On 9 December, the Belgian chemicals group Solvay split itself into two separate entities: on one hand Syensqo, which takes over the company’s rapid ly growing specialty chemicals business (accounting for 60% of the former Solvay company’s turnover), and on the other, Solvay, which retains its historical business activities. So what will happen to the Solvay EWC now? How can we be sure that Syensqo employees will be properly represented at European level? With these questions in mind, Solvay’s management and EWC anticipated the impact of this reorganisation, as soon as the plan was announced, in March 2022. First of all, in May 2022, they signed a Memorandum of Understanding supporting the information and/or consultation process related to the organizational transformation of the Solvay group. This document: governs how the information and consultation procedure relating to the plan will unfold, following a precise timetable; establishes an Ad Hoc Committee to represent the countries most concerned by the transformation, including those outside the EU; sets out the details of recourse to expert advice, the content and timetable of the information to be provided to the Ad Hoc Committee, the undertakings given by the company to its employees, the framework of the Voluntary Separation Plan, etc. and the fate of its workforce representation bodies. The Solvay Global Forum is being retained by both groups created by the spin‑off and an undertaking has been given to set up a EWC within both entities as soon as possible, once they have been created. The text also creates a Liaison Office, made up of Select Committee members from both EWCs, which will meet to discuss topics related to the separation for a limited period of time (two years). Subsequently, in a Transition Agreement signed in December 2022, Solvay’s management and EWC stated that the Solvay EWC was designated as the appropriate body to set up future EWCs and to prepare both agreements, so that these works councils could start work as soon as the spin-off process was completed. “As we had only recently revised the Solvay agreement, other than a few slight differences, we adopted the existing agreement for both new entities”, explains Marcus Roumen, Secretary of the Solvay EWC. Lastly, the EWC agreements, which are virtually identical, were signed on 23 November 2023, for both Solvay and Syensqo.
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