Between Global and Local: Eight European Works Councils in Retrospect and Prospect

Between Global and Local: Eight European Works Councils in Retrospect and Prospect Tony Huzzard and Peter Docherty 2005

Authors • Tony Huzzard: • Associate Professor at University of Lund in Sweden • Research Fellow, National Institute for Working Life, Stockholm, Sweden • Strategic Unionism and Partnership: Boxing or Dancing? • Peter Docherty • Senior Research Fellow, National Institute for Working Life, Stockholm, Sweden • Senior Research Fellow, Institute for the Management of Information and Technology, Chalmers University of Technology

What is a European Works Council? • 1994 EU directive • Organization representing workers • For companies with at least 1000 employees • Forum for informing and consulting employees • Employee representation on national basis • Formally limited to international issues

Types of EWCs • Symbolic EWCs: largely disfunctional bodies that are passive and satisfy the minimal requirements of the Directive • Service-Oriented EWCs: bodies facilitating management processes that entail mutual information exchange but stop short of genuine negotiation • Project-oriented EWCs: employee representative that have independent agendas and objectives on specific issues • Participative EWCs: autonomous worker voices impacting on decision-making through negotiation and genuine consultation

Swedish Based EWCs • Sweden already has high union participation (80%) • Many EWCs of Swedish companies have more foreign members than Swedish members due to international organization of company. • Greater impact on international employees than on Swedish employees

EWC Impacts and Outcomes • So far, only an arena for information and exchange – many want more corporate interaction • Information received from EWCs, while not perfect does contribute to better understanding of the company’s situation • Information often given after already decided upon

Consultation and Negotiation Within EWCs • Very little consultation or negotiation between EWCs and Swedish companies • Companies often use EWCs simply as a vehicle to deliver news to employees • EWC members often feel that despite conversation about issues, the decisions have already been made

Discussion • EWCs often used as forum for domestic issues • Data give no evidence that discussion at EWC level has altered any corporate decisions • Southern European EWC representatives seek to develop much more participative model • Swedish employees resist this move toward participative structure of EWC

Conclusion • EWCs have served to broaden corporate culture • International network of employee information • Country of origin (Sweden in our case) is central influence in EWC despite international representation • Swedish EWCs likely to move beyond symbolic, but unlikely to become participatory

My Thoughts • EWCs seem to be good for businesses as they are in Sweden • Provide management with simple avenue to deliver information to employees • Currently retain corporate influence

Questions?

Between Global and Local: Eight European Works Councils in Retrospect and Prospect