IR Notes

The impact of the “No” vote in the Greek referendum will have been only marginal when the final position of the proposals made by the institutions representing the creditors (European Commission, ECB, IMF) in the version of 26 June is compared with the document submitted by the Greek government to the creditors on 9 July. With regard to the reform of the labour market (point 8 of both documents), a certain shift, at least in semantics, is apparent. Thus, the creditors were demanding that the Greek government should not undertake any reform of collective bargaining until the existing legislation on collective dismissals, the right to strike and collective bargaining had been reviewed. No reform was to be undertaken “before end-2015”, and “any proposed changes to the legislative frameworks” could only be adopted “in agreement with” the three institutions. The latter were widely exceeding the powers devolved by the Treaty on European Union. While the IMF may not feel concerned by the treaties of the EU, it is not right on the other hand for the European Commission and the ECB to issue orders concerning the right to strike or collective bargaining or to dictate the principal terms of a pension reform when none of these matters comes under the jurisdiction of the EU. This criticism is partly dispelled by the version of 9 July, however. The review announced now only concerns itself with a reform of the labour market, without citing the right to strike or collective bargaining. The government is no longer banned from proposing a reform without the agreement of the creditors, but undertakes to present a reform of collective bargaining “by Q4 2015.” Nevertheless, this essentially boils down to initiating a reform in an area outside the Treaty’s remit; what’s more, the involvement of the social partners will inevitably be limited, given the time-frame allowed to prepare the relevant legislation. Finally, one can ponder the economic sense of this demand in the absence of any study demonstrating a serious link between improving growth and reducing public debt and any form of collective bargaining system.

• Corporate governance: The European Parliament on 8 July adopted a resolution on the proposal for a directive concerning long-term shareholder engagement and corporate governance (see Parliament press release. Negotiations are set to begin with the Council with a view to adopting the text at first reading.


• Transatlantic treaty: In a resolution adopted on 8 July relating to the negotiations of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the European Parliament has requested that the chapter on sustainable development “is binding and enforceable and aims at the full and effective ratification, implementation and enforcement of the eight fundamental ILO conventions (…)” including those on the freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining. The MEPs also call for “employees of transatlantic companies, registered under EU member state law, to have access to information and consultation in line with the European works council directive”.


• Employment policy: The European Parliament on 8 July adopted a resolution on guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States. The members of the European Parliament recommend in particular to the Member States to set up “a minimum income proportionate to their specific socio-economic situation” in order to combat poverty.


• “Green” jobs: In a resolution adopted on 8 July concerning the communication from the European Commission on the green employment initiative, the MEPs call for “the strengthening of worker information, consultation and participation rights regarding matters concerning sustainable development, and effective workforce representation”. They recommend “involvement of trade union ‘green representatives’ working with employers on strengthening the greening of the economy and increasing sustainability at their workplaces”.


• Maternity leave: The European Commission has withdrawn the proposed revision of the maternity leave directive (see Commission press release. It has announced a “new initiative”, which it will unveil in a “roadmap” before launching a “public consultation”. The European Trade Union Confederation denounced this withdrawal in a press release as did the IndustriAll European Trade Union federation (see press release).

Number of workers to be taken into account in the case of collective redundancies: A German company decided to close one of its establishments and to dismiss the employees. The establishment had a workforce of 18, so did not reach the threshold of 20 employees at which notification of the redundancies to the German authorities becomes compulsory. Under German legislation, a director of the company and an intern were not included in the calculation of the number of workers. The European Court of Justice noted that the director “performs his duties under the direction and subject to the supervision of another body of that company, receives remuneration in return for the performance of his duties and does not himself own any shares in the company”. As for the intern, she was undergoing training within the company to re-qualify as an office assistant, funded by the public employment office, which was paying her a grant in recognition of her work. The European Court of Justice found that the national legislation which excluded them from the calculation of the number of workers did not comply with directive 98/59 of 20 July 1998 concerning collective redundancies (CJEU 9 July 2015, case C-229/14, Ender Balkaya).

• Equal treatment and fixed-term contracts: The European Court of Justice was asked to consider a legal action involving a female worker in Spain and her employer, the Spanish Council of State, concerning the refusal of the latter to grant the employee her three-yearly length-of-service increments because of her particular status as a member of the ‘personal eventual’ (‘non-permanent staff’), akin to a fixed-term contract. If she performed “duties identical or similar to those performed by a career official”, only an “objective ground” could justify “the difference in treatment between those two workers”. However, the Court of Justice underlined that “the non-permanent nature of the category of staff at issue could in no case be considered such a ground” (CJEU 9 July 2015, case C-177/14, Regojo Dans).
  
  > Also see: The judgement of the European Court of Justice (CJEU 9 July 2015, case C-87/14) which found that the European Commission had not succeeded in establishing that Ireland had failed to fulfil its obligations under the working time directive for non-consultant hospital doctors (see press release)

• Bill to transpose the directive on supplementary pension rights: The government has adopted a bill to transpose into national law directive 2014/50 of 16 April 2014 concerning the preservation of supplementary pension rights. The law will take effect on 1 January 2018. (See press release).

• Implementation of the “Jobs Act”: The government has published two decrees constituting the second implementation phase of the “Jobs Act” adopted in December 2014. The first decree extends the arrangements for paternity leave to self-employed fathers, adapts maternity leave in special circumstances (hospitalisation of the newborn child, premature birth) and increases the scope for accessing parental leave. The second decree brings together in a single document the system covering all forms of employment other than the permanent contract, which is presented as the normal form of employment. In other respects, the decree authorises the transfer of an employee to a lower-level job in the event of company restructuring.

• Social dialogue in companies: The chamber of deputies on 2 July adopted a law to reform social dialogue within companies. The staff delegation becomes the single body representing the interests of the employees and is granted the powers of the joint committee, particularly with regard to codetermination, once the threshold of 150 employees is exceeded. The law has been rather badly received by employers and by the country’s second-largest trade union, the LCGB (see press release). The biggest confederation, the OGBL, on the other hand, is pretty satisfied (see press release).
  
  > Also see: The positive assessment of the minimum wage six months after its introduction, published by the ministry of labour in Germany; a new law in the Netherlands (Work and Security Act, see commentary by Lexicology) on dismissals on economic or incapacity grounds.

Suez Environnement: The management of Suez Environnement, trade union representatives from 11 Member States and from two European trade union federations have completed the signing process of an group agreement on gender equality in the workplace. Under the agreement, “All Group companies with over 150 employees commit to establishing an overview of actions taken to promote gender equality in the workplace, and undertake to define a new action plan”. Those companies that do not yet have an action plan on this matter “must implement the provisions of this agreement within 15 months of its signing”. (Link to the agreement in different languages).

• Air France KLM: The group works council of Air France KLM has reacted unfavourably to a plan to restructure call centres which, according to the EWC, would affect 80 employees in Europe. The EWC has appointed an expert.


• ArcelorMittal: Negotiations having been completed (see IR Notes 28), the number of representatives on the EWC is to be reduced from 54 to 42. The select committee will go from 25 to 21 members, with 17 permanent and 4 “rotating” members, which will allow all the representative trade unions in the group to have at least one representative on the select committee for part of the term in office.

Articulation of information and consultation processes: The Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) has published a study (Linking information and consultation procedures at local and European level) which examines the articulation of information and consultation processes between European works council level and national-level employee representation channels. Produced by Peter Kerckhofs and Filip Dorssemont, the study outlines the legal frameworks and case law in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. “It appears,” Peter Kerkhofs comments, “that a company which decides upon a transnational restructuring programme will have difficulty in respecting both the imperatives of European legislation and those of national standards relating to information and consultation if its EWC agreement does not provide for the precise linking of the different information and consultation processes.” The report concludes with pragmatic recommendations guided by jurisprudence. In June, Eurofound also published a report (European Works Council developments before, during and after the crisis) based on 10 case-studies of European works councils.