European work Councils: are they useful?

1. European work Councils: are they useful? CCOO

2. European work Councils: are they useful? According to the ETUI expert on European Works Councils, Bruno Demaitre, the only limits for an European Work Council, are ourselves. We must be creative and use all the tools available to turn them useful. We want to share this trade union experience from FT EWC CCOO

3. THE PROBLEM One of this nowadays challenge is to fight against a silent danger: psychosocial risks. And insight them: stress. A silent FATAL damage for our health. These risks don't produce visible injuries so they are more dangerous, because when we detect them the harm is already done. We Have Fatal FiguresLinked To Extreme Over Stress From 2006 to 2010 Renault recorded 4 suicides. From 2007 to 2010 Peugeot recorded 6 suicides. During 2007 4 suicides were recorded in the giant electrical company EDF. Since January 2008 to march 2010 45 suicides were recorded in France Telecom France. Mobbing Spanish expert, Iñaki Piñuel, estimates that 300 /400 suicides take place per year in Spain, linked to labour problems. But the figures are not only worrying in suicides themselves, because we usually have much more tempts to commit suicide than deaths. We have a lot of burn out in staffs and physical injuries to our health like heart attacks. CCOO

4. THE EWC ACTION The FT EWC, ask for a presentation on the European Framework agreement on work-related stress in November 2008. After the presentation we create a work group on stress with the aim to develop a survey on stress to whole group. After two years of work, discussions with management, blockings, experts, et cetera. We get to an agreement with the recent new FT CEO, Stéphane Richard, to develop a pole adhoc on stress for 38.400 employees in 19 countries and with 9 different languages. This pole was carried out by an external agencysimultaneously in all these countries in 2011. Including GHQ12 (Global Health Questionnaire) and with a total of 73 questions to evaluate this psychosocial risk and the labour environment. CCOO

5. Tension with the hierarchy Work content Isolation • THE RESULTS • The GHQ12 indicator helps show for each person the level of psychological suffering over the last 12 months on the basis of responses to the 12 questions. • With a participation rate of 43% (excluding Poland), the result was very satisfactory enough to be analyzed. • Percentage of risk level were: • High level (severe psychological suffering) (12 %) • Average stress level (33%) • Low level: 55% CCOO

6. SHORT TERM ACHIVEMENTS • Management implement an annual pole (SB)* to evaluate the social environment throughout Europe in the group. • The results of this *Social Barometer, impacting on all leaders bonus at the group level for 2012 H2. (Up to 30% of their bonus) • Implementing preventing actions locally (per country). • From EWC, during ordinary meetings we put on agenda a presentation in single country. So we can follow the evolution. • In OSP some HR have been recruited in regions out of Madrid, new projects have been launched to improve internal protocols and a psychosocial risk pole has been done. • LONG TERM GOALS • There is a lot of work to do: check local preventing actions are working • and follow the evolution, chasing a new pole to be carried out in few years. CCOO

7. So, are they useful? Or not?