{"id":3483,"date":"2023-02-02T12:33:25","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T11:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uni-europa.org\/?post_type=news&p=3483"},"modified":"2023-02-02T14:59:08","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T13:59:08","slug":"adoption-of-ep-report-on-ewcs-good-news-for-millions-of-workers-in-transnational-companies","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.uni-europa.org\/news\/adoption-of-ep-report-on-ewcs-good-news-for-millions-of-workers-in-transnational-companies\/","title":{"rendered":"Adoption of EP report on EWCs: Good news for millions of workers in transnational companies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Trade Union Federations (ETUFs), EFBWW, EFFAT, EPSU, ETF, industriAll and Uni Europa, representing millions of workers and supporting over 20,000 European Works Council members every day, jointly welcome the adoption by the European Parliament of the own-initiative legislative report on the revision of the European Works Council Directive.<\/p>\n

The report supports our trade union call for better compliance and enforcement and sends a clear message to the European Commission that urgent action is needed to improve the rights of workers’ representatives on European Works Councils (EWCs).<\/p>\n

The text addresses key shortcomings of the 2009 recast Directive (2009\/38\/EC), which, while bringing positive changes overall, contains significant loopholes that are often used by multinational companies to circumvent workers’ information and consultation rights. There is ample evidence to support this assessment, as publications by the European Commission<\/a>, the European Parliament<\/a>, and the European trade Union Institute<\/a> show. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Too often we have seen workers’ involvement treated as a mere formality, with too little influence on company decision-making. Information provided to EWCs is often inadequate, and consultation remains ineffective because it takes place too late, sometimes after company decisions have already been taken. This is due to poor compliance and enforcement of existing rights. In addition, fair interpretation of key provisions of the Directive continues to prove difficult.<\/p>\n

The European Parliament’s report, led by MEP Radtke, is a step in the right direction as it seeks to address all these shortcomings. The text contains several proposals for improvement, including:<\/p>\n