IR Notes

As anticipated (see IR Notes 71), the executive committee of the European Confederation of Trade Unions (ETUC) on 16 March adopted a position paper for a modern European works council directive in the digital era. Before the European Commission reveals its evaluation study of the implementation of directive 2009/38 and presents its analysis on the need, or otherwise, for it to be revised, the ETUC aims to sway the argument in favour of a certain number of amendments. All the national trade unions were invited to inform the ETUC of their key concerns in this connection, by presenting if possible their five main demands. In the end, the ETUC summary document contains ten. At the top of its agenda it places the need to reinforce the rights granted by the directive through effective and dissuasive sanctions, including the option of temporarily suspending the employer’s decisions. “Before management takes a final decision, the transnational information and consultation process must be properly conducted and completed,” the ETUC insists. The ultimate sanction should be to nullify company decisions in case of breach of information and consultation procedures, on the condition that the national trade unions directly affected by the decision support a suspension and/or nullification. The ETUC also demands that EWCs should have legal personality, which would allow them to bring legal action against the employer – which does not, however, resolve the issue of who would pay for such a step when the EWC, as is true in the vast majority of cases, does not have a budget. The document also wishes to see more efficient coordination between the EWC and local and national bodies so that the European representatives can deliver their opinion before these bodies and communicate with them or undertake visits in order to meet them. Another aim of the ETUC is to disallow the voluntary nature of the agreements concluded under article 13 of the 1994 directive and to incorporate the content of recitals 12 and 16 of the directive in the article defining what constitutes the transnational character of a matter. Also notable is the call for the confidentiality clauses to be defined more precisely, in particular to allow members to share information with employee representatives at national level and avoid abusive stances by employers who, sometimes through excessive caution, inform the members of the EWC that all details are confidential, even if this is manifestly not the case. Contrary to the joint position adopted by the European trade union federations, the ETUC document does not specify how the introduction of the desired amendments should be achieved. By revising the directive? By adopting an enforcement directive so as to avoid reopening a complete negotiation? By negotiating a European agreement? There is everything to play for.

• Youth guarantee: In a report published on 4 April, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) finds that the EU’s youth guarantee scheme and the results it has generated fall short of the expectations raised when it was launched. Having visited seven countries (Croatia, Spain, Italy, Ireland, France, Portugal, Slovakia), the auditors concluded that none of these states was able to ensure that all those not in employment, education or training (NEETs) had the opportunity to take up an offer of employment, continued education or a traineeship within four months of leaving school.


• Tax avoidance: The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament has, by a crushing majority, adopted a resolution proposing changes to the EU’s anti-tax avoidance directive. The resolution targets large multinationals that do not pay tax on their profits by exploiting differences in the tax systems of the EU and third countries. The report now goes to the Council for its consideration (see press release).

Continuation of an employee’s length of service following the transfer of an undertaking: The Court of Justice of the European Union has issued a judgement (CJEU 6 April 2017, case C-336/15, Unionen in which it ruled on a Swedish case concerning the employees of several companies who were transferred to a new employer. Their employment contract was maintained, but more than a year after the transfer they were dismissed. They demanded the extended period of notice of six months provided for by the collective agreement applicable to employees aged 55 and over who are made redundant and have a length of service of over ten years with the employer. The latter rejected their demand on the basis that they did not have that length of service with his company. Was the employer required to take into account the length of service acquired with the previous employer? The Court replied in the affirmative: article 3 of directive 2001/23 dated 12 March 2001 (transfers of undertakings) “must be interpreted as meaning that the transferee must, when dismissing an employee more than one year after the transfer of the undertaking, include, in the calculation of that employee’s length of service, which is relevant for the determination of the period of notice to which that employee is entitled, that employee’s length of service with the transferor”.

• A pilot can fly after reaching 65: Although the case has still to be decided by the European Court of Justice, in his Opinion (CJEU, opinion 21 March 2017) the Advocate General found that the age limit for pilots of 65 years applied to commercial flights, but did not prevent a pilot over the age of 65 from carrying out activities as an instructor, examiner or pilot of ferry flights. In effect, this is because, in these cases, the pilot “remains in the cockpit of the aircraft as a non-flying crew member”, and in particular as “he does not have control over the aircraft and his activities do not directly affect the safety of the flight”.

Bus drivers’ strike: Bus drivers from several regions went on strike on 6 April, demanding higher wages. The transport workers’ union had already threatened a strike in November 2016 which led the government to accept higher minimum rates of pay, especially in view of the increase in the statutory minimum wage at national level. However, several regional authorities were not able to pass on the increases, principally because of legislative and technical issues linked to the contracts with the bus service providers. The regions are going to penalise the bus companies for the interruption to service. The unions are blaming the regional authorities which choose transport providers solely according to the lowest offer. On the eve of the strike, the government allocated 420 million koruna (€15.7 million) to the regions to help them increase drivers’ wages, but that did not prevent the latter from withholding their labour in certain regions.

• Ban on truck drivers taking their weekly rest period in their truck: Following the vote by the German Bundesrat on 31 March, truck drivers are now prohibited from taking their 45-hour weekly rest period on board their vehicle. Germany is the fourth EU member state – after Belgium, France and the Netherlands – to tighten up European legislation on this point. The European trade union federation ETF has welcomed this decision (see press release).

• Reform of company-level social dialogue implemented: The Luxembourg cabinet on 8 March 2017 agreed three draft grand-ducal regulations concerning the staff delegation (see press release). One aims to pave the way for electronic voting to be used to elect the delegation. A second regulation concerns the appointment of an expert in accordance with the powers conferred on the delegation and the assumption of the associated costs by the employer (set at 0.10% of the annual wage bill, with a lower threshold of €2,000 and a ceiling of €20,000).

Bonduelle: The French food group Bonduelle (9,961 employees) has renewed its EWC agreement first put in place in 2005. The new agreement, signed on 22 March with the members of the EWC and a representative of the European trade union federation EFFAT, establishes a full consultation procedure (see EFFAT press release). The employee representatives “put forward alternative solutions and issue one or more opinion(s) concerning the information provided about the measures” presented by the management. The latter undertakes to then provide “an explanation and a substantiated reply concerning the final decision to be taken as well as regarding the opinions and alternative solutions put forward by the representatives”. The EWC will then issue an opinion within a timeframe established “on a case by case basis, depending on the level of resources envisaged”. The new agreement belongs to those offering one of the most complete definitions of what constitutes transnational issues. These may include “matters which, although only affecting workers in one country, could have a significant, non-cyclical impact on the workers in other states”. A confidentiality clause provides for the management to indicate which information needs to be kept confidential, vis-à-vis which audience, and for how long.

• LafargeHolcim: The management of the Swiss cement group LafargeHolcim (more than 20,000 employees in the EU) on 27 March signed an EWC installation agreement, with a special negotiating body and the European trade union federation (EFBWW), as well as the secretaries of the Lafarge EWC and Holcim’s European forum, which will cease to exist with the inaugural meeting of the new body. The agreement was welcomed by the trade union federation IndustriAll Global Union, which sees in it “a promising signal” for the negotiation of a future global framework agreement (see press release), as well as by the European trade union federation EFBWW (see press release) and the French trade union FNTB-CFDT (see press release). The agreement, which was concluded under British law, provides that the management or the EWC secretary can decide whether or not to convene a meeting of the select committee and whether or not to extend it to the countries affected by a proposal. It will then be a matter of focusing “on the decision to initiate the information and consultation process, and on determining the items on the agenda, the meeting schedule and those attending”. In terms of resources, the members “will have at their disposal the time needed to fulfil their duties”, in agreement with the employer, and will benefit from “the financial and material resources required”.


• Eiffage: The members of the EWC secretariat of the construction company Eiffage have signed a declaration demanding that the sector’s trade union federation CGT revoke its decision to withdraw its four representatives from the EWC, including the EWC secretary. “By excluding its representatives, the CGT would be disowning the members who have built and led an assertive and effective EWC,” the secretariat insists.


• Linde: The EWC of the German industrial gas group Linde is opposed to the proposed merger with the American company Praxair, calling on employee representatives on the supervisory board to vote against the tie-up. According to the EWC, the merger could result in significant job cuts in certain EU countries.

• BMW: BMW’s 3,500 British employees voted by 93% in favour of the strike call launched by Unite the Union in protest at the management’s plan to close the company’s pension scheme (see press releases of IndustriAll Global Union, IndustriAll Europe and Unite the Union).


• Ericsson: The international trade union federations UNI Global Union and IndustriAll Global Union on 4 and 6 April held the second meeting of the global trade union network of the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson (116,416 employees) see press release).

Stagnating wage gaps in the EU: In 2016, average hourly labour costs in the whole economy were estimated to be €25.4 in the EU and €29.8 in the euro area according to a Eurostat survey). However, these averages mask significant gaps between EU member states, with the lowest hourly labour costs recorded in Bulgaria (€4.4), Romania (€5.5), Lithuania (€7.3), Latvia (€7.5), Hungary (€8.3) and Poland (8.6), and the highest in Denmark (€42), Belgium (€39.2), Sweden (€38), Luxembourg (€36.6) and France (€35.6). The difference in percentage points between the countries with the highest and lowest labour costs respectively was 28.7 in 2004 (Luxembourg/Bulgaria). It had risen to 37.2 in 2015 (Denmark/Bulgaria) and was 37.6 in 2016. Taking the five countries with the lowest and highest labour costs respectively results in similar findings. Between these two groups, the gap was 26.5 points in 2004 and 31.7 points in 2015. In 2016 it stagnated at 31.64 points. Even if the year-on-year rates of increase are higher in the new member states, the gap is not being closed. In an article, Martin Myant, a researcher at the European Trade Union Institute, underscores that the disparities between hourly labour costs in Germany and those in Bulgaria and Romania have worsened since 2008 (see interview, opposite).