will last one day and is
preceded by a preparatory meeting lasting just as long. Under exceptional circumstance
there is the chance to have a further period of assessment on the following day. The
chance to have an assessment period represents another aspect that go beyond the
minimum requirements laid down by the European Directive. The costs of the yearly
meetings that also include a simultaneous translation service are charged to the company.
Faced with development that affect the workers in a significant way and that have an
effect of a transnational nature an opportunity is provided to summon an extraordinary
meeting, provided written notice is given to Central Management 30 days before.
THE WORKERS’ REPRESENTATIVES
While the Italian delegates have been appointed by their respective trades unions, the
Swedish delegate have been elected by the company body of the union. The Swedish
delegate’s motivation to participate in the proceedings of the EWC can be found in the
interest to foster international cooperation and the more advanced industrial relations.
The Italian representatives have the same motivations, also linked to an interest in a
personal growth through representing third party interests. Through their activity in the
EWC the Italian management representatives would also like to foster the industrial
relations systems adopted in Italy at the European level.
According to the management representatives 17 men and 2 women take part in the
EWC.
334
The processes
THE RESOURCES OF THE EWC
As regards the resources available to the EWC it seems that there are some problems
in that the Italian and the Swedish delegates declare they do not dispose of the necessary
office equipment. The EWC doe not have specific funds. The Italian company delegates
and the Swedish delegates declare they do not have access to instruments of electronic
communication. Only the Italian unionist ha access to email through the union he works
for.
External experts have never taken part in the yearly meetings of the EWC. The
explanation probably lies in the fact that, in the case of the agro-food group, the unionists
are full members of the EWC and so there is no need to invite the union to the activities
of the EWC in the role of expert, as happen in other EWCs. The participation of the
unionists is nevertheless considered to be a strong point for the EWC in that they
generally have greater visibility, more experience as well as the required competences to
be able to evaluate the quality of the information provided by the management. Thus the
unionist represent an important support to the company delegates.
The only definitely positive aspect from the point of view of the resource regards the
training initiatives (see 4.2). On the whole, the situation concerning the resources
available to the company workers’ representatives seems rather critical.
TRAINING
In 2001 some delegates of the food group’s EWC took part in a comparative research
project on the experiences of the various EWCs in the agro-food sector in Germany and
Italy. The project aimed to analyse the relationship between the EWCs and the union
organisations at various level in the two countries being studied. At the end of the project
a seminar was organised which saw the participation of the Italian and German delegates
of the food group, and that helped to better understand the different nature of the relations
between the EWC and the union organisations in the two countries. Following a further
analysis of the case of the agro-food group, the German delegates put forward the
proposal to arrange, at a later date, a seminar exclusively dedicated to their group’s EWC
experience.
The proposal obtained the agreement of the Italian delegates as well as that of the
central management. So in 2002 the first training course for all the EWC representatives
was held. As was the case for the first seminar, that of 2002 was also funded by European
Commission funds. The central management, responsible for the project management,
gave the contract to a research institute to deal with the scientific and didactic
management of the project. The project had various aims: to analyse the knowledge of
the various industrial relations models, to identify the problems concerning the working
of the EWC and to develop possible solutions. The project, divided into an analysis phase
and a presentation phase of the results, saw the involvement of all the members of the
EWC, both the management representatives and those of the workers.
The main problems that were highlighted during the final seminar concerned the
dominance of the Italian member inside the EWC, the problems in the running of the
EWC and in particular the malfunctioning of the coordination committee, and lastly the
335
unsatisfactory information and consultation policy implemented by the central
management. As regards the running problems the participants tried to identify some
possible solutions for the future.
According to the participants in the seminar the project was useful in that it
succeeded in contributing to a greater awareness of the problem existing inside the EWC,
both in practical terms and in dynamic terms between the various actors. In order to reach
these results it seems that the role of external moderator performed by the research
institute has indeed been important.
After the positive experience with the projects in 2001 and 2002 the delegates
propose for another project/seminar for 2004 on the issues of the group’s
internationalisation, the need for the entitlement to information and consultation, and the
impact of the acquisitions on the make-up of the EWC.
THE ROLE OF THE COORDINATION COMMITTEE
Although the coordination committee is responsible for the organisation of the
meetings of EWC and particularly the definition of the meeting agenda, both the Swedish
delegate and the Italian one declare that it is the management that lays down the agenda.
According to the Swedish workers’ delegate they do not even have the chance to add
points to the agenda. In actual fact the coordination committee had not been summoned
and as a consequence did not have the chance to draft the agenda. Furthermore, there is a
problem of communication between the member of the coordination committee due to
the absence of a common language. This means that also the coordination committee has
not yet been able to perform its function as it is laid down in the founding agreement.
THE YEARLY MEETINGS OF THE EWC
The workers’ delegates preparatory meetings are deemed useful in order to exchange
the experiences achieved in the respective national contexts and to better understand the
industrial relations culture in the other countries. o prepare In any case, these preparatory
meeting are too short and do not allow for a deep exchange. According to the Swedish
delegate these meetings do not allow one to prepare the meetings with the management in
an efficient way. Apart from being too short the meetings of the workers’ representatives
are, according to the Swedish delegate, not very well structured.
Nonetheless, the exchange of information among the delegates also serves to verify
the accuracy of the information provided by the ventral management.
While the preparatory meetings of the workers’ delegates precede the meetings with
the management, the evaluation meetings ex-post have not yet taken place.
The EWC meets once a year. Until now the meetings have always been organised in
Parma. The rotation principle for the yearly meetings is not allowed for.
On the part of the management the managing directors take part in the yearly
meetings with managerial functions, representatives of the human resource function and
the industrial relations, as well as the operations representatives. Instead, as regards the
managerial levels representatives of the parent company, the international business and
the management of the various European countries take part.
The workers’ representatives criticise the fact that during the yearly meeting the time
available to discus the central management presentation is inadequate.
336
Inside the EWC no workgroups have been set up on specific issues. In general, the
development of a European-level approach to employment or to human resource policies
is not an aspect of the EWC activities.
The workers’ delegates in the EWC consider one meeting a year to be too few to be
able to develop an incise representation activity at European level. Not having any impact
either at European level nor at industrial relations level it seems as though until now the
EWC is an end unto itself.
Until now there have been no extraordinary EWC meetings.
CONTENTS OF THE INFORMATION AND ITS ASSESSMENT
As regards the timing and the adequacy of the information received from the
management the opinion of the workers’ representatives is somewhat critical. The
documentation is only received during the EWC meeting whereas it should be sent before
meeting. Furthermore, the quality too is criticised because it is believed that the
information is too generic and not exhaustive enough. Also, the workers’ representative
criticise the fact that the central management communicates its strategic decisions only
after the decisions have been taken. As a consequence, there are never any consultations
at the EWC. As an example, reference is made to the acquisition of an important German
group that operates in the food industry sector. In regard to this acquisition the EWC was
never summoned for talks. The delegates learned about the news from the newspapers.
According to the Italian outsider delegate the EWC produces an added value even
from the standpoint of the Italian union. The information obtained during the yearly
meetings of the EWC nevertheless helped the union and the works committee to better
understand the central management’s investment strategy and, as a consequence, to
elaborate a more appropriate union strategy. Thus EWC function should be developed
even more in the future.
Unlike the workers’ representatives, the management representatives evaluate the
EWC positively.
For the management the EWC’s added value consists in
• Guaranteeing the sharing of company decisions in order to facilitate their
implementation;
• Supporting the internationalisation of the company in that this is a moment of
aggregation of different cultures and mentalities;
• Helping to understand the supranational dimension.
In any case, according to the management there are also some risks linked to the
EWC. For example, the risk that the EWC will become a superstructure weighing down
the group with bureaucracy and rituals. It is also imaginable that the EWC might slow
down the decision-making and change processes. Furthermore, the failure to understand
the company strategies could pose an obstacle to development.
Again according to the management, in the future the EWC should contribute more
to harmonising the labour policies and the human resource policies. In order to be able to
achieve this objective it would be worthwhile planning some joint training courses.
337
OTHER DIMENSIONS OF INTERACTION
The interactions inside the EWC
The delegates interviewed note that there are major differences between the different
industrial relations culture and they feel the need to deepen their knowledge of the
various industrial relations tradition present in the EWC. The Italian delegate consider
their approach to the industrial relations to be more based on claims, while they
acknowledge the fact that in countries like Sweden and Germany, the respective
codetermination models are very important within the scope of the relations between the
management and the worker’ representatives. In order to improve the internal cohesion it
is believed to be necessary to increase the knowledge of industrial relations model in the
various countries. This knowledge is not only believed to be necessary to better
understand the representation activities in the other countries, but also to be able to
achieve a representation structure at European level that take into account the various
national traditions. From this point of view the preparatory meetings help the EWC
delegate to get to know the industrial relations culture better.
There is nevertheless the problem that the Italian industrial relations model has a
strong influence upon the EWC activities. This is not just due to the Italian workers’
representatives but also to those of the management. Then the German and the Swedish
delegates are the ones who most of all criticise this cultural predominance. It is stressed
that there are diverging points of view inside the EWC as regards the definition of
codetermination and the strategies to implement it. These divergences are also discussed
without in any case reaching a shared standpoint.
In order to make the communication inside the EWC more effective, above all
between the yearly meetings, the delegates believe that it is necessary to organise
language courses. If between the yearly meetings the contacts between the workers’
representatives is almost non-existent, this is due, amongst other things, to the problem of
an inadequate knowledge of languages.
The interactions between EWC and the bodies
representing the company-level interests
The Italian outsider delegate declares he knows both the Italian EWC delegate who
work in the main head quarters of the group, and also the Italian management
representative who deal with the management of the human resource and who in this
capacity also take part in the yearly meetings of the EWC.
The Italian outsider delegate reports that, ever since the EWC has existed, he has
only once been informed of the results of an EWC meeting. This means that at least in
Italy the communication flows between the EWC and the representation bodies at
company level are not yet well developed. The EWC is not discussed even during the
meetings of the group coordination that should instead be the right moment to inform all
the works committee. It can be said that the information to the work committees takes
place randomly. The Italian outsider delegate is informed above all informally through a
member of the EWC whom he knows personally. He has never been asked for any input
during the preparation phase of the yearly meetings of the EWC. Generally speaking, the
338
delegate would like there to be a more effective strategy of information and involvement
on the part of the EWC.
The EWC delegates confirm that no minutes were drafted and that the national level
representation bodies have not been informed in a systematic way.
Instead the information on the EWC does not reach the workers at all, neither
through the assemblies, nor through the displaying of the minutes on the notice-boards.
As a consequence, most of the workers are unaware of the existence of the EWC.
The results
IMPACT ON THE CORPORATE DECISION-MAKING AND ON THE
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
The EWC was not informed about the acquisition of the largest German bakery
which took place in 2002 and that led to a significant growth of the group. The
employment level roe from about 7,000 workers to about 22,000 workers.
According to the Italian outsider delegate the internationalisation strategies, which
are also the subject of the EWC meetings, are partly used by the central management to
get the delegates from the various countries to compete amongst themselves and to put
pressure on the Italian delegates in particular, as Italy is a very important country from
the point of view of the employment levels.
The EWC has had no role in regard to the corporate decision-making nor has it ha
any impact on the corporate governance.
The workers’ representatives consider the results so far achieved to be disappointing
and do not see any real added value in the EWC. In their opinion, the EWC has neither
improved the quantity, nor the quality of the information. More in general the EWC has
not yet managed to develop an identity of its own. In the absence of real competences at
European level, according to some delegates, the real added value of the EWC so far lies
in the chance to have an exchange of experience between the delegates from the different
countries. In the future the Italian outsider delegate hopes that the EWC may also have a
negotiating function in that, in his opinion, the right to bargaining would be indispensable
in order to contrast the central management’s attempt to get the factories to compete with
one another.
Unlike the workers’ representatives, the management representatives reckon the
work of the EWC is positive. In their opinion, the EWC has been successful or at least
partially so.
In any case, the fact remains that until now the advantages of the EWC only exist at
the theoretical level. The EWC is thus still being inadequately utilised.
Conclusions
The agro-food group is still strongly rooted in the Italian tradition. As a consequence,
also the group’s EWC experience is still very much influenced by the industrial relations
of the Italian parent company. The predominance of the Italian culture is due to the
important role of the Italian delegates in the EWC. If, then, the EWC of the group is still
339
far from being considered a truly European representation body, this is also due to the
approach of the central management that has tried to limit the information to an absolute
minimum thus excluding the chance to have real moments of consultations. The
management’s approach to the EWC is the typical one of a management that has allowed
the setting up of a European representation only because it felt obliged to do so by the
European directive. This minimalist interpretation by the management has not yet led to
any relevant problems for the workers’ representatives in that this is a growing group that
so far has not had to handle any downsizing processes in terms of employment levels.
It is to be observed that, on the part of central management, there are privileged
relations with the Italian workers’ representatives. The workers’ representatives coming
from the other countries feel marginalised when faced with the predominance of the
Italian industrial relations. The result is a lack of internal cohesion that is expressed
through tensions above all between the Italian delegate and those of the other countries.
This is a problem that is typical of the initial phase of an EWC set up in a group that is
strongly rooted in the country where is grew up historically. Furthermore, the processes
of internationalisation are till very recent and have a limited size. All of these factors
have led to an experience that until now has seen the EWC a an extension of the Italian
industrial relations.
The Italian outsider delegate would expect some better information on the works
committees from the members of the EWC seeing that the information that the EWC
obtains could be useful also during the processes of bargaining in the national context. In
general, he thinks that the usefulness that the EWC could have is still rather
underestimated.
In the opinion of the workers’ representatives the full potential of the EWC has yet to
be utilised. The Italian outsider delegate actually criticises the fact that the EWC has
never managed to be incisive in regard to the strategic decisions of the group. The lack of
a real influence on the part of the EWC obviously represents a problem as regards the
definition of the EWC’s role. Seeing that the representation structures in the various
national contexts are no longer capable of effectively dealing with the processes of
internationalisation, the workers’ delegates hope that in future the EWC will be able to
develop a role of representation at European level.
If until today the EWC has been dominated by the Italian industrial relations
experience and if, therefore, it has not managed to become a really European structure, it
should nonetheless be underlined that the training courses that the EWC delegates
attended have contributed to developing an awareness of the problems between the EWC
member, and between the management representatives, and those of the workers. The
training courses have also contributed to overcoming some misunderstandings and
indicating possible solutions for overcoming certain problems.
The prospects
As has been already described, according to the delegates until now the EWC has not
managed to take off. The EWC is today faced with a series of challenges.
It should be a priority objective for the EWC to deal with the re-nationalisation of the
industrial relations, trying to develop a true European identity of the European
representation structure. The domination of the Italian culture has created tensions inside
the EWC and the coordination committee that require an urgent solution if we wish to
340
guarantee the operation of this representation structure at European level. In order to
improve the internal cohesion it also seems worthwhile focusing on training courses that
might contribute to overcoming the mutual misunderstandings.
Another critical aspect to be dealt with in future concerns the management’s policy
of information and consultation which in the past has been the motive of harsh criticism
from the workers’ representatives, and in particular the foreign representatives. For the
EWC it seems to be rather important to be able to establish its own competences and thus
better define its role. The first step should be that of achieving a procedure based on the
actual EWC consultations. In order to be able to develop an actual European level role of
representation it is essential, according to the workers’ representatives, for the EWC to
meet more than once a year.
The efficacy of the EWC also depends on the practical aspects. Also at this level
there are some large holes that still need to be filled in. The central management should
first of all respect the contents of the founding agreement and guarantee that the
coordination committee may perform its function properly. The question of the resources
to be made available to the EWC should also be dealt with, as well as that of the language
courses in order to facilitate communication between the yearly meetings.
In order to be utilise the EWC it would be necessary to guarantee a better integration
between the European body and the representation body at national level.
References
Founding agreement, 2000
Balance of the food group, 2000 and 2001
341
The interviewees
- Has worked for the group since 1992
- Technician at a research centre
- member of the works committees and the bilateral committee
- appointed for the EWC by the national union Flai-Cgil
- he was not involved in the negotiations for the setting up of the EWC
- he has worked in the group since 1988
- mechanical maintenance worker
- member of the works committee and the bilateral committee
- appointed to the EWC by the national union Uila-Uil
- he took part in the negotiations for the setting up of the EWC
Italian unionist, insider
- member of the national secretariat of the Uila-Uil
- follows the group also within the scope of collective bargaining
- took part in the negotiations for the setting up of the EWC
Central management representative in Italy, insider
- responsible for the group’s industrial relations
- has worked for the group since 1969
Italian management representative, insider
- responsible for the human resource of the “Bakery” business
Italian management representative, outsider
- works in the human resources area
Italian delegate, outsider
- has worked for the group since 1982 as a manual worker
- is a member of the works committee and the group coordination
- is a member of the provincial and national management of the Flai-Cgil
Director of human resources, Sweden, insider
- member of the EWC on behalf of the Swedish company
Union delegate, Sweden, insider
- ha worked for the group since 1977
- member of the local union
- is a member of the company level codetermination organisms [member of the
board meeting]
- was elected to the EWC by the members of the company level union body
- took part in the negotiations for the founding of the EWC
Union delegate, Sweden, outsider
342
-
has worked for the group for 10 years
white collar worker in the sales area
The EWC of AstraZeneca
Peter Kerckhofs
Introduction
Based upon a long history of consultation practices within ICI and Zeneca the EWC
of AstraZeneca is clearly untypical for the overall UK context. Nevertheless there is no
real exceptional strength to be found in agreement or in the practice of this EWC. It is not
performing in any ay beyond the symbolic type of EWC. Unfortunately its composition,
and the lack of autonomy, cohesion and internal cooperation, does not give much room
for a dynamic in which the EWC functioning is developed over time. An emcef/IGBCE
Leonardo training seminar that was held in March 2003 aimed to waken up and feed such
a dynamic.
The company history
Zeneca resulted in 1993 from a de-merger of the UK chemicals multinational ICI.
ICI made of specialty chemicals its core business, while Zenece disinvested from its
specialties operations (Avecia). In 1999 Zeneca merged with Astra, after which the
agrochemical parts were sold to Novartis and Syngenta.
In 1998, just before the merger, Astra employed worldwide, 7000 persons and
Zeneca 34.000. Zeneca brought along from its ICI-past the heritage of a steady culture of
worker representation and consultation practices, while in Astra there were no
representation structures at all. The AstraZeneca EWC is very much based upon the
former Zenenca agreement and practice.
The EWC history
In 1994 negotiations were launched that resulted on 20 December 1995 in the
signing of an agreement to establish a Zeneca European Consultation Committee. This
Zeneca Article 13 EWC agreement was varied in 2000 following the merger of Astra and
Zeneca. At the time of the merger Astra had a remarkably similar agreement providing
for an Astra Euro Forum.
In making the variations in 2000, regard was taken to the agreement establishing the
Astra Euro Forum. The Zeneca EWC agreement was renamed the AstraZeneca
Agreement and the Zeneca European Consultation Committee was renamed the Astra
Zeneca Euro Consultation Committee (ECC).
343
Zeneca
Astra
AstraZeneca
20-12-1995
18-10-1996
14-06-2000
The 2000 revised EWC agreement was approved by a joint meeting of the former
Astra Euro Forum and the Zeneca EWC on 17 June 1999, and subsequently ratified by
the first AstraZeneca ECC on 14 June 2000
From the negotiations of the agreement has been reported that the distribution of the
mandates created some difficulties. The UK blue-collar workers, that are strongly
unionised wanted more seats in the EWC. The Swedish delegates helped to solve this
problem, through a transitional period in which was provided two additional mandates for
the UK and for Sweden. This transitional period is finished.
The EWC agreement
The EWC agreement is the fruit its voluntaristic approach towards the European
Directive on European Works Council, which is based upon the long existing company’s
consultation culture. As such, the company had approached the unions in 1994 to set an
EWC, which was done for Zeneca in 1995, very much build upon the UK experience.
Also for Astra a similar kind of minimum standard type of EWC agreement was reached.
After the merger the AstraZeneca agreement did not get beyond the common
denominator of a single annual meeting. The secretariat and the possibility for trade
union experts to attend the preparation meetings are its only strengths. Training is
mentioned, as something that has to take place locally. And on the involvement of trade
unions is said that this will be consistent with national norms and practices.
Zeneca
20-12-1995
UK
Joint body
33 employee reps
+ employer reps
Astra
18-10-1996
Sweden
Joint body
21 Employee reps
2 employer reps
and post meeting
Joint select committee of 4 members
Employee only select committee of
8
Employers secretariat
No time off arrangement
No budget for the EWC
No working groups
One annual meeting
Employer chairs meeting
Agenda is set jointly
No secretariat
No working groups
One annual meeting plus eventually
one extraordinary
344
AstraZeneca
14-06-2000
UK
Joint body
28 Employee reps
CEO+ senior manager business
units, EHRM & secretariat
Joint select committee of 1 member
per country with 1000 employees
and 2 members for 3000workers or
more
Employers secretariat
No working groups
One annual meeting plus eventually
one extraordinary
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1
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goslym
rfatin,dhelybcounstdaw
hev.r
T
om
setfhE
W
C
briow
evntalycsrhioutnadw
s.O
vreim
,poE
uanw
ybfeigclstdovep.
I believe that the German system is too rigid and legalistic for the EWC of
AstraZeneca, because the UK approach is much more oriented towards negotiation
and trading off.
W
ithconfdealm
ristw
nhaprgm
cyfI.oidetlnm
rasgvw
hicnboteard,psiveardnw
ythifom
gesrtw
lncaupiesothm
.Iranceutshog-prinvm
et.
Select committee (Link Committee)
T
heA
starZ
ncE
W
C
iqpudw
heaslctom
i8fprn.T
sheytacivlw
om
hnbsefrtpayE
W
C
m
ing.sA
uchtefroalysvingthecuofE
W
C
w
krinaem
plysdutoaw
I.im
erlyhtopnam
reigcojutw
hE
H
R
M
pernsaivB
G
f.
T
heafctslom
iengarhldtvouscierE
pm
thogknlw
capertisdhnavN
.etrlshofdgaim
rnhecoutyU
K
adlsm
rfw
S
eniotpa.T
hfcerisntIladF
chpeutyarsiofm
plyedgtasuokinfevtgam
odprnul-ikeU
cK
adtobhsi.r
T
heraofuU
pK
nstivheE
W
C
,ow
fcarinludthescom
.O
nfU
perK
staivdofhe10bluc-aw
rk,shieofbut95%
ndsH
.ecm
forthZ
napfecom
yw
,hiltU
rpK
ensav,hcom
rfteA
saP
S
.phrnbtou10asle-ifcprdovtheU
.H
K
ism
brfM
G
B
,w
hleisatdocnm
fageirldpostf.
T
heintralcom
usvyhentarlidougE
H
R
M
s-cratfheW
C
.T
E
m
/G
IB
L
onadrtiem
gshlM
ac203im
edtonrshauyw
entsiralcom
unb-etw
igsm
poanrelthidvaueofthE
W
C
.
“Wedon’teralycom
unipsb-etw
nm
igscauoflbeir,tw
ndokm
sehig,lcntaofrehis.”
T
heintvrw
dE
W
C
m
bsonptecrivhE
W
C
am
.ounictslydevpabitrw
,ndsgfcam
outirsbaeopncdtusriveoan.A
lhm
tdrefcaionshplteE
W
C
frm
adynicoteplrgshE
W
C
ufnctio.veghrsatIlinC
m
oghepyisntE
W
C
oalw
hm
riF
sencdputyoahm
eingsA
.vrlcaom
bedystkvrhcai.
A
theim
oflcnarthew
sU
K
dianotexpbclydgain,orm
et.T
bushapiornw
ldtgechU
rK
andisot,garniedhtw
S
seglaom
kindfsvetg.T
hioncradsem
ogthE
rW
C
ebs.
T
heA
S
R
Z
N
E
C
O
orisnm
echatgofE
W
C
.S
purisvdebyatlonim
rgefachtbuisnT
.m
eopayrvdfscti,w
horleaknupbyH
R
D
ictoB
raG
fndhsm
itvea.
F
om
sretfhE
W
C
bdircontaw
hesm
gofruphsatendiofalpernstio.O
hfudem
lsviantgbcueofm
dlagrthinokecsa.O
vtrm
ihow
eupblgsvB
d.othineU
K
aF
rcvouedpblm
w
sithacngerfdbtsailonerhdtpiosbnyhecarfm
tion.A
suh,vedrctoanw
ihelm
gtofcrbshpenalfiodthpernsaw
ofE
W
C
m
ebsr.T
hplaintuB
G
fyasim
ptornleh.
T
herisadfncw
B
perstonS
.m
E
W
C
berdhitoalm
w
,ethsriaclngeoytdvpiasm
loyerntivw
hupsecD
.rngtL
ifom
aB
vehscntaiw
ouldber,sm
chE
W
C
ebrfltogahdnevpslutiom
renhE
W
C
w
k,otaculdenrbhsw
itm
apolcrnuis.W
heotw
ldavprfhim
tobel.T
sdifrnceuom
kstanghedifrE
W
C
m
b.sS
oeanturcihw
,sdetyaronhilw
buetonkim
rsfhtade.
346
structures
Z
encaisom
pyw
thlgrandcueoflsti.T
hw
veornyalkg,ist.C
ounlaisdethvofw
kram
p,slntiedhraonlcustim
egw
ayT
.rhsploentaivcusrendptom
falcnredbythauiospw
r.
nItheU
K
ra12.0m
ployestA
Z
ncafw
hibou10erlc-aw
ks.F
thobuelratdunioegrhsbaodycle“theisgnatouyr”.F
torhew
ic-lam
pysrentaivw
hodubckng,atreiongh.stIculaioprew
shtnbduclarkigoethsblucarinthem
oydalruniegtsw
.
T
heE
W
C
isputonfalcstiopnreduw
hyxst.C
om
nicarfhelm
poyrnstaibdehW
E
C
cksow
venrtufigcyln.Iom
seutirhacpnyew
s,througicbfnm
atheE
W
C
igsprad.
There is however not so many interest in European matters since, UK employees
don’t feel themselves very much European and furthermore, it is no negotiation over
pay claims, but only a talking shop
nItheF
rcA
saZ
opintherbadoulsifnthew
krpsaotinuceT
.hF
rw
kofA
tsaZ
encudbprtaniolevbycrw
ksunilW
.hetdfrbsaiecm
opltynd,hisbow
peralcynF
hG
uW
skoC
cil,w
m
etnayT
.rhscodgeiF
antrofU
N
dA
S
elgatinuJ20.scheC
D
F
T
andtU
N
fA
S
riosehw
lagtnG
orpsuW
kC
cilahdvebotm
naiheE
W
C
T
.F
rcsltom
iebrgnuchm
osptadbkingw
heslctoaU
N
A
S
rdunis,w
hleptaonkrm
suchedifbltorF
.m
hew
alsckingrm
tovehF
cdlgaintm
eofhZ
cE
W
sC
,atdirungpeo3f4ysth,aerw
nF
ocdlgtihaE
W
C
.T
erosfntihaF
clegsonivhm
tr45usieoflcparntw
k,ihleaysrodpm
tihakeulny10osrfthi.B
dekpsm
-ailcontfrhew
adisunolm
rfhepudcasontryeiw
l.Ihcosntxim
pblevohrantisF
c,elm
dprnstaioeclym
dtihsoapn.W
elcm
agtinrF
hecsouvialdge“têteàtête”.nIP
bulichw
oevr,tF
m
angpsoihelvtu-ns,aiodgpyrcetnuio.s
Z
encaisptylom
w
hcunstaireT
.ow
vnstalyhbefiounm
splyertaioundbyhersT
.auniorfgm
edthU
,aK
vuscnotm
eyrpvidhustornecahuom
y.lA
tdpensharuiodetym
nghw
c-larpoye,shidntcuroex,sm
bhniftjogardue.
A
thbeluc-oaw
rksi95%
ufnodety,w
hlis235-0%
am
ongtew
hiclrks.B
gntem
aohircpnyusltaorem
khvntou9g8%
fedlasinhcoutreanim
bs,throlyanum
befthralydunioegtA
.shcarduniotlhescuaiopnr,thecydounm
riacetw
yhduniosgtapB
.ecuhm
loystndavefriw
hconusltpehniosavegt.T
hluionfrseaguniom
bhrptew
c-olakr,shtinw
be2a53d0%
.A
lsongthecm
payiorusnleb,paym
thsdroicnem
,gthbany.Isw
oercm
iuta,shgcnew
alohit-rm
pyesbcoaw
thrduinscolevtrpnaiohetrs.
Between the different unions involved in AstraZeneca in the UK there has not
been any internal disputes, and that principle has worked for decades now.
nIthpeasW
T
G
U
(rondealW
ksU
i)hvtelagropum
fbsiw
nthZ
eca.A
rulofdisnvtm
ehagocrilndtpesyhm
caorin,sdtegw
hA
aM
G
bB
cm
etlgrsuniow
hA
aZ
ec19m
.ontghw
iec-laursM
F
S
tonge.A
G
ardB
uifcsnow
gthelupfardniow
kthA
sZ
eca.T
inludhptoreE
W
C
,aniscthm
eploynraietgsofhE
W
C
.
T
heagrm
ntofspbilyhautoxnrdeifcsatnhm
ployerating.F
uhem
o,rftsicw
haletom
rfU
K
nidatehm
ngsboverifthyw
.nIalotedhprinm
g.T
eslctoanB
dirG
fhw
evlpyartisjon,heduxptrolism
cengpoitsuhad.T
ernioxpthaslercm
niokatf,shecnlyivbaout5%
hfsw
krgim
neA
taZ
c.dgohilsm
eaftcim
ensgarhldtvoucieE
rpa,ndthisolyver,m
ithsnfucoeE
W
C
.
“Although trade union membership is not a prerequisite for the participation of
any AstraZeneca employee in the ECC, the Company respects the role of trade
unions in line with current practice and legislation in each respective European
country. At the request o the Employee Representatives, and as agreed by the
Chairman, up to six national trade union officers, at least two which should come
from the UK, may be invited to attend the Representatives’ pre-meeting. Three of
these officers, at least two of which should come from the UK, will also be invited to
attend the main meeting as observers if they so wish. “
T
heS
w
dism
brotfE
W
C
aelcdinhA
srZ
atolunigpw
herasntd.T
w
heS
iE
W
C
m
bsrgtupofheindrm
otfagcnsiw
heE
rW
C
m
b.
T
heE
W
C
m
bsrindcateylom
rfhiE
W
C
xpencs,gthiadw
rpecvB
.uynstadibgerhconk,tm
plyersaivcnxthem
broplyenstaiv,bdrgucm
heonstaipy.F
om
reE
W
C
bsthidconfm
ralw
etgm
n,adbiotceyhm
sprantofl.S
ehm
sdorltheiw
pnsafolm
bitnverhsofA
taZ
ncew
krihouty.
C
halengofstrum
ibdyhentvrw
E
W
C
m
basl,nguetrihm
povnferitalcm
uonbdeigrfctvasopu.Inyelrthw
icxdL
f.om
anegsihrldM
c203w
onbtiuehsaproteufdvlpm
nahrsiceguontm
yfhplerstaivw
hnA
Z
ecE
W
C
.
347
The EWC of Gamma Holding
Peter Kerckhofs
Introduction
G
am
H
oldingsD
utchearvw
lodinthxescT
.rauotfhm
pny,ilsoftrheE
W
C
.F
pusradingk,tcvesranhdlyiteF
.um
ro,scpateidnyw
kscom
aingveyruhdtslp,m
ingcoahestm
pnibgarofheH
ld.
T
heoldingytm
rsvealgynudpristhe.T
m
angtofheivdulcpansyrtom
,udheH
lnigw
atsokphT
.erfitcano,dsw
iefrnthocaplyuesbidrm
anF
.theosurciam
plexT
.hE
ournatisdfm
perntiyw
hgoaslurctefhH
oding.S
m
G
alC
opniesrm
aultonheiw
.
T
hestargoyfH
ldincm
pkeG
alosntchgieprm
.P
altoqucisbnegd,vtm
soufprnibalectsbeinogldfcr.A
thsangefcom
pitnadverhbscofm
eirnthgofsE
W
C
.B
ecauthignrov-ecm
pstfhE
W
C
anldim
ostevbafcli,xptonshudbeigfrE
W
C
N
.vethlsicom
pefrbstandovim
e.
The company strategy
T
heoldingastqurH
elm
ond(hN
tasI.)erlidonthE
uxm
A
seraS
ckhng.V
ido,eG
fam
’sG
em
ranS
buisd,ltoheF
arnukfS
cE
xgT
.herniofacpltsrem
oya,ntdhibesuoftrhE
W
C
i.
T
hestargoyfldinehatocrsim
keandpofbtly,herandopsitk.T
ceram
hsG
,H
oldingtrvebshfacow
(xtndigesav)cquitnoA
.sehaw
rculkopfibtyhangeriw
tsaydveT
.hipnfom
r19t20w
hieacvsntro.
Rest world 12%
The Netherlands 4%
Belgium/Luxembourg 4%
United States 20%
Germany 10%
France 7%
Africa 17%
United Kingdom 7%
Italy/Spain/Portugal 8%
Rest Europe 11%
T
heoldingsm
tkrbpyaicveosrugnam
dkets.W
lhiornaftsw
kceildnhN
trasiB
elgum
,hnbotcirsgehdnlytaof8%
cm
pesiun-rv.
The company activities
T
hiscom
panytregblcoshangeitubdrspaofheG
,untdrlsihecom
pnatdufiogheE
W
C
.T
crntaiofE
W
edusw
krcm
panylC
bie.T
ogthw
rancm
pyledS
tH
bur,C
aiw
skenovyB
atrT
xil.skew
aondbythU
m
S
uliaG
rce,ntw
soldfbughyG
am
H
oin190.Ithm
egrdacivosB
fkT
extl,S
H
burandC
m
ieloctnw
paO
udrB
e(lgim
)nakrtD
ecoinT
xlB
(s.)
nI198theG
m
raopV
usidgw
tkenv.raislftdonheS
cm
karsD
f üseldforanF
uktI.cm
pies26oan18dfrtcuies.T
w
oyal,n20theG
rm
copaiysqud;hS
elA
T
.G
com
panbydsiMünchbeg,rm
ploys170w
kinG
ea,S
tzlrdA
usiT
.heonycagftrm
siehcalyw
bpdunetrhm
agfoB
kinelum
.
L
esoftrunaw
hkecom
panisS
fdrthU
K
oT
expinN
thlrad.Is19ew
yfcithlao-sb,erm
pnw
yaoldi20.T
hsteruofagicdsnG
m
H
olgtivesrfnoactdersuinhvo.ItcsexalhG
m
rnopybuw
saldnI.f201them
pdw
icoanesH
tm
D
dw
lo.A
i201,M
asntkeov.A
ryl,in20eU
p-K
atoM
fdsnw
cl,iporudthnsfeG
m
aD
ucplts.
349
Workforce
County
Netherlands
Belgium
Germany
France
United
Kingdom
Sweden
Spain
Italy
Portugal
Finland
Rest Europe
Total EU
Total World
1996
2164
1925
294
124
758
1997
1960
1867
280
126
774
1998
1890
1941
270
286
721
1999
1782
2009
240
308
692
9
16
18
19
5265
5528
5023
6925
5126
8849
5050
8331
2000
1765
2016
796
376
625
125
91
24
16
5834
9512
2002
1061
1886
912
401
340
152
141
97
27
23
155
5052
9612
nI20G
am
H
oldigepy9612w
lrdieofhc502nE
up.Iterw
do5s3%
fhalkcreim
poydnE
u,w
hile196tsa.5%
O
verhm
piodfyastenum
brE
oplydesintchagvm
ru.T
expnisofthw
krcam
deosflutiE
rp,m
263eloyisn19t4720.W
hE
ourpe,am
G
ldingxsfcatyG
em
rndF
.W
hilaotsfeD
ucm
plyorvifags,etplundrkigow
sbeythupA
.acqnethlgrsopi3n(7%
)w
fketobuindB
lgm
.
T
hecom
paniw
sdG
H
olgevpr,ducansietyofxlprduc.A
saivterdnhiso;T
eclgnI,dturaxisE
ocF
b.W
ntheT
olgidsvraetw
cis,S
plontheadP
rcs&
onveyblth.rsA
ie“nIdustiralT
ex”divsontheraw
cis;utm
oveandhirplctosnI.beahxpg,renstdcoahivefscotrdnA
.hefoactivyrm
nedhaostfcpivenahotfbusi.F
redvotnhsC
m
paV
ylic,w
hsteorbfal,nidg18%
otfheur-v.A
nxdpisotaverw
flhptionseacfhrdivo.sn
Exotic Fabrics 18%
Process and
Conveyor belts 23%
Industrial
Applications 20%
Specialties 26%
Automotive 13%
The EWC history
G
am
H
oldingw
tebhfsrD
ucm
opanievgE
W
C
.M
m
nt’sm
otivanesupE
W
C
cm
trlyofisgdexpncw
thkorsuilN
eand.F
trhm
oi,ecxafnrsgdiotecnbw
hfrptasoecm
ny,hE
W
C
w
saitum
renhcoldpsa-ietfrncom
ualteL
(sr19p8,53.)
B
oth,eE
urpanIdysF
tiofrheT
xlcE
,U
-C
F
L
antdheD
urlw
okscnieatrdhsingupoafE
W
C
.T
ertsdilm
onhbaetfcdonu,sim
laretchvdbyE
W
C
ofS
arL
e.
F
om
rthefigunsbda,JzD
eT
crkB
lginow
pstave(hcurniofE
W
C
aw
s)m
edtlyhoprunisbagE
W
C
N
.evtrhls,noiaw
eytbl,causofhrevinm
tdofhlcagem
ntsdobufiervw
stnhkoperaivsdutnoS
.m
eariw
stdolyneuifcsrthE
W
C
w
,lom
epyrnstaivw
koghecm
psG
fa,dinotw
hT
.elckE
fW
C
nodgrxpeicfthaunoesr,dim
ltaongsfhew
krpativdsnohelfyrw
pstanedogivlhE
W
C
.entarm
gh,ow
vpefrdaE
W
C
ithsm
ployernaivb,w
thrdeunoficsm
thpany.T
iscolfergthE
W
C
alsonefw
ithm
ucsporfl-theaduinos.
nIthperaiofgnestuhpE
W
C
,T
U
-F
L
layednim
ptorcgleI.anids,coprtw
hD
uenalkocsiw
dthfnaluporB
ge-i340,afstm
ngow
krepativshldnB
urge(m
)o2a9Jy13t.A
hisconw
kerptasucinhedfrotsw
cm
paedT
.hiotfngw
scerahudtnigoferback-undsviw
pot.
A
yearndhlft,w
E
W
C
iercvadsopt,ngr-uw
ebalihsdo23S
ptm
1r94nV
eldhovN
(L
.D
)uigam
tn195B
reslhinoguptdasecilobnN
y.gtaesducflirngM
athS
em
o3n4dpb1r96.
D
iurngthefsm
axporS
videfxplantohE
W
C
diercvG
am
H
olngE
W
C
ertT
.aisohnvekptrlim
ogsfheE
W
C
.
T
pherlacm
ntofiE
W
C
gerbyanotid20peascondirfthE
W
C
w
lend204.Ipariw
thm
ngec204,thism
gbrnuew
ladphsotruniefhE
W
C
.
The EWC agreement
T
hisntalE
W
C
germ
don4S
ptb1r96w
vaslifeoduyr.T
htposenlcm
irgtadnoclue19A
pir20aw
gm
enthsbordlyiatneT
.hsw
agrm
tdiofcen4S
pm
b2r0.Itw
asfoiclygned31m
20b,thE
uporeanT
xilF
d(U
-C
L
a)nbyltherduiosvnN
ethlrad,B
gium
U
K
G
eanydF
rcj,utslikhogna196erm
t.
T
hein20rw
adgm
tkesplorvinfh196,adpgsecitonradexpctinlum
sow
fhelctm
indsbofreacultdA
.sinexofhlgpartcinE
W
C
m
ebsohparyve.
350
Change
97-02
-899
+19
+632
+275
-434
+152
+141
+81
+27
+23
+155
-29
+2687
T
othesinglaum
prvdeofinthagm
culbedsonA
.laxteifhm
rgsadtniolcubednthxofA
grem
.
A
nyhow
,teagrm
isbcutw
naesyrohvitafeE
W
C
.IsnrolyudeftbhE
W
C
m
.srT
geodcpatinfum
hoerpatnxfhgerm
.E
aplosctigenbydhxofE
W
C
agerm
ntisudvoflae,ikrxm
pnthcoesfM
adilur,w
tshpeogm
dainbletw
rokpnsaiucterolvhanksteE
W
C
.
A
patriculynhegm
,w
asotrcniedkbyhtvrw
edE
W
C
m
si,hprntaow
fkesm
cquirdopan.sA
gtricle7obfhnatdE
eW
w
C
grm
nploysufdetakigw
hcjnorplte,sabnduihetE
W
C
A
grm
nxpibsytherlcdaS
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ncftiuaseron.
The EWC resources
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ret.
“Reasonable expenses, which are necessary for performing the duties of the EWC and
the Select Committee, will be met by the group of undertakings.
The EWC and the Select Committee undertake not to incur any unnecessary expenses.
The parties agree that these expenses, which will be reimbursed in kind or otherwise, or
the facilities to be provided do not fall outside the following categories:
*
cost of meetings;
*
services of experts;
*
travel and accommodation expenses;
*
administrative work (incl. telephone and secretarial expenses);
*
paid leave for members of the EWC to attend the meetings and training courses;
*
training courses, including language tuition;
*
cost of interpreting and translation;
*
publications for the purpose of informing employees;
*
an official secretariat.”
T
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.
351
1997
1998
1999
2000
G.A. Gout, Ames (NL)
♂ X
X
3
3
H.J. Gruyters, Vlisco (NL)
♂ X
X
SD
A.J. Jansens, Sanders&Sanders (NL)
♂ 1
1
1
1
E.M. Mannaerts, Vlisco (NL)
♂ 2
2
SD
G.J. Mikkers, Vlisco (NL)
♂ X
X
X
X
Ms M. Smits, Texoprint (NL)
♀ SD
G.W. Oostingh, Texoprint (NL)
♂
X
X
X
F. van der Heide, Ammeraal (NL)
♂
X
J.A.G. van der Heijden Vlisco (NL)
♂
X
X= present / SD = Stepped down (Select committee => 1= Chair, 2= Secretary, 3= Deputy Chair)
2001
3
2002
2
1
Sold
X
X
Sold
X
X
3
X
T
herisnom
cutydaeihE
W
C
.T
tuon-rvam
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chE
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yB
elgiarstvF
.uhm
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itlagpsofhew
krnisB
lgum
.
1997
1998
1999
2000
J. Anraed, Bekaert (B)
♂
X
X
X
X
Ms. K. Bonnet, de witte lietaer (B)
♀
X
X
X
X
E. Declercq, Bekaert (B)
♂
X
X
X
X
A. De Smet, Bekaert (B)
♂
X
X
X
X
Ph. Noppe, De witte Lietaer (B)
♂
X
X
X
X
J. De Turck, Cambier-BDT (B)
♂
3
3
2
2
I. Dewever, Bekaert (B)
X= present (Select committee => 1= Chair, 2= Secretary, 3= Deputy Chair)
2001
X
X
Retired
X
X
2
X
2002
X
X
Retired
X
1
X
T
phernstaivyofE
W
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m
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w
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G. Frütel, Ameraal Conveyer Belting (D)
Ms. A Lemke, Globus (D)
D. Bahr, Globus (D)
Hennings, Globus (D)
V. Smith, Sanderson (UK)
Ms. H. Tamplin, Sanderson (UK)
J. Jones, Ames (UK)
C. Pollart, Delcar (F)
F. de Almeida, Ames (F)
X= present O= absent SD = Stepped down
♂
♀
♂
♂
♂
♀
♂
♂
♂
1997
X
X
1998
X
SD
1999
X
2000
O
2001
O
2002
X
O
X
O
X
O
X
Observ
X
O
Sold
O
Sold
O
O
O
?
X
X
O
O
?
?
X
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enN
tra.d
1997
1998
1999
EWC Plenary Meeting
10 & 11 April
2 & 3 April
8 & 9 April
352
?
?
Observ
X
2000
2001
2002
2003
13 & 14 April
26 & 27 April
22 to 25 April
23 & 24 April
B
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S
incetsrao19v6,nulE
W
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m
etihgsavbdnou2e0lctm
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yrW
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m
etingso.
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
Select committee meetings
5 June & 4 November
8 July & 24 November
1 July & 27 September
13 March, 13 June, 20 Sept, 18 Oct, 28 Nov, 12 Dec
14 April, 20 June, 12 Sept, 21 Oct, 6 Nov, 10 Dec
?, 22 October, ?
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“Wat die meerwaarde zou kunnen zijn? Het, de verhouding, zij gaan ervan uit
dat, als wij weten, als wij op de vloer weten wat de strategie is en wat de bedoeling is
waarom ze iets doen, dat het gemakkelijker verloopt, of dat men te consulteren en te
informeren iets gemakkelijker gaat verlopen, of door het ons volledig geheim te
houden. Denk ik, allez”
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354
The interviewees and other sources
Telephone interviews
Training session EWC Gamma Holding
5 jaar EOR (1996-2001)
Interview Sjef Stoop
interview Jozef de Turck
Telephone interviews
April 2001
26-04-2001
March 2002
14-04-2003
16-04-2003
April 2003
notes
6 p (report)
16 p report of Jozef de Turck
32 p
41 p
notes
L
am
esr,J1(.98)The Added Value of European Works Councils.H
alrem
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A
V
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.
Annex: the divisional structure of Gamma Holding
3 Divisions of Gamma Holding
Gamma Technologies
The Gamma Technologies sector,
which accounts for 49 per cent of
Gamma Holding’s turnover,
comprises operating companies that
deliver quality products for technical
applications in industry.
Gamma Technologies has a very
important place in the growth
strategy of Gamma Holding. After
the takeover of the Madison Filter
Group in December 2001, this
strategy was further shaped in 2002
by the acquisition of Foulds in
England, and preparations were
made for the takeover of the
American company Crosible, which
became part of the group on January
2003. This further strengthened and
expanded the market position of this
sector.
Core activities
Process and Conveyor Belts
In this segment, Ammeraal Beltech
is one of the world market leaders in
ultra-durable process and conveyor
belts for e.g. the food and drinks
industry, agriculture and
horticulture, and logistics services,
for instance for airports and mail
sorting systems.
Ammeraal Beltech
Specialties
This segment comprises various
companies that are active in the
fields of screen and filter technology
(Techfab/IFC and Madison Filter
Group), coating and composites
technology (Indutex), sailcloth
technology (Sailcloth) and industrial
knitted fabrics (Ames Europe).
355
Other activities
Screen and filterTechnologies
In Techfab/IFC, the Madison Filter
Group and, since January 2003,
Crosible, Gamma Holding has
manufacturers and distributors of
screen and filter products that rank
amongst the top companies in the
world in their field.
Verseidag Techfab
IFC
Madison Filter
Crosible
Coated fabrics/Composite Materials
Indutex develops and manufactures
under its own brand names (Seemee,
Ultrax and Duraskin) a wide range of
highly diverse products based on
coating and composites technology.
Verseidag Indutex
Sailcloth
In Dimension-Polyant, Gamma
Holding has a world-famous, leading
manufacturer in the field of sailcloth
technology. The company develops
and manufactures high-tech sailcloth
for all types of boats: very large
sailing ships, racing yachts,
catamarans and trimarans, but also
for surfboards, hang-gliders and
balloons.
Dimension Polyant
Industrial Fabrics
In the Industrial Fabrics segment
Gamma Holding is active in the field
of industrial knitted fabrics.
Ames Europe+ì
Gamma Industrial textiles
The Gamma Industrial Textiles
sector generates 33 per cent of
Gamma Holding’s turnover with
high-quality patterned fabrics for
industrial customers.
This sector comprises two core
activities: Automotive and Industrial
Applications. The various operating
companies in these segments
manufacture and sell high-quality
patterned fabrics for industrial
customers. The Automotive
companies have specialised in
fabrics for the automobile sector.
The Industrial Applications segment
focuses primarily on mattress
ticking.
Gamma Exotic Fabrics
The companies in the Exotic Fabrics
sector account for 18 per cent of
Gamma Holding’s turnover.
Through the companies of the
Vlisco Group,
Automotive
This segment supplies fabrics for car
upholstery. The companies De Witte
Lietaer and Delcar are among
Europe’s largest manufacturers in
this field.
De Witte Lietaer
Industrial Applications
This segment is engaged, via the
company Bekaert, in the
manufacture of high-quality
mattress ticking and buggy and
garden furniture fabrics.
Bekaert Textiles
Exotic Fabrics
Exotic Fabrics is active in the
design, manufacture and distribution
of high-quality dyed and printed
exotic fabrics - based on the batik
process - for the top and mid
segments of the West African
market.
Vlisco
356

European Works Councils Case Studies

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