Resources

The booklet was developed by the European Workers’ Participation Competence Centre (EWPCC). It is the first of a series of practical and helpfully illustrated manuals for workers’ representatives in transnational information and consultation bodies. The first manual offers some practical tips on how to make meetings European bodies (auch as EWC or SE works councils) more useful, more efficient and more successful. The manual is currently available in five languages and can be downloaded as pdf (EN, FR, SW, ES, NL).

The present brochure which has been published for the ETUC Congress in Athens contains pre-selected data from the forthcoming ETUI publication ‘Mapping European Works Councils’. It aims at delivering basic figures (from the ETUI database of EWCs) concerning the operation of EWCs and the workers they represent on the eve of the EWC recast directive’s transposition deadline. The provided information will allow evaluation of the new legislation’s impact on EWCs as it will offer a point of reference for measuring the attainment of some of the goals set by the recast directive. It will also be of particular relevance in relation to the goal of increasing the number of EWCs.

This Transfer issue is to take stock of the various Commission initiatives in the fields of employee participation at company level and social dialogue generally. A particular focus lies on the opportunities and challenges which these initiatives provide to trade unions in terms of their capacity to influence developments at European level. While the first part focuses on the sectoral and cross-sectoral (interprofessional) levels analysing developments in social dialogue, the second part concentrates on the company level, examining the impact of the three main legislative measures that have been adopted in the field of employee participation since the mid-1990s: the European Works Councils Directive, the Directive on the involvement of employees in European Companies and the framework Directive on information and consultation at the national level

Is the Europe 2020 strategy leading us, as it promises, towards smart, sustainable and inclusive growth? This is the main question addressed by this publication on the eve of this year’s Spring European Summit. The ETUC and ETUI offer a critical assessment of the strategy and its various components: will it be able to provide a framework for the creation of more and better-quality jobs? Are the policies and indicators set to promote an increase in social cohesion? How can workers better participate in the achievement of these various aims? Benchmarking Working Europe 2011 is structured in eight topical chapters illustrated by a significant number of graphs, and has a completely new layout. Chapter 8 is dealing with the issues of Social Dialogue and Worker Participation

This guide has been developed by the ETUC in order to help trade unionists and practitioners in the area of information and consultation around Europe to play an active role in this process and to make the most of the new provisions in the European Works Council Directive as amended by Directive 2009/38/EC. It is an article-by-article legal commentary, written in an accessible style so that it can be used by everybody with interest in European Works Councils and their functioning. Part I contains general remarks on objectives and principles. Parts II, III and IV contain an article by article analysis of the provisions of the Directive and their consequences. A summary table of the guide can be found in Part V. From September 2010, the guide will also be available in French and German

During the last 15 years, research on European Works Councils has revealed significant information concerning the structure, dynamics and ability of EWCs to represent employees’ interests. A multitude of factors and conditions influencing the work and results of EWC activity have been identified. Until now, however, there has been little systematic theorising about EWCs and their specific character as ‘interest organisations within profit organisations’ and the specific relationship or ‘organisational fit’ between each entity.