The Flawed Revision of the European Works Council Directive

Abstract

Directive 94/45/EC on European Works Councils (EWCs) undoubtedly constitutes one of the most important achievements of Social Europe. The directive went beyond a national framework of worker representation and, 15 years after its adoption, 820 EWCs have been set up (Commission proposal for a new directive, COM (2008) 419 final, 2 July 2008). To be sure, the working of these EWCs is far from being uniform. Depending on the content of the agreement which has put them in place, their composition, the competences of the national representatives and the functioning of the group of undertakings, their powers will vary. This has become particularly obvious in the current environment where the financial and economic crisis has led to very significant restructuring exercises within those multinationals with EWCs in place. In some instances, the EWCs have played an extremely limited role and are often a simple recipient of information about the restructuring exercise, sometimes even after the decision has been taken. More rarely, they have been fully involved participants, becoming a site for collective bargaining in multinational undertakings and groups of undertakings (M. A. Moreau and J. J. Paris, ‘Le role du comité d’entreprise européen au cours des restructurations, experiences et prospectives’ Semaine sociale Lamy, suppl no 1376, 33).

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