A strike is not a single market crisis

On 1 February 2024, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament reached an agreement on the principles of the Single Market Emergency Instrument (SMEI) Regulation. This is intended to ensure the stability of supply chains for critical goods and services in the event of future crises such as the coronavirus pandemic...

Platform economy: Franco-German blockade overcome

On 11 March 2024, the Council of EU Employment Ministers voted in favour of adopting the directive on the protection of workers in the platform economy. In the previous vote on 16 February 2024, the required majority of 65% of the EU population had been marginally missed and the legislative proposal deemed to have failed

German veto could no longer stop the Supply Chain Directive

On 15 March 2024, the Council of Ministers finally managed to achieve a majority for a watered-down EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, on its third attempt. The Belgian Council Presidency had previously succeeded in persuading France and Italy to change their minds. Germany abstained from...

German veto brings supply chain directive to a halt

On 28 February 2024, the Council of Ministers failed to find a majority in favour of the directive on due diligence by multinational corporations in monitoring human rights and environmental regulations in their supply chains. The vote had previously been cancelled twice at short notice...

First step towards an EU directive on teleworking

On 30 April 2024, the European Commission launched an official consultation of the European social partners to solicit their views on possible legislation on fair teleworking and the right to disconnect. Legislative initiatives in labour law always require a two-stage consultation of...

Call for EU directive to end stress in the workplace

On 15 May 2024, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) called for a legislative initiative to improve mental health and combat psychosocial risks in the workplace. The European Parliament also made this call in March 2022, but the European Commission has so far failed to act. The new directive aims to effectively prevent psychosocial risks...

Hungary wants to "make Europe great again"

On 1 July 2024, Hungary took over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union under the motto "Make Europe Great Again". It rotates every six months between the 27 member states. Hungary's presidency was controversial. The task of the presidency is to act as an "honest broker"...

Works councils cannot replace a trade union

On 26 April 2024, the High Council in The Hague, the highest court in the Netherlands, ruled on the competence for collective bargaining at the airline TUI Airlines Nederland. The Council confirmed the judgement of the Regional Court for South Holland of August 2022...

UK wants to abolish EWC law

On 16 May 2024, the UK government announced its intention to abolish the UK EWC Act (TICER) and launched a public consultation on the subject. As part of their Brexit campaign in 2016, the British Conservatives promised to keep existing labour laws based on EU directives in force after Brexit...

Tesla brings strikebreakers from abroad to Sweden

Since October 2023, all Swedish Tesla branches have been on strike to enforce a collective bargaining agreement. As the car manufacturer from the USA only has workshops and no factories in Sweden, the number of employees affected is relatively small. However, the issue is...

Germany loses, France gains

In the first half of 2024, Germany accounted for the largest job losses in the European Single Market, whereas France was gaining more jobs. A total of 87,000 job losses were reported, of which 36,000 (over 40%) were in Germany alone, while only 1,700 new jobs were created...

Mass job cuts in the automotive and steel industries

The largest cutbacks were announced at automotive supplier ZF Friedrichshafen, with 12,000 of 50,000 jobs to be cut in Germany alone by 2030. French automotive supplier Forvia plans to cut a total of 13% of its European workforce by 2027, with 2,000 to 2,500 jobs being cut each year...

Future investments in France and the Czech Republic

The US companies Microsoft and Amazon announced investments worth billions in France in May 2024. Microsoft is planning to build a new AI and data centre in Mulhouse (Alsace) and expand existing data centres near Paris and Marseille at a cost of...

Status proceedings for co-determination on the Supervisory Board

The Berlin-based direct bank N26, founded in 2013, has been preparing its conversion to a European Company (SE) for two years. The aim of the management is to permanently exclude employee representatives from the supervisory board. The start-up now has over 1,500 employees in ten countries, most of them in Germany...

European Court of Justice facilitates exodus from co-determination

On 16 May 2024, the German group works council of Olympus failed in its action against the Japanese optics group for evading co-determination. The central question was whether an employee-less "letterbox company" in the legal form of a European Company (SE)...

Co-determination on supervisory boards is increasingly being ignored

On 10 June 2024, the Hans Böckler Foundation published a new study on the extent of co-determination evasion in Germany. Almost 2.5 million employees in 400 large companies were denied full parity co-determination on supervisory boards in 2022 (40% of all large companies), compared to 300,000 fewer three years earlier...

EWC agreement violates applicable law from the outset

On 22 February 2024, an EWC agreement was signed for Latécoère in Toulouse. The aviation company builds doors, fuselage parts and electrical cables for customers such as Airbus and Boeing. Negotiations between the employee delegation and central management began on 5 December 2023...

British retail company establishes EWC under German law

On 30 April 2024, an EWC agreement was signed in Hamburg for the EG Group, which is owned by a British-Indian billionaire family. Founded in 2001, the company operates petrol stations and convenience shops around the world. It employs 9,000 people in the EU, including 4,000 in Germany...

Japanese pharma group establishes EWC under Irish law

On 14 May 2024, an EWC agreement was concluded for Astellas Pharma, one of the three largest Japanese pharmaceutics groups. It covers the countries of the European single market, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Meetings are held every six months, once in person and once virtually...

Italian carton board manufacturer renews EWC agreement

A revised EWC agreement was signed at Reno de Medici's headquarters in Milan on 26 January 2024. The carton board manufacturer has production sites in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands and is owned by a US investment company. The European works council was newly established in 2015 following a merger...

Europe's largest parcel delivery company increases time-off work allowance

On 5 March 2024, a new EWC agreement was signed at Geopost's headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris. Geopost is a courier express parcel service provider under the umbrella of the French group La Poste. The EWC has 20 members and represents 46,000 employees...

US business travel management company continues with British delegates

On 6 March 2024, the EWC agreement of American Express Global Business Travel was revised at a meeting in London. It is governed by Dutch law. The EWC was established in March 2015 because the credit card company American Express had spun off its travel division and sold it to financial investors...

Spanish gaming operator with global social standards

On 29 February 2024, the group management of CIRSA signed a global framework agreement with the international umbrella organisation of services unions (UNI) in Barcelona. The group, which is based in Terrassa, an industrial city in Catalonia, operates 434 casinos in nine countries (Spain, Italy, Morocco, Latin America)...

US online platform company sets industry-wide standards with health charter

On 8 April 2024, Uber reached an agreement with the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) in London on a health charter for millions of couriers working for the online platform. Uber provides passenger transport and food delivery services in over 11,000 cities around the world...

USA: Volkswagen gets employee representation, Mercedes does not

From 17 to 19 April 2024, the workforce at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga (Tennessee) was able to decide whether to recognise the United Auto Workers (UAW) union as a collective bargaining party. There are no works councils in the USA, so this is the only way to establish employee representation at the plant...

Website exposes the attacks on works councils

The website "arbeitsunrecht in deutschland" (Workplace injustice in Germany) provides information against union busting. It is run by a non-profit organisation that campaigns for democracy in business and the workplace and promotes the establishment of active works councils...

Corporate reports on environmental and social aspects

On 17 January 2024, the Otto Brenner Foundation presented a working paper outlining a new approach to integrated business reporting that addresses environmental and social aspects in addition to purely economic and financial aspects. Since January 2023...

How can trade unions use the German Supply Chain Act?

At the end of January 2024, the DGB trade union education centre in Düsseldorf published a brochure on the opportunities offered by the law, which has been in force since January 2023. Since then, larger companies have been obliged to check their supply chains for human rights violations and...

16th conference for European works councils in Hamburg

Just a few days after the European Commission launched the legislative process to revise the EWC Directive in Brussels, almost 50 participants from eight countries gathered in Hamburg on 29 and 30 January 2024 to discover the details. Labour lawyer and expert on EWC law, Professor Filip Dorssemont...

Restructuring at Dutch payment service provider

The EWC Academy has been advising the SE works council of equensWorldline since 14 February 2024. The Utrecht-based company with 5,000 employees processes electronic payments for 250 banks in the EU and has been operating as a European Company (SE) since 2008...

EWC training at Dutch semiconductor manufacturer

On 6 and 7 March 2024, the EWC Academy held a training course for the European works council of NXP Semiconductors. The largest semiconductor manufacturer in Europe, based in Eindhoven, was a division of the Philips Group until 2006. After the spin-off, a separate EWC was established in 2007...

Strengthening European works councils in Austria

On 29 August 2023, the Austrian Supreme Court of Justice in labour and social matters dismissed an appeal by the central management of Mayr-Melnhof Packaging against the ruling of the Vienna Higher Regional Court of February 2023. This decision was communicated to...

Background information ahead of the European Parliament elections

In July 2023, the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation published an 18-page brochure presenting the institutions of the EU, in particular the composition of the European Parliament. It is elected every five years, the next time in June 2024. Germany sends 96 out of 750 MEPs...

US electric car manufacturer refuses collective bargaining agreements

Since 27 October 2023, more and more Tesla garages in Sweden have been out on strike. The IF Metall trade union initially called a strike for Tesla workers in twelve garages, but 100 garages are now already affected. Since 7 November 2023, there have been extensive solidarity actions by