SEEurope Factsheet

Official homepage:

www.elcoteq.com

Branch:

Electronics manufacturing services

Status:

Established

Announced intention on1:

08-10-2004

Official process initiated on2:

08-10-2004

Registered on/in:

01-10-2005, Helsinki (Finland)

Seat before SE:

Lohja (Finland)

Seat of SE:

Lohja (Finland)

Form of establishment:

Conversion

Companies concerned:

Elcoteq Network Corporation

Corporate governance structure before SE:

One-tier3

Corporate governance structure of SE:

One-tier3

Total number of employees worldwide:

19,600

Countries of operation:

Brazil, China, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, US

Countries concerned:

Estonia (3342), Finland (861), Germany (548), Hungary (2692), Sweden (7) (in total 7450)

National trade unions involved:

Finnish Metal Workers Union, Union of Professional Engineers IL, Union of Salaried Employees TU

European trade union federations involved:

EMF

EWC formerly existed:

No

Establishment of SNB:

SNB was formed properly

Board-level employee representation before SE foundation:

No

Distribution of SNB seats:

Estonia 5, Hungary 4, Finland 2, Germany 1, Sweden 1 (total number of members 13)

Content of agreement:

  • Signed on 17-08-2005

Information and Consultation:

  • Representative Body (13 members) has been established.

  • 2 meetings/year

  • In addition: there is a Working Committee (3 members of the Representative Body) that prepares meetings of the Representative Body, negotiates in exceptional circumstances and meets twice a year

Participation:

  • No participation rights

Structural changes:

  • Not specified

Expenses:

  • Expenses are covered by the company.

Expiry date:

  • 2009. Thereafter the agreement will continue to be valid unless either party terminates it by giving 6 months’ prior notice.

Motives:

  • Strategic reasons, part of its internationalisation strategy

  • Creation of a strong European corporate identity

  • Cost savings by merging its subsidiaries

  • Enhance efficiency in decision-making

  • Flexibility in the event of future acquisitions and divestments

  • Simplification of transfer of seat and cross-border mergers

  • Creation of an effective structural basis for continuously enhancing the company’s competitiveness

  • Europeanised involvement of employees

  • Increase the company’s global competitiveness

Comments:

  • Negotiations lasted 6 months, started on 23-02-2005, there were 4 meetings (3 in Finland, 1 in Estonia)

  • So far: German and Hungarian affiliates have board-level representation, but not the Finnish parent that is subject to this conversion; so the employees of the affiliates count when determining the total number of employees, but it is irrelevant for the negotiations on employee involvement whether these employees have been covered by board-level representation because their companies are not participating in the conversion.

  • Finnish employee representatives missed the deadline fixed in Finnish law (12 months) which would have made board-level representation possible in Elcoteq SE. It didn’t help that the management pushed for the immediate foundation of the SE.

  • Agreement was reached under considerable pressure, because the fallback provisions would have been even worse (only one meeting/year of the representative body).

  • The board of directors of Elcoteq SE prepared a proposal for transfer of seat to Luxembourg as of 21-12-2006 to be proposed to the AGM on 22-03-2007

Last update:

07-01-2007

References:

Legend:

n/a … category not applicable

Ø … information not available

1 The date when the company first made public its interest in founding an SE.

2 The date when the companies that intend to form an SE publish the draft terms of their merger into an SE or the plan to set up a holding SE or the agreement to form a subsidiary SE or the agreement to transform into an SE.

3 One-tier structure: board of directors.