Publications

In October 2001, the EU formally adopted the legislation on the European Company, also known by its Latin name Societas Europaea (SE). This handbook aims to ensure that the new opportunities for employee representation at European level which these new SE rules provide, are seized. It has been designed first and foremost to help practitioners to prepare and conduct negotiations on agreements on employee involvement in SEs. The handbook introduces the SE and its mechanism of employee involvement. It explains the negotiation procedures and provides ‘tips and tricks’ for a decent preparation of negotiations. Based on the experience of several experts, it gives an overview of key aspects of an SE agreement and includes an extensive set of overviews, graphics and comparative tables.

17 European Member States and Norway have enacted legal provisions allowing for employee representation, with voting rights, on the supervisory board and/or board of directors of companies headquartered on their national territory. Additional provisions regulating Board-level employee representation [BLER] are to be found in several pieces of European company law. Even so, BLER remains a hotly debated topic at both national and European levels.
This report presents the ins-and-outs of BLER, describing the current situation, potential future developments, and the issues at stake. It aims to provide an overview of BLER rights as well as of the major trends to have emerged in recent years. In this way, information gleaned through the SEEurope network helps to answer a key question, namely, is BLER in Europe under pressure? (Available in English and German)

The European Commission decided in July 2011 to reopen the consultation on the SE legislation. The new initiative was a first-phase consultation of the social partners under Article 154 TFEU on the possible review of Directive 2001/86/EC supplementing the Statute for a European company with regard to the involvement of employees. The ETUC consulted the affiliates based on a draft submission paper that was formulated in cooperation with the ETUI’s SEEurope team. In summer 2011 the national SEEurope experts were also asked to react to the questions raised in the consultation documents based on their expertise.

Observers of the European Company legislative process identified the then-competing political projects as being driven in one case by the desire for harmonization, whereas the other focused on a flexible approach to regulating employee participation. Since the European institutions have definitively adopted the latter approach in the meantime, this reading became obsolete. This ETUI Working Paper proposes to adopt a new analytical framework that will help give better insight into what is at stake in the drafting of European legal rules on corporate governance and worker participation, such as the pending European Private Company Statute.

This Policy Brief 4/11 attempts to overcome the knowledge gap about how European social partners or workers’ representatives have tried to contribute to facing the challenges and mitigating the (negative) implications of the crisis.

The present brochure which has been published for the ETUC Congress in Athens contains pre-selected data from the forthcoming ETUI publication ‘Mapping European Works Councils’. It aims at delivering basic figures (from the ETUI database of EWCs) concerning the operation of EWCs and the workers they represent on the eve of the EWC recast directive’s transposition deadline. The provided information will allow evaluation of the new legislation’s impact on EWCs as it will offer a point of reference for measuring the attainment of some of the goals set by the recast directive. It will also be of particular relevance in relation to the goal of increasing the number of EWCs.

This Transfer issue is to take stock of the various Commission initiatives in the fields of employee participation at company level and social dialogue generally. A particular focus lies on the opportunities and challenges which these initiatives provide to trade unions in terms of their capacity to influence developments at European level. While the first part focuses on the sectoral and cross-sectoral (interprofessional) levels analysing developments in social dialogue, the second part concentrates on the company level, examining the impact of the three main legislative measures that have been adopted in the field of employee participation since the mid-1990s: the European Works Councils Directive, the Directive on the involvement of employees in European Companies and the framework Directive on information and consultation at the national level

The expert’s of the ETUI’s SEEurope network have investigated, in their report, the introduction of more simplified national company legislation and the instigation of more competition between Member States. Besides that, the European Commission, with the Better Regulation agenda, is promoting more competitiveness and attractiveness within and between the Member States. EU legislation should not encourage regime-shopping but contribute to a more sustainable legal setting.

The publication is an analysis of 44 agreements in German SEs dealing with worker participation, information and consultation. Basic background information on the SE is provided at the beginning of the book. The core of the book however is numerous examples of portions of concrete agreements, divided up by subject area. An accompanying CD makes referencing provisions easier. The examples provide guidance for those involved in first-time negotiation or renegotiation of SE agreements.

The publication is a timely update (5^th edition) of a booklet providing a detailed overview of the SE as well as additional information on cross-border mergers. This publication is part of a series of practical guides for board level employee representatives. As it gives more detailed background information on the SE it is a valuable complement to another recent HBS publication for those involved in negotiations on SE agreements.

For the past two decades corporate governance reform in Europe has been guided by the ‘shareholder value’ model of the firm. That model is now discredited as one of the major causes of the financial and economic crisis. In this book an alternative approach to corporate governance is presented by members of the GOODCORP network of researchers and trade unionists. This new approach, entitled the Sustainable Company, draws on both traditional ‘stakeholder’ models of the firm and newer concerns with sustainability.

Is the Europe 2020 strategy leading us, as it promises, towards smart, sustainable and inclusive growth? This is the main question addressed by this publication on the eve of this year’s Spring European Summit. The ETUC and ETUI offer a critical assessment of the strategy and its various components: will it be able to provide a framework for the creation of more and better-quality jobs? Are the policies and indicators set to promote an increase in social cohesion? How can workers better participate in the achievement of these various aims? Benchmarking Working Europe 2011 is structured in eight topical chapters illustrated by a significant number of graphs, and has a completely new layout. Chapter 8 is dealing with the issues of Social Dialogue and Worker Participation

Many companies today seem to have become little more than money-machines, seeking the highest returns from global markets. Employees, and indeed many managers too, are the slaves rather than the masters of such companies. Works councils and trade unions are reduced to mopping up the social consequences of their decisions. That is why this book, edited by Michael Gold, Norbert Kluge and Aline Conchon, depicts the everyday realities of serving as an employee representative in company boardrooms, and – as importantly – the personalities behind them. Eighteen representatives located in 12 European countries introduce the reader to their experiences, as well as their duties, responsibilities and perceptions against the background of their individual character, colleagues and workplaces.

In March 2010, the EU Commission finally made available the so-called ‘Ernst and Young study’ on the operation and the impacts of the Statute for a European Company. Shortly afterwards the Commission launched an online consultation on the results of the study. In July 2010, the European Commission produced a summary report on the replies to the online consultation.This ETUI paper brings together a critical analysis of the consultation procedure, the Commission consultation summary and the ETUI’s reply to the consultation on the Ernst&Young study.

This new publication, edited jointly by ETUI and the Berlin-based Institute for Prospective Analysis (IPA), sets itself an audacious task: casting a long look forward into the future, namely the year 2030. Four alternative scenarios explore the long-term prospects and changing contexts of worker participation, in its various forms, in Europe. The stories incorporate broad developments in society, as well as the strategies and actions of people and organisations, first and foremost the actors involved in worker participation.

The SEEUROPE experts believed that the financial crisis that flared up in autumn 2008 may have opened a window for debate in the EU member states on alternatives to a deficient corporate governance system. This was the motivation for assessing the debates at national level in Europe. As a general conclusion one can say there has been no major system transformation – either towards a full “stakeholder” model or a radicalization of the shareholder model. However, there are interesting developments in some countries which can be described as incremental steps in the direction of a stronger stakeholder orientation.

Read more in the summary and details on national debates in the full report.

This guide has been developed by the ETUC in order to help trade unionists and practitioners in the area of information and consultation around Europe to play an active role in this process and to make the most of the new provisions in the European Works Council Directive as amended by Directive 2009/38/EC. It is an article-by-article legal commentary, written in an accessible style so that it can be used by everybody with interest in European Works Councils and their functioning. Part I contains general remarks on objectives and principles. Parts II, III and IV contain an article by article analysis of the provisions of the Directive and their consequences. A summary table of the guide can be found in Part V. From September 2010, the guide will also be available in French and German

The devastating economic and financial crisis has revealed the limitations of financial capitalism and opened up a window of opportunity to propose and implement progressive reforms. Against this background the European Trade Union Institute has brought together critical and progressive academics and researchers from Europe and the United States to help launch a debate on setting an agenda for a reformed capitalism ‘after the crisis’. A total of 39 contributors provide concise, policy-oriented proposals, each one focusing on a specific area of relevance to a post-crisis world.

The participation of social partners in the management of socio-economic policies has been a stable feature of European politics in recent decades, having been defined as one of the key aspects of the European Social Model. Yet the role of concertation has changed during different cycles. This book aims to shed light on the most recent wave of social pacts in the last decade in western and eastern EU countries. In the context of recent socio-economic and political challenges (globalisation, changing economic context, labour market transformation, and the full implementation of EMU), 11 country chapters summarise the recent evolution of social pacts across the Eurozone and in New EU member states.

During the last 15 years, research on European Works Councils has revealed significant information concerning the structure, dynamics and ability of EWCs to represent employees’ interests. A multitude of factors and conditions influencing the work and results of EWC activity have been identified. Until now, however, there has been little systematic theorising about EWCs and their specific character as ‘interest organisations within profit organisations’ and the specific relationship or ‘organisational fit’ between each entity.

This year's Benchmarking Working Europe report embarks upon a social stocktaking of the reaction to and impact of the financial, economic and social crisis as a means of feeding into the post-crisis and EU2020 debate. Among the questions addressed this year are the following:

• What were the macro-economic developments and policy responses?
• How has income developed in the crisis?
• How have labour markets responded to the financial and economic crisis?
• How have social partners reacted and what has been their role in preventing the recession from becoming a depression?
• How can workers better participate in the efforts to emerge from crisis and move into the direction of a sustainable growth model?

Worker directors in France – Staff representatives, shop stewards, works councillors… If actors and observers of the social dialogue sphere are familiar with information and consultation rights for workers, participation of the latter in company’s administration is much less known, especially when it has to do with workers representation on companies’ board as effective member, i.e. with a deliberative voice. Who are those workers directors? What are their duties? How do they reconcile workers defence with company’s economic goals? What policy do trade unions, which support them, have adopted regarding this kind of “soft” codetermination?

Benchmarking Working Europe 2009 has been published! This year’s report provides an assessment of the different facets of Lisbon Strategy. It asks whether the EU is really moving in the direction of knowledge-based growth, examines whether the EU has witnessed the creation of more and better quality jobs and considers whether the Union is succeeding in attaining greater social cohesion.

The European Company Statute (ECS) is one of the most important pieces of legislation adopted so far by the European Union in the field of company law. Published by Peter Lang, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of the history, structure, legal basis and likely impact of the ECS, examining its evolution over some 30 years of development and its chances for integrating diverse models of corporate governance across the European Economic Area.

The ideal language companion for anyone working in international education and trade unions. It allows an accurate and quick consultation of specialist terminology used in talks and discussions as well as within the framework of negotiations.

The booklet provides information on different aspects of the European Company (SE) such as the question of worker involvement, the national transposition processes and taxation aspects. Moreover, information is given on the development and the different national systems of worker participation on supervisory or administrative boards throughout the European Union. (Available for free in English and German)

This issue of Transfer is on corporate governance. It argues that worker participation is vital to ensuring a company’s success. The issue analyses the influence of worker participation on corporate governance and how it contributes to developing more socially responsible companies. Key arguments: A “sustainable company”, which focuses more on patient capital and formalised workers’ influence on company decision-making, provides a successful alternative to conventional thinking on transparency which concentrates on informing shareholders. Good corporate governance recognises the interests of all stakeholders - not just shareholders. European Works Councils and worker representation in the boardrooms of European companies help achieve this as do international framework agreements between global trade union confederations and multinational companies. Companies are seeking greater social legitimacy via the establishment of corporate social responsibility policies. Respecting and involving trade unions that represent the workforce is a natural part of CSR development.

Since its first publication, this book on the state of play in European Works Councils has become a key reference tool and this newly revised and updated version will prove invaluable to anyone seeking both quantitative information and understanding of the issues surrounding the formation and operation of EWCs. All relevant data is presented in a total of 161 figures, all of them accompanied by explanatory text.

This study looks at governance structures and corporate governance codes in four separate European states: France, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. The four represent very different traditions of corporate governance - shareholder value is dominant in the UK, for example, while in the Netherlands companies are to be run in the long-term interest of all those involved. The UK is also the only country of the four where employees are not involved, at least to some degree, at board level.

Co-determination and economic performance in Europe

Even though the US neo-liberal economic model is currently regarded by many as dominant, this may be proved false by the future of Europe's stakeholder economies. An examination of individual countries in the European Union reveals facts that speak against the supposed superiority of the US model in terms of economic performance. The strongest economies can be found, by and large, where employees enjoy strong rights of representation in company boardrooms, a finding that contrasts strongly with the prevailing opinion that co-determination impairs economic performance.

The ETUI-REHS's benchmarking Working Europe report is an annual publication that is designed to provide a contribution to the European Union Spring summit. Benchmarking Working Europe 2007 concentrates on the issue of flexicurity as a mainstreamed issue and argues that there is a need to ensure a proper balance between flexibility and security. Cutting back on labour and social standards clearly cannot be a successful strategy to face up to globalisation. On the contrary, to maintain Europe's current advantages higher investment in education and learning as well as better social services are required. More effort is also needed in the areas of innovation, research and development.

Expert contributions to the "Path to progress" project which was run between 2005 and 2006. Under this project, an "innovation expert group" composed of academics and other experts were asked to generate new ideas on the new trends which could improve the management of information, consultation and participation of employees in Europe in the context of the development and competitiveness strategies of the most prominent industrial sectors, and on the need to deal with company restructuring, mergers, take-overs and relocations. The summaries of the contributions have been translated in a number of languages, including Polish and Czech.

Comparative in perspective and based on empirical research, this book brings a collection of contributions and insights on how employee representative from different European countries perform their jobs as members of the European Works Councils. Exploring attempts to develop some sense of a common European labour identity, the authors examine not only the workings of the EWCs, utilizing individual case studies, but also analyze and asses the link with the broader discussions on European identity as well as European trade union co-ordination and solidarity.

Implementation report of Directive 2002/14/EC (Framework Directive on information and consultation)

Involvement of workers’ representatives is crucial for sound corporate governance, promising both improved economic performance and fulfilment of the Lisbon strategy. This report presents an overview of European company law and its relationship to European law on employee involvement. Thanks to Janja Bedrac’s compilation, trade unionists will find it easier to orient themselves and to identify legal reference points in this relevant and decisive debate.

The European Company Statute came into force in EU Member States in October 2004. The associated Directive on employee involvement in European Companies (SEs) is the first time European legislation has recognised employee board-level participation. This issue of Transfer examines such participation, the importance of the SE Directive and its implications for industrial relations and corporate governance in Europe.

The handbook Industrial relations in Central and Eastern Europe offers a comparative study of industrial relations in the new EU member states. A set of individual country reports, based on wide-ranging empirical findings, describe the process of changing industrial relations and developments currently underway. For purposes of comparison, an examination of mainstream trends in the countries of the former EU is also included.

This publication presents a number of short reports on the national systems and practices of worker board-level representation in the ten new member states. Each report is divided into two parts: a description of the legislative background is followed by a practitioner report written by a worker board member in the respective country.

The 15 country reports included in this electronic publication are a valuable source of information on the different existing systems of board-level participation within the EU-15 countries. They have been prepared by national experts within the project “Prospects for participation and co-determination under the European Company Statute”.