News

Unite has called for an immediate revision of the European Works Council (EWC) directive and has asked European Works Council representatives to write to the EC Commissioner demanding that changes to the law are made by June.

This follows European employer organisation BusinessEurope's failure to agree to a "fixed and short timetable" to talk about revisions.

The European TUC has said any negotiations with BusinessEurope would now be in "bad faith" because some members of the organisation have argued against changes to the directive. The ETUC said this would delay the revision.

Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke said the union was concerned that a "lack of timely action" by the EC would be interpreted as a failure to promote social legislation across Europe.

"The legal process means that if the European Parliament and the Commission are to adopt the revisions, they must table them by June this year," he said.

The EWC applies to companies with at least 1,000 employees within the EU and at least 150 staff in each of at least two member states.

There are approximately 40 EWC agreements in place in European graphical, papermaking, packaging and publishing companies. These include Chesapeake, Smurfit Kappa and Alcan.

Unite is demanding that revisions to the EWC directive include strengthening information and consultation rights; better funding for EWCs; a role for the European Trade Union Federations; and better training and more time for EWC reps to carry out their duties.