IR Notes

On 31 March, at the European Parliament, Dennis Radtke, who is a German MEP, a former trade union official and member of the European People’s Party (EPP) (see A question for…) organised a hearing in preparation for his report on revising the European Works Council Directive. Several EWC representatives gave an account of the problems encountered by these bodies, nearly 30 years after the first directive was adopted in 1994. For example, Salvatore Di Gaetano, EWC secretary of Adient, a US-based parts supplier to the car industry, created as a result of the demerger in 2016 of the automobile businesses of Johnson Controls, reported on the powerlessness of some EWCs. As a former member of the Johnson Controls EWC, “on which nothing happened”, he campaigned for the creation of a new EWC, based on the 2009 revised directive, at the time Adient was created. After attempting to deter him, the company set up a SNB, without providing any training whatsoever, before embarking on a one-way negotiation. “It proposed that the EWC should be informed and consulted solely on projects involving at least 5% of the total workforce in Europe. This would have left the Council completely powerless in a situation where 1500 employees were facing collective redundancy!” said an indignant Salvatore Di Gaetano. Management also refused to grant EWC members the right to visit company sites and chose to negotiate under the auspices of Irish law, even though the group has no employees in Ireland. Lastly, Salvatore Di Gaetano emphasised that the first meeting was held in 2017, but nothing whatsoever has happened since then. “We wrote to management several times, seeking to exercise our information-consultation rights on a transnational subject, and each time our request was refused”, on the pretext that the matter in question was one to be dealt with at national level. “They have nothing to fear”, he explained, because the maximum fine faced by companies in Ireland that breach European Works Council laws would be 20,000 euros, and even this would apply only if legal action could be pursued through to the end. “This is simply unacceptable!”, he concludes. Like Bettina Haller, Siemens EWC secretary, he is calling for sanctions that will act as a deterrent: not necessarily financial sanctions, as the amount of money involved is not usually large enough to deter companies from taking their proposed measures, but rather in the form of the courts being granted powers to suspend a proposed reorganisation. Bettina Haller also wants EWC members to be released for a longer period of time to carry out their EWC duties, and to be granted the right to visit company sites, while Petr Nesmerak, who is a member of the Bosch EWC executive committee, emphasises the need to meet more than once a year: “EWC members need to be able to spend more time together, so that they can have constructive discussions”. Domenico Colapinto, spokesperson of the Adecco EWC, believes that “a management based outside the EU should no longer be at liberty to choose whatever jurisdiction they want, to govern their EWC”. In Dennis Radtke’s opinion, “where possible, the law of the Member State with the largest number of that company’s employees should be the one chosen to govern its EWC agreement”. In conclusion, the German lawyer Ralf Scholten, who is a partner at the LNS practice, emphasised that this revision must ensure that the text of the directive is properly applied. “We’re not looking for a package of new rights”, adds Dennis Radtke. “We simply want to ensure that companies abide by the law, and we want to bring unacceptable situations to an end, by allowing the EWC to be a legal entity in its own right, to gain access to the legal system and to secure sanctions that are genuinely effective”. So it seems that the aim is not revolutionary changes for EWCs, but rather a shared desire to ensure that the law as it currently stands is at least respected: after all, the right to information and consultation became a fundamental EU right when the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union was adopted in 2000. We must “make sure that the European Works Council, which at present is a ‘toothless tiger’, has a few sharp teeth to defend itself with”, concludes Dennis Radtke.

Circular economy : On 30 March, the European Commission presented a package of European Green Deal proposals to boost the circular economy, which will have significant impacts on the world of work, in light of the necessary adaptations involved: reorganisations linked to changes in production methods, training staff to acquire new skills, etc.) (see press release). The Commission is proposing a framework, in the form of a Proposal for Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation “to make almost all physical goods on the EU market more friendly to the environment, circular, and energy-efficient throughout their whole lifecycle from the design phase through to daily use, repurposing and end-of-life”. Based on this framework, it will publish texts tailored to individual products. So far it has presented: 1/ A communication relating to an EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles to combat the trend towards ‘fast fashion’. The aim is that by 2030, textile products placed on the EU market will be long-lived and recyclable, largely made of recycled fibres, free of hazardous substances and produced in a way that respects social rights and is not harmful to the environment. The Commission also plans to adopt guidelines to boost social enterprises engaged in the businesses of collecting and recycling, as these companies create 20-35 jobs per 1,000 tonnes of textiles collected. 2/ A Proposal for a Regulation laying down harmonised conditions for the marketing of construction products, which includes new requirements to ensure that the design and manufacture of these products are based on techniques that will make them “more durable, repairable, reusable and recyclable”.

Welcoming the Ukrainians : : On 23 March, the European Commission published a communication telling Member States how to apply the temporary protection directive (see IR Notes 181), and in particular, its provisions dealing with the principle of equal treatment and the right to access the labour market (this right is seen as vital for allowing Ukrainian refugees to integrate properly. States can draw on various types of EU funding (the CARE programme, the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, etc.) to offer educational programmes, finance business-led training actions or support childcare services, which are vital if the many women who have fled Ukraine with their child(ren) are to participate in the labour market. Tools such as a resource website are being set up to facilitate recognition of professional qualifications obtained in Ukraine. These tools will also be useful for social partners, and especially employers, who are being invited to make every effort to ensure that temporary protection arrangements are properly applied.

• SURE programme working smoothly: On 24 March, the European Commission published the third bi-annual report on implementation of the SURE programme (see SURE initiative). This instrument, funded with 100 billion euros, was used to help 30 million workers and 2.5 million businesses in 2020 during the Covid-19 crisis, by financing short-time working schemes and in other ways (see press release). The impact of the crisis in Ukraine, which is mentioned in the report, might be an argument for extending or perpetuating this scheme, which is due to come to an end in December 2022.


• Quality traineeships: The European Commission has launched a public consultation, which is open until 13 June and accessible in all languages, to gather opinions on the quality of in-house traineeships undertaken by young people seeking to gain experience (see Traineeship). The Commission will analyse the results with a view to revising the Recommendation of 10 March 2014 on a Quality Framework for Traineeships. The current arrangements do not appear to be good enough to guarantee quality traineeships (see press release) and registration form). 


• Tripartite Social Summit: On the eve of the European Council held on 24 March, EU leaders and European social partners met for a tripartite social summit, much of which was devoted to the impacts of the war in Ukraine (see press release).


• Access to collective bargaining for self-employed workers: The European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs has questioned European Commissioner and Executive Vice-President of the Commission, Margrethe Vestager, on the Draft Guidelines on collective bargaining of self-employed, which are intended to ensure that EU non-competition rules will no longer prevent self-employed workers from entering into collective bargaining agreements (see IR Notes 176). The main purpose of the hearing was to reassure MEPs, who were worried about the prospect of such collective bargaining encouraging the emergence of a third status, part-way between salaried status and self-employed work (see press release).

Future of social dialogue : Just as the Commission is about to put forward a revision of European social dialogue rules in the second half of 2022, the nine European trade-union federations have published a joint position, which has the merit of being very clear: whenever the social partners conclude an agreement, regardless of whether it applies at cross-industry or sectoral level, the text of this agreement must be submitted to the Council within three months, with a view to transposition by way of a directive. The Commission plans to use this time to check that the text complies with EU law and that the social partners who are signatories to the agreement in question comply with representativeness rules. The Commission will not be able to carry out any appropriateness checks, in contrast to the way in which it refused to refer the European sectoral agreement on information and consultation rights for public sector workers to the Council (see EPSU case). This position contradicts the Commission’s power of initiative, which was recognised by the Court of Justice in the EPSU case (see IR Notes 169).

• Fighting racism: On 21 March, as part of their joint plan to boost democratic skills within businesses, the Federal Ministry of Labour and the trade union confederation DGB launched a website on ‘Our work, our diversity’ [‘Unsere Arbeit: Unsere Vielfalt’]. It features a map, which lists 34 regional and sectoral projects aimed at combatting racist and far-right remarks, and the spread of conspiracy theories in the workplace.


• Working despite being ill: In a survey of 6,000 employees, commissioned by DGB, almost one half (48%) of those questioned said they had worked on at least one occasion during the past year while feeling really ill. Women (53%) had done so more often than men (43%). Nearly one third of these employees had even worked for a week or more while ill, during the past 12 months. Working while ill is more prevalent in businesses where the social climate is oppressive (68%) or the workload is heavy (see press release).

A new collective bargaining agreement for the banking sector: : A new sectoral collective agreement has been signed between the Greek Federation of bank staff trade unions and representatives of the four largest banks, which employ more than 70% of the workforce in this sector. The agreement provides for a global wage increase of 5.6% over the period 2022-2024, delivered in three stages: 2% in 2022, 1% in 2023 and 2.5% in 2024. The banks promise to do everything they can to maintain jobs and avoid redundancies. This agreement includes provisions covering telework, which among other things, make the employer responsible for paying the employee’s teleworking costs, and for continuing professional development, so that workers can cope with the challenge of digitalisation. This agreement constitutes the basis for company-level agreements by setting minimum levels, in accordance with the principle of favour. This is the first sector-wide agreement to be concluded during a period of strong inflationary pressures (inflation reached an annual rate of 8% in March, according to Eurostat). It will serve as a benchmark for other sectors that will soon be concluding their own collective bargaining agreements.

• Paid sick leave : On 30 March, the government definitively adopted the Sick Leave Bill 2022, establishing a statutory entitlement to sick leave. This law, which has yet to be formally ratified by Parliament, provides for the introduction of a statutory entitlement to sick leave, for the first time. The new regime will be phased in as follows: three days’ sick leave per annum in 2022, once the bill has been promulgated, rising to five days in 2024, seven days in 2025 and ten days in 2026. Sick pay will be paid by employers at a rate of 70% of an employee’s wage, with a daily maximum threshold fixed at 110 euros (see press release).

Two transpositions : On 31 March, the Council of Ministers approved two draft legislative decrees transposing EU directives (see press release issued by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy) : 1/ Directive 2019/1158 of 20 June 2019 on work-life balance for parents and carers. The text provides for ten days’ paternity leave, to be taken during a period extending from two months before the child’s birth through to five months afterwards. As far as parental leave is concerned, the corresponding allowance is paid at 30% of the employee’s wage, based on three transferable months for each parent, i.e. a total period of six months. In addition, the total length of a single parent’s leave entitlement is raised from ten to eleven months, in response to the needs of single-parent families. Employers who conclude (‘agile working’) telework agreements are required to prioritise requests submitted by employees who have children aged under 12 (however, no age limit applies if these children have disabilities). The same priority is to be given to requests submitted by workers who are carers. Entitlement to maternity allowance has been extended to self-employed women and also covers the period of early withdrawal necessitated by an at-risk pregnancy. 2/ Directive 2019/1152 of 20 June 2019 on transparent and predictable working conditions in the EU: the decree strengthens the obligations to provide information to workers who are recruited under various types of atypical employment contracts (including platform workers but excluding workers who are genuinely self-employed), and grants substantial rights, such as a reasonable trial period, the option for a worker to carry on a parallel activity outside their agreed working hours and a minimum level of predictability for their working hours.

Changes to working conditions and minimum wage : In response to the decision made by ferry company P&O to sack almost 800 employees with immediate effect and replace them with agency workers (see IR Notes 182), the government has announced proposals to introduce a guide (a ‘Statutory Code of Practice’), which will “detail how businesses must hold fair, transparent and meaningful consultations on proposed changes to employment terms”. If companies fail to abide by this code, employment tribunals will be able to increase the redundancy money paid to employees by 25%. However, unions have said that this initiative does not go far enough (see article in Union news). The government has also announced plans to introduce new laws requiring ferry operators sailing out of British ports to pay their workers the National Minimum Wage (NMW), even if they are sailing under a flag of convenience. To ensure seafarers are protected straightaway, the Transport Secretary has instructed ports to refuse entry to ferries not paying workers the NMW from 30 March – immediately replicating the effect the new laws will have when introduced in the coming weeks (see press release).

Global body renewed : The Solvay Global Forum (SGF), established in 2015 on an informal basis within the Solvay group (21,000 employees), was the subject of an agreement signed on 7 June 2018 (IR Notes 103). This text has now been revised, and a new agreement was signed on 31 March 2022, by group CEO and Chairwoman Ilham Kadri, and the forum’s coordinator, Albert Kruft, who is also the group’s EWC secretary. The SGF, which is authorised to sign agreements on transnational subjects, will now be made up of 10 members rather than 8, and they are: 4 EWC representatives, plus one member for each of the following countries: Brazil, China, South Korea, India (new) and two members for the USA (which gains one member). The IndustriAll Global Union federation is not a signatory of the agreement but has been invited to support the appointment process. One of its representatives will attend the forum’s annual meeting to present a review of the implementation of the global agreement (see below). The new agreement allows the ten representatives to meet once a month via videoconferencing, in order to hold discussions. The main change introduced is the adaptation clause that applies in the event of a substantial change in the group’s scope and/or structure. In fact this provision is highly topical, because on 15 March, Solvay announced that it planned to split the company into two separate entities by the second half of 2023. One will produce essential chemicals, and the other will be dedicated to specialty chemicals, (see press release). “At the time of the change”, says the agreement, “the parties will convene with the common goal to continue the Solvay Global Forum Agreement in the new entities, achieving the ownership and support from all stakeholders. Subject to the parties’ agreement, this SGF will then be considered valid for its remaining duration in the new entities”. Lastly, it should also be emphasised that continuity is being maintained in transnational social dialogue, despite the change of management in March 2019.

Global agreement renewed : Once again the Belgian chemicals group Solvay (21,000 employees) has renewed its Global Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainable development Agreement with the IndustriAll Global Union federation. This agreement was first signed in 2013 (see IR Notes 1), then extended in 2017 (see agreement). Among other things, the new agreement incorporates the new ILO Violence and Harassment Convention no. 190, which is one of the international instruments that the group will have to comply with and strengthens the obligations incumbent on the chain of subcontractors and suppliers. To ensure compliance with basic standards, “Solvay and the Solvay Global Forum will create a working group to analyze labor rights in Solvay suppliers” by “conducting a deep analysis into Solvay suppliers in at least one country per year” to check compliance with core labor rights and “seeking remediation in case of non-compliance”. Special attention will be paid to the global supply chain for electric vehicle batteries, “with the aim of ensuring ethical conditions along it”. The chapter on health and safety in the workplace is the first one at the level of a global agreement to learn the lessons of widespread recourse to telework during Covid-19. The group “recognises the specific mental health challenges of telework, and the need to protect employees’ right to disconnect, and right to a realistic workload that does not lead to burnout”. To this end, “social dialogue and/or collective bargaining are key to a successful telework practice.” The new agreement supplements the provisions on the environment, with a commitment to “the principles of Just Transition (as defined by ILO) to provide the framework for an equitable transition to a climate-resilient future”. As a result, “any workers losing their jobs due to business decisions impacted by climate change will be supported in their transition to new jobs”. In general terms, the agreement adds that Solvay promises to ensure that employees are able to identify and acquire skills that are vital to developing their employment and their employability. It should also be noted that the conflict resolution and interpretation clause stipulates that in the event of a persistent divergence between the parties, they “shall agree to seek the expert advice of the ILO or other mutually agreed third party for mediation and dispute settlement”. Lastly, as with the Solvay Global Forum (see above), in the event of a demerger into two separate entities, the agreement will apply to each one.

Status of the person and ‘smart working’ : On 29 March, the management of the Italian energy company Enel and all of the trade unions (FILCTEM, FLAEI CISL and UILTEC), signed an innovative agreement on the Status of the person (Statuto della Persona). According to the joint press release, the agreement “aims to let human beings achieve their full potential by making them protagonists in an ecosystem in which the company and the trade unions work together to create a healthy, safe, stimulating and participatory working environment.” (see Enel press release and trade unions joint press release). A few days earlier, on 21 March, the group signed an experimental agreement on ‘smart working’, which “sketches out the new way of working”, explains the UIL union: “alternating working at the office with agile working, which, in conjunction with a return to the new post-pandemic normality, will ensure that work does not come into conflict with personal and family time, while reconciling environmental requirements (such as cutting emissions) with the need to protect employees”. The text provides for a maximum of 60% of days worked remotely and a minimum of 40% at the office. An employee can work remotely for up to 13 days over a one-month period. One provision grants the right to disconnect between 19.00 and 07.30, and on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. During these periods, an employee is under no obligation to do any work whatsoever, or to be in contact with work, check their emails, reply to or read their messages, etc. The text provides for two limited periods when they must be in contact with work, i.e. from 10.00 to 12.30 and from 14.30 to 16.30, during which they must be present and available to take part in meetings.

Corporate Social Responsibility : The French group Teleperformance (more than 400,000 employees in 83 countries), which is specialised in customer relationship management, has once again come under fire from the Uni Global Union federation, which published a report on 25 March, showing that this group does not deserve its ‘Great place to work’ certification. The federation denounces the company’s practice of ‘social washing’ and plans to make its feelings known at the company’s AGM on 14 April, with the aim of convincing the company’s management to negotiate an international framework agreement (see press release).

• Protection of personal data: On 14 March, with the support of the Uni Global Union federation and the NGO ‘noyb.eu’, Amazon warehouse employees in Germany, the UK, Italy, Poland and Slovakia filed access requests for their personal data under Article 15 of the GDPR, to find out how Amazon, which is accused of using invasive algorithms and even spying on its employees, uses their data (see press release).