We have never done a full training course on this subject! But it is very often included in our training courses.
In fact, we often include modules in our training courses that put members of a EWC or a SE-WC in real-life situations. This mainly involves role-playing and case studies, both fictional and realistic, to help members get used to being prepared for any eventuality by using all the clauses in their agreement and the ecosystem surrounding their EWC or the SE-WC.Â
Why This Training Matters
Enable members of a EWC to avoid wasting time on days when they receive information from their central management that may change the structure of the company and/or lead to job losses.
After analysing the agreement and engaging in in-depth discussions with members of the European Works Council or SE Works Council, we develop role-playing exercises and case studies that enable participants to practice responding appropriately and effectively when the committee is urgently called upon to address an issue that is important to the group’s employees. Trainers, who play the role of management, are sometimes disliked after such a module, which requires us to schedule a break 😉
Who It’s For
This training is ideal for:
What the Training Covers
Each exercise is tailored to the specific profile of the company, but here are some insights:Â
Role playing:
- Participants receive information from management or read it in the press, either individually or in groups
- Based on the information gathered, they must prepare a meeting with management
- After attempting to reach a common position, they meet with management representatives (the trainers)
- The exercise ends with a debriefing by the trainers, sometimes accompanied by an experienced secretary from another European Works Council
Case study
- Participants are divided into several groups and each group must study one or more scenarios, then discuss the position to be adopted: is the committee competent? Is the subject truly transnational?
- Each group appoints a rapporteur who then speaks in plenary to explain the position adopted by their working group and raise any points of contention.
- Collective discussion of each position with input from the trainers and, where appropriate, an experienced European Works Council secretary.
TRAINING Objectives
With our training, you will:
Prepare
to face the worst, collectively
Be
more effective in collective decision-making
Learn
how to use your European Works Council or SE Works Council agreement
Mobilise
the various players in your ecosystem
Trainers profiles
Frédéric Turlan
Director, Editor of IR Notes
Frédéric is an expert in industrial relations. He has an extensive experience of writing and editing industrial relations and labour law material for a practitioner and policymaker audience.

He has written numerous reports, comparative studies and analyses for Eurofound, as national correspondent for France, and for other research centres across Europe on industrial relations and working conditions issues. He also organised numerous in-house training for European Works’ Councils on EU labour law, industrial relations and other relevant issues for EWCs and transnational social dialogue.
Christophe Teissier
Project manager, Ultra Laborans
Christophe trained as a lawyer and worked for the French Ministry of Research. In 2007, he joined Astrées (which became Ultra Laborans in 2023) to work on developments in social dialogue. Since then, he has been working on reinventing deliberative processes in companies, with a view to better tackling today’s major societal challenges. He heads up Ultra Laborans’ social dialogue expertise and European projects. In this capacity, he has developed recognised expertise at European level on issues relating to social dialogue and its players. He has been involved on numerous occasions in training members of European Works Councils in various sectors, notably alongside IR SHARE. Recently, he trained the EWCs of Veolia (2023), Suez (2023), BNP Paribas (2022), Generali (2021) and SCOR (2021).
Robert Textoris
Expert, IR Share
Robert Textoris has been a member of the secretariat of the European works council of the Engie group since its creation following the merger between the Suez group and Gaz de France. He became secretary in 2016. He took part in 3 revisions of the EWC agreement, which provides for a wide range of resources for the functioning of the EWC (missions, working group, annual training, etc.).  In particular, it obtained an exceptional framework for meetings with candidates for the takeover of the Equans services subsidiary. This led to a specific agreement to preserve collective guarantees when the 75,000 employees were sold to the Bouygues group. Robert’s experience of European Works Councils goes back to 2003, when he started working for Electricité de France.Â
