New agreement on Groupama European Works Council

A new agreement on EWC GROUPAMA has been negotiated and unanimously signed in Paris on November 22, 2012.
According to UNI Europas' Press release: Recent developments in EU law concerning the European Works Council and the signing of several amendments since 2000 have made it necessary to review the Agreement of 29 November 2000 establishing a European Works Council in GROUPAMA. A new agreement on EWC GROUPAMA has been negotiated and unanimously signed in Paris on November 22, 2012 (see related file attached). The parties have renewed a number of provisions and, in particular, those relating to the articulation of levels of representation between the national and the European level. In fact, when exchange of information and consultation needs to be done at these two levels, the parties agreed that the information and consultation phase will be conducted both within the EWC and national bodies representing staff with the shortest possible delay between the two.

In addition, the parties have also agreed that a better representation of any issues raised by employees of companies located in Europe, GROUPAMA could be provided by a Secretary and a Deputy Secretary, one of the two to be based in an entity established within the scope of the EWC and located outside French territory. The same principle has been adopted for the Treasurer and Deputy Treasurer. Finally, Groupama conducts its European social dialogue in accordance with the policy of sustainable development of the Group. Thus, the parties agreed to the establishment of a database for the storing and sharing of information (documents, meeting minutes/summaries). This will significantly reduce paper usage. 

The EWC agreement covers over 35,000 employees in France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Greece, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. The chair of the workers’ side, the EWC secretary, is Bianca Cuciniello (UILCA/Italy), UNI Europa Finance, Insurance Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee.