This second in a series of manuals for European Workers' Representatives explains in an easy-to-read format how European Works Council (EWC) members can organise and manage their communications network. It gives tips and tricks for better information flows and provides examples of best practices in several EWCs. The manual is available in 8 different languages.Hard copies can be ordered free of charge: Bruno Demaître Find out more

The booklet was developed by the European Workers’ Participation Competence Centre (EWPCC). It is the first of a series of practical and helpfully illustrated manuals for workers’ representatives in transnational information and consultation bodies. The first manual offers some practical tips on how to make meetings European bodies (also as EWC or SE works councils) more useful, more efficient and more successful. The manual is currently… Find out more

Workers’ right to be represented on the board (of directors, or supervisory board) of their company is so widespread in Europe that it is deemed a core element of the European social model. Yet, very little is known about how those participation rights operate in practice. This Policy Brief outlines some of the key findings of the first-ever questionnaire-based survey of worker representatives who serve on company boards in 16 European… Find out more

Board Level Employee Representation in Europe analyses the role, activities and networking of board level employee representatives in sixteen European countries and their counterparts operating in companies that have adopted European status. Board level employee representation is viewed as a key element of worker participation in Europe, but there has been only limited international comparative research that establishes what board level employee… Find out more

Since 1994, the EU has established mechanisms for information and consultation procedures for workers in transnational companies (European Works Councils Directive 94/45/EC). In 2009, the EWC Directive was reviewed and amended (Recast EWC Directive 2009/38/EC). The year 2016 will see the formal conclusion of a new evaluation procedure designed to ascertain whether the improvements of 2009 have had any impact on the EWC's conditions of operation… Find out more

In 2016 it will be 20 years since the first European Works Councils (EWC) directive came into force in the EU. In the same year, the European Commission is planning an evaluation of the EWC recast directive that will undoubtedly lead to debate on the need for further review of European regulation of EWCs. The year 2015 also marks the fifteenth anniversary of adoption of the EU directive on workers’ involvement in the European Company (SE).This… Find out more

This policy brief examines if and how the reformulated obligation in the Recast European Works Council Directive to report back found its way into EWC agreements by looking at survey data, results of large-scale agreement analysis and by providing examples of clauses in which this obligation is reflected. Although most EWC representatives state that they do report back to the employees, and most EWC agreements have specific rules referring to… Find out more

With this year’s chosen focus – ‘prepared for the future?’ – the new edition of Benchmarking working Europe analyses the state of working Europe with the aid of a multi-level and multi-dimensional set of indicators. This 2016 edition is intended as one contribution to an assessment of what the EU current policies have achieved, or above all what they have not achieved, and hence as an evaluation of the extent to which the European Union is… Find out more

In 2009, Europe launched a Recast Directive on European Works Councils (EWCs) aiming to improve (1) the effectiveness of EWCs and (2) increase the amount of EWCs. In 2016, this Recast Directive will be evaluated by the European Commission. This report feeds into this, building on data of EWC agreements from the EWC Database managed by the ETUI.The results show that the Recast was generally too little and too late to deliver on its declared… Find out more

Employee and employer relations and their regulatory mechanisms and institutions are undergoing profound change in contemporary capitalist societies. Globalization has created instability in the form of wage competition, the decentralization of collective bargaining and the deregulation of labour standards, thereby undermining relationships between employers, trade unions and the state at both sector and national levels. On the other hand, by… Find out more

As part of the European Semester, the main pillar of Europe's new economic governance, the Commission puts forward every year the 'country-specific recommendations' (CSRs). This background analysis provides an overview of the 2016 specific recommendations to the EU Member States in the field of employment and social policies. It also includes a brief 'statistical' comparison between the CSRs for 2016-17 and those presented by the Commission and… Find out more

This policy brief takes as its starting point the fact that as soon as a company engages in European-level transnational restructuring, transnational information and consultation is needed to enable the social partners to consider the cross-border dynamic of the planned measures.This policy brief addresses the following questions:How widespread is transnational restructuring in Europe? What is the role of EWCs in restructuring processes? How… Find out more

This 2017 edition of Benchmarking working Europe focuses on the question 'overcoming cleavages across the EU?'. It analyses in four chapters and with the help of 58 visual graphs latest trends and outcomes of European policies in the areas of macro-economics, wages and collective bargaining, labour markets and, last but not least, social dialogue and workers' participation. The Benchmarking working Europe 2017 demonstrates that the European… Find out more

This working paper investigates whether European board-level representation of employees in European Companies (SEs) is really ‘Europeanised’ or is coloured by the national system of their company’s country of origin. The authors used responses of employees sitting on SE boards to a questionnaire-based survey conducted between 2009 and 2013 and conclude that SE board-level representation is not an extension of national institutions and practice… Find out more

This timely new publication revisits the Social Scoreboard published by the European Commission (EC) on the 26th of April 2017. The European Commission’s Social Scoreboard proposes 35 indicators to monitor 12 areas of principles associated with the EPSR and provides an interactive tool to compare countries and time periods. This publication provides an assessment of the proposed indicators by revisiting the headline indicators and where relevant… Find out more

This working paper explores whether or not the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR), an initiative that has been called ‘the last chance for social Europe’, will succeed in filling in the gaps when it comes to making social policy at the EU level. More specifically, it assesses the EPSR’s potential impact on the policy-making process at the EU level. I argue that, while so far there has been very little detectable impact, the EPSR does offer… Find out more

This year's Benchmarking Working Europe focuses on whether the European Union is really on the path towards convergence. Analysing the state of 'working Europe' with the aid of a multi-level and multi-dimensional set of indicators and thus assessing what current EU policies have achieved or have not achieved, the Benchmarking Working Europe 2018 demonstrates that, despite renewed economic growth in GDP terms, the proceeds of this growth are… Find out more

The proposed EU company law package, which was published in April 2018 by the European Commission, seeks to encourage cross-border company mobility while at the same time protecting stakeholder interests. The ETUI’s GOODCORP network of company law experts has identified three areas where the package needs to be revised in the interests of protecting workers’ rights and discouraging corporate abuse and makes thirteen specific recommendations for… Find out more

This booklet is the third in a series of practical and easy-to-read manuals for European workers’ representatives. This time the focus is on facing restructuring, which is one of the most prevalent approaches adopted by companies in response to continuous change in the business environment. The purpose of this manual is to provide EWC and SE WC representatives and members of Select Committees with background information and practical tools and… Find out more

Benchmarking Working Europe, the annual stock-take of European economic, labour market and social affairs is published today by the European Trade Union Institute. This year’s report calls for action to stimulate investment, as well as reforms to fiscal rules to allow policy to play a more active role in stabilising economies and securing sustainable growth. Above all, inequality and insecurity must be tackled through reversing deregulation and… Find out more